Cowboys WR group somehow still underrated heading into 2026 season

The Dallas Cowboys have the NFL’s best wide receiver group in 2026, and it’s weird that people feel the need to dance around that idea. Sure, there is drama surrounding George Pickens’ refusal to participate in voluntary workouts, but until he fails to show up to work on Monday for minicamp, that’s speculation. If Dallas is whole entering the real work to prepare for 2026, they have the best four-man unit in all of the NFL.

Pickens, CeeDee Lamb, Ryan Flournoy and Kavontae Turpin have the best production of any combination. That seems to be the criteria that SB Nation’s esteemed writer Jarrett Bailey was working with when he volunteered that the Cincinnati Bengals had the league’s top WR room, with an honorable mention going to the Los Angeles Rams.

Both are formidable, and right at the top of the league, but they aren’t as good as the Cowboys’ group. Then earlier this week, the Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport took a swing at the top-10 WR groups. At least he had the Cowboys at No. 2, trailing behind the Minnesota Vikings corps. He too, was incorrect.

The stats, as will be shown in a second, show the Cowboys have the advantage in volume and rate statistics, save for scoring touchdowns, from 2025. Beyond that, though, the Cowboys’ group is youthful, with the two youngest members still showing an upwards trajectory and the “old man” of the group ascending the all-time list of a franchise with historic names attached to it.

In addition, while three of the four teams have an enviable quarterback situation, only one of the four teams in the mix could claim to have a better longterm window.

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, Bengals star Joe Burrow and Rams leader Matthew Stafford are all MVP candidates in any given year, with Stafford the reigning award winner. The Vikings meanwhile have the scariest situation, in a bad way, as Kyler Murray looks to resuscitate his career and JJ McCarthy looks to avoid the flop label. Placing the Vikings group atop any list with that level of uncertainty about who is getting them the ball is a strong gambit.

As for the groups themselves, none of the other rotations can go four deep with proven accolades like Dallas’ group.

Lamb, Pickens, Flournoy and Turpin had 236 combined receptions, 3377 yards, 14.3 per, and scored 18 touchdowns in 2025.

The Rams quartet of Puka Nacua, Davonte Adams, Jordan Whittington and Xavier Smith come up a little short at 225 receptions, 2978 yards, 13.2 per, and 24 TDs. Adams is fighting against Father Time himself, with declining volume stats everywhere but touchdowns, and Whittington literally has Flournoy’s same story (2024 sixth-round pick) without the production.

Cincinnati’s group is right there with the Rams, boasting the same 225 receptions, 2809 combined yards, a 12.5 per average, and 23 TDs. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are a mean combo, but Higgens has never had the type of season that Adams and Pickens have. Their WR3 and WR4, Andrei Iosivas and Mitch Tinsley, have the combined stats of Flournoy last year, which makes the swiss-army knife of Turpin the easy cherry on top.

The Vikings group is perhaps competitive in their top three, with Jauan Jennings being added to Jordan Jefferson and Jordan Addison. They are definitely winning Sesame Street’s letter of the day competition. But their 2025 numbers, including fourth receiver Tai Felton, hardly compare thanks to their inglorious QB situation: 184 receptions, 1926 yards, 14 TDs.

All in all, the Cowboys have the scariest group from receivers to ball throwers, and it’s time outlets stopped shortchanging them.

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys WR group is NFL’s best, and shouldn’t be ashamed to admit it