Auburn football lacked explosiveness through the air last fall.

In hopes to remedy it, first-year head coach Hugh Freeze added quarterback Payton Thorne, who found success with the deep ball at Michigan State, as well as three transfer wide receivers in the offseason.

North Texas transfer Jyaire Shorter, Cincinnati transfer Nick Mardner and Ohio State transfer Caleb Burton III were all added to Auburn’s wide receiver room this summer, and each bring different skillsets to a unit that lacked in 2022.

“For our offense, it’s vital,” Freeze said of adding the trio of weapons at receiver. “If we’re truly going to be what we’ve always done, you’ve got to have guys that can win in one-on-one situations. Do we have that right now? I’m not sure. We’re going to find out soon.”

Last season, Shorter led the FBS in yards per catch with an average of 27.2 yards, which points to Shorter’s ability to take the top off a defense.

“Jyaire Shorter, I think, is a deep-ball threat. He’s proven he can go get the ball,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said in May. “He gives us some length and catch radius that we need for what we want to do offensively.”

The addition of Mardner, who stretches 6-foot-6 adds a lot of size to the Tigers’ receiving corps.

Meanwhile, the arrival of Burton, who never saw the field as a true freshman at Ohio State due to injury, might bring the most potential to the Auburn roster for two reasons.

Unlike Shorter and Mardner, who are both seniors, Burton comes to The Plains much earlier in his college career.

In addition to his eligibility, Burton was a standout in high school.

“His high school tape was pretty dang special and he’s the future,” Freeze said of Burton. “The other guys are one-year stop-gap guys that help improve our room I think some way or another. But Burton’s a little different. Burton’s got four years left with us and I think he’s got skillsets that are really going to help us in the future.”

Coming out of Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas, Burton was the tenth-ranked wide receiver in the 2022 class and the 12th-best player to come out of the Lonestar State, according to 247Sports.

The revamped wide receiver room, which also returns the likes of Ja’Varrius Johnson and Koy Moore, is poised to play a big role in the Auburn offense considering the alike offensive styles of Freeze and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery.

“I love the way that they’ve been working,” Freeze said of the receivers. “I didn’t get to see the full totality of that in spring practice. But I’m excited to see how much better we can get that room.”