Welcome to a no-longer brand-new series I’ve rolled out this offseason, titled Welcome to Underdog Best Balls. The goal of this series is to dig into the new faces in the P4 that we’ll need to learn about as the best ball season draws nearer. The transfer portal has given us a plethora of options, some good, some bad. Let’s talk receivers from the city of my birth, Cincinnati! What a glorious two weeks those were for me. Hopefully, one of these guys below will be fantasy relevant for longer than that!
The Receiver Situation
The cupboard is bare in 2026 with Cyrus Allen, Joe Royer, and Jeff Caldwell off to the NFL. Then you add the fact that Noah Jennings and Barry Jackson have transferred out, and you see a receiver room missing 84% of last season’s team targets. There is plenty of opportunity to be had with just Isaiah Johnson (23 targets) and Elijah Jones (4 targets), the only returners on the team to see a pass thrown their way in 2025.
Cyrus Allen was the fantasy-relevant star from the Bearcats last season. Nearly 93% of his snaps were in the slot, which is surprising considering he scored 13 times last season (12 during the regular season). His scoring ability helped him finish as the WR26 even though he only caught 48 passes for 651 yards.
In 2023 and 2024, the top receiver was Xzavier Henderson, who played over 90% of snaps outside. What’s really interesting when you look at Henderson and Allen is that Henderson played about 50% of his snaps out wide for three seasons prior to Cincinnati, before moving to a 90%+ role outside.
Allen played 152 slot snaps compared to 699 snaps out wide in his three years prior to playing for Cincinnati. There’s certainly some flexibility in the Scott Satterfield offense that makes you think it’s all about talent and putting them in the right place rather than forcing a specific size and skill set to work.
Javonnie “JV” Gibson
Gibson had a pretty great spring, capped off by an impressive spring game. In that spring game, he caught three touchdown passes, two of which came from JC French, the assumed 2026 starter at quarterback. It sounds like he started off slow, but turned it on in the back half of the 15 practices, which has led to encouraging quotes from his head coach who complimented his ability to block, effort, and confidence when the ball is thrown his way.
We don’t have a lot to go off of with Gibson being irrelevant at Oklahoma last season. He caught just 18 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown with the 5th most targets on the team. Gibson is a well-put-together player, though at 6’2″ and 211 lbs. He’s an outside target that tore up the FCS ranks while he was at Arkansas Pine-Bluff in 2024. That season was drastically different, as he caught 70 passes for 1,215 yards and 9 touchdowns.
Was the SEC too big a leap for Gibson? The answer is obviously yes, at least in terms of performing immediately. Cincinnati and the Big 12 are a great step down for him, though, and there’s plenty of opportunity in this offense to be relevant.
Larenzo Fenner
Fenner was a big-play threat for South Dakota (FCS) last season, bringing in just 44 passes but generating 1,002 yards and 15 touchdowns on those limited touches (15 games). Fenner is a redshirt junior who came on very strong in the second half of his 2025 season. He helped the Coyotes make it to the quarterfinals by adding nine touchdowns and three games of 100+ yards in his final six. Not surprisingly, he was very hit or miss with six games of two or fewer receptions.
Like Gibson, Fenner is an outside receiver, but he’s a little thinner as he’s 6’1″ and 181 lbs. He has a little bit of speed to his game, and obviously, he has a knack for coming down with the ball in the end zone. This was shown at the FBS level this spring, with some really good performances and his name being shouted out continuously during camp.
What does all of this mean for us in 2026? Is he a big-play threat who will have spike weeks worthy of starting 4-6 times? Or will we see the jump up in competition hurt Fenner as we saw with Gibson in 2025?
Cade Wolford
Wolford is unlike Gibson and Fenner in that he’s a slot player who was used in many ways in this offense, even as a redshirt freshman in 2025. He had 96 yards on 12 attempts to go along with 19 receptions for 509 yards and 7 touchdowns through the air. That’s a pretty impressive season when you consider his youth and his quarterback play at Kent State.
Wolford is a smaller guy with his 5 ’10”, 190-lb. frame that should provide some juice to this offense in 2026. I’m not sure there is any question about whether he’ll play much, as he has a unique skill set that the other receivers on the roster don’t bring. It’s more a matter of how valuable a player he will be to us. Unfortunately, eight touchdowns on 31 total touchdowns isn’t something we will see at the Big 12 level.
Those in Wolford’s camp loved hearing Satterfield compare him to Cyrus Allen during spring camp. The Wolford naysayers will say that the comparison was about both of them being great practice players.
Conclusion
It’s really hard to determine which Bearcats receiver to target this offseason, but I do want to target this role late in drafts. With Allen finishing as the WR26 last year and Henderson being a top 60 or so WR in the two years prior on seven total touchdowns, there is certainly potential to be had as a great WR5/6 on your roster. My heart leans toward Fenner and his incredible big-play potential that seems very risky considering the jump to the Big 12. My brain says Gibson’s strong finish and experience in the SEC is the smart move when available late.
