1 stat proves just how good Garrett Wilson has been to start the 2026 season

Garrett Wilson, now in year five with the New York Jets, has been waiting for his opportunity to show his true worth. When healthy, you can pencil him in for a 1,000-yard season on 80-plus catches, but the thought was always that Wilson had more in the tank than just a perennial 1,000-yard guy.

The big excuse, albeit an extremely fair excuse, was the quarterback play that Wilson was dealing with. It was always a young and unproven quarterback like Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, or Mike White who was holding him back. If not a young guy, then the over-the-hill Joe Flacco, Trevor Siemian, or Aaron Rodgers was the reason for a lack of true star-powered production.

Well, this season, teamed up with the competency of veteran quarterback Geno Smith, Wilson is taking his game to another level.

Garrett Wilson is taking his game to another level this year

According to ESPN Analytics' receiver score, Wilson has been the fourth-best receiver in the NFL through three weeks. Receiver score takes into account three key categories to determine a pass catcher's overall score.

The three ratings that factor into the overall grade are open score, catch score, and YAC score, which yield your final overall score. For Wilson, his overall score of 73 trails only Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Mike Evans, and DeVonta Smith.

Garrett's catch rating of 85 sits second only to Smith-Njigba, while his YAC score currently ranks him 56th in the NFL in that category. The difference, though, is that the catch and open scores carry Wilson to his high rating.

It's not only in the advanced analytics that you see the improvement from Wilson. The former first-round draft pick is currently on pace for a receiving season that would have him at 1,377 yards and 11 touchdowns.

To put that into perspective for how impressive that would be for a Jets receiver, that yardage pace would put him only behind Brandon Marshall's 2015 season and Don Maynard's 1967 season. As far as touchdowns go, 11th would put him in sixth all-time for a single season.

Wilson is coming off his biggest game of the season thus far. He was targeted 13 times against the Detroit Lions, finishing with 10 catches for 107 yards and a score. With injuries to Omar Cooper Jr., Mason Taylor, and Adonai Mitchell, the Jets will be looking for this pace to continue against the Chicago Bears.

Expect another big game for Wilson in Week 4, and if this season has shown us anything, it's that he can handle the workload.

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