2026 Fantasy Football WR Tiers: Rich Hribar’s Draft Guide

Welcome to my 2026 fantasy football wide receiver tiers, the deepest dive into the WR position you will find this draft season.

If you are unfamiliar with my tiers pieces, then let me lay out some groundwork.

These positional-tier posts are designed to serve as a top-down almanac for you to come back to all summer long.

If long-form content is not your thing, no worries.

I also have abbreviated player blurbs on the rankings page for each position, and we have linear tables for those who are here just for a ranked list of players.

How My Fantasy Football WR Tiers Work

While there is a structure to the order here, these are not rankings.

They are meant to serve as more complete player profiles grouped around player archetypes.

An underappreciated element we still face in the fantasy community, for content providers and consumers alike, is that rankings, projections, tiers, and average draft position are fundamentally different.

They all serve different purposes and are not interchangeable, even though they may share overlap.

Projections give us a median range of season-long production and have implications for listing players in a linear format (rankings).

Even when those full-season numbers are accurate, they fail to capture the overall weekly impact and the pockets of production relevant to our weekly fantasy football game.

There is a finite number of players at each position who smash weekly throughout the fantasy season at the highest level.

If you do not land one of those weekly juggernauts, you are hoping to counter them with players when they are at their hottest.

Many player tiers are simply rankings divided into sections.

While the rankings are more focused on a probable tally of season-long output for a week-to-week game, I prefer to structure my tiers based on how similarly players accrue fantasy points and on the archetypes they represent.

By doing this, we can identify actionable gaps in player pricing per tier, which in turn allows for arbitrage in fantasy drafts.

This approach also highlights some longer-odds players who have more potential than initially perceived.

Arbitrage in fantasy football is strongly driven by how production is accrued, and the order of players (rankings) reflects the opportunities (at the player and team levels) each player receives.

Our projections are often wrong about those projected opportunities.

A multitude of factors influence team situations: game script, injuries to a player or his teammates, ineffective play, player breakouts, and so on.

Understanding how a player is used enables us to buy into the variance in his performance across opportunities.

If we are wrong about the opportunity projection, a lower-tier player could present an arbitrage opportunity.

While there is no direct overlap with the individual player rankings, the order of these tiers reflects how I prioritize drafting positions from an archetypal stance.

While that may be confusing for a player ranked highly on a linear list versus the specific tier he is in, I will do my best to incorporate detailed thoughts regarding draft capital in those events throughout the player breakdowns.

One final note: I will be updating and adding analysis to these tiers throughout the summer.

With that introduction to the methodology used, let's proceed to the actual player analysis.

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Tier 1 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Ja’Marr Chase
• Puka Nacua
• Amon-Ra St. Brown
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba

We are starting with the four players who I believe have the best odds at finishing as this year’s WR1 overall.

We have had a different WR1 overall in nine straight seasons.

What is even more unique about that is that the WR1 overall has also been nine different players over that run in PPR formats.

In standard leagues, we have had 11 straight different WR1 scoring leaders, with no receiver being the top scorer in multiple seasons over that stretch.

You have to go back to Antonio Brown in 2014-2015 to find the last repeating leading scorer.

The other fun part about that is that none of those wide receivers carried an ADP as WR1 in drafts that season.

The last time that the WR1 in ADP finished as the highest scorer overall in PPR formats was Brown in 2017.

In standard leagues, you have to go back to Brown in 2015 to find the WR1 in ADP who led the year in points scored.

We have been getting consistent churn at the top of the position.

So even though this is a tighter tier of only four players, we inherently know that the field is drawing live to compete with these receivers.

Ja’Marr Chase

BYE: Week 6

Chase was excellent again in 2025.

He led the NFL in targets (185) while catching 125 passes for 1,412 yards and 8 touchdowns.

There was a blip at the start of the season when Joe Burrow suffered his foot injury, but once the Jake Browning experiment was shelved, Chase got going consistently at a high level again.

Once Burrow returned in Week 13, Chase was the WR3 in points per game (19.6) and expected points per game (18.6).

With Burrow under center, Chase commanded 31.5% of the Cincinnati targets, 37.3% of the air yards, and posted 2.19 yards per route run.

Still at the apex of his career (he turned 26 in March), he has been a WR1 scorer in points per game in all five years of his career, with four of those seasons ranking the WR5 or higher per game.

No receiver has Chase’s full-field upside.

Since entering the league, he is tied for fourth among all wideouts in targets in the end zone (68) and leads the league in touchdowns scored from outside the red zone through the air (25).

Puka Nacua

BYE: Week 11

Nacua is coming off another incredible season, leading the league in receptions (129) for 1,715 yards (2nd) and 10 touchdowns (tied for 6th).

Nacua led the league in yards per route run (3.71), target rate per route (35.9%), and fantasy points per route (0.81).

Even with Davante Adams on the field last season (310 routes), Nacua was targeted on 35.8% of his routes with 3.51 yards per route run.

We also got a glimpse of him adding contingent value when Adams was sidelined with a hamstring injury.

On 152 routes with Adams off the field, Nacua was targeted 36.2% of the time and averaged 4.12 yards per route run.

With Adams completely missing Weeks 16 to 18, Nacua had games of 12 catches for 255 yards and 2 touchdowns on 16 targets versus Seattle, 5 catches for 47 yards and a touchdown on 10 targets against Atlanta, and 10 catches for 76 yards and a touchdown on 11 targets against Arizona.

Since entering the league, Nacua has averaged 7.1 receptions (2nd) and 95.3 yards per game (1st).

He has opened his career as the WR6, WR3, and WR1 in fantasy points per game.

Arguably, the most alarming stat of all is that he averaged over 2.0 more PPR points per game (23.4) than Jaxon Smith-Njigba last year.

Even in half-PPR, that was +1.7 points per game.

Nacua did get into the end zone a career-high 11 times last season.

We have already dug into the expected touchdown regression for Matthew Stafford, which can trickle over here.

Before last season, Nacua had 10 total touchdowns (9 receiving) in his first two seasons in the league.

If Nacua has one minor bugaboo to this point, it is that the Rams have not always prioritized him near the end zone.

Even last year, Nacua saw his scoring spike once Adams was injured.

When Adams was on the field, he out-targeted Nacua 31 to 10 in the red zone and 28 to 4 in the end zone.

Nacua has had a run of off-field issues over the past few months that have raised concerns, but the Rams have been supportive of him through his transgressions.

Entering the final year of his rookie contract, Nacua is set to become the league’s highest-paid receiver.

Amon-Ra St. Brown

BYE: Week 6

St. Brown was exceptional again last season, securing 117 receptions for 1,401 yards and 11 touchdowns.

He has established himself as one of the most reliable players in the league.

St. Brown has at least 90 receptions in all five of his seasons, with 100-plus in each of the past four.

St. Brown also has caught double-digit touchdowns in each of the past three seasons.

He was targeted on 30.4% of his routes (WR3), 31.3% of Detroit's targets (WR2), and posted 2.48 yards per route run (WR7) in 2025.

He has rarely missed time (two games over five seasons) and plays well when pushing through injuries.

St. Brown is my favorite first-round fantasy pick this season after Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson, Ja’Marr Chase, and Puka Nacua.

The Lions are favored in 14 games entering the season, which is tied for third in the league.

They are currently projected to score the third-most points in the league, according to Vegas lines.

The Lions play only four outdoor games during the fantasy season (although one of those is in Week 17 against the Bears), which has always been a signal for this offense and Jared Goff‘s play.

Their outdoor games before that regular-season fantasy finale are in Buffalo (Week 2, so few temperature concerns), the Panthers in Week 4, and Miami in Week 9.

St. Brown has averaged 20.0 fantasy points per game at home over the past four seasons (WR3) and 19.7 points per game indoors (WR4) over that span.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

BYE: Week 11

Smith-Njigba is coming off a remarkable season, catching 119 passes for a league-leading 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Looking at the context of his offense, his performance last season was even more impressive.

He became the first player in the Super Bowl era to lead the NFL in receiving yards while playing for a team in the bottom three in pass rate.

Smith-Njigba produced 3.73 receiving yards per team pass attempt, the most I have in my scoring database going back to 1990.

Steve Smith’s 3.48 yards per team attempt in 2005 was the previous high.

JSN accounted for 36.6% of his team’s receptions, which was only bested by Brandon Marshall in 2012 (41.1%) and Steve Smith in 2005 (38.3%).

Smith-Njigba accounted for 44.1% of his team’s receiving yards, the fourth-highest rate since 1990.

His 35.8% target share was second over that span. His 50% team air yards share was third.

Making a leap to the apex of the position, Smith-Njigba netted a monster payday this offseason as the league’s highest-paid receiver, signing an extension through 2031 worth up to $168.8 million.

The only question for Smith-Njigba regarding 2026 fantasy output is where the expected natural regression will settle.

Like Saquon Barkley’s 2024 campaign, JSN’s 2025 was just a special intersection of production that will be nearly impossible to replicate fully.

This is where I remind you that not all expected regression means we have to abandon ship.

We still fully expect Smith-Njigba to lead Seattle in targets and for this passing game to run through him again, but there are a few loose threads as we find out exactly where things fall into place this season.

With Klint Kubiak taking a head coaching job in Las Vegas, the Seahawks brought in Brian Fleury as their new offensive coordinator.

Fleury has a foundation similar to Kubiak's, but he is still a first-time play-caller.

Smith-Njigba slaughtered teams on play-action passing last year.

He posted an alarming 5.48 yards per route run on play-action passes, catching 33 passes for 707 yards and 6 touchdowns.

All led the NFL.

We should expect Rashid Shaheed to be more involved this upcoming season, with a full offseason to acclimate himself to the offense, which can chip away at the top-end of robust usage Smith-Njigba had.

Seattle's strength of schedule was also favorable.

Seattle faced only four defenses all season that were in the top-10 in passing points allowed per attempt, a statistic I hold in high regard because it is all-encompassing.

Those defenses were Houston, Carolina, Minnesota, and then New England.

Smith-Njigba showed how good he can be, lighting up Houston for 8 catches, 123 yards, and a touchdown, but also had his softest points of the year against Carolina (9-72-0), Minnesota (2-23-0), and those New England (4-27-0) games.

I believe that has more to do with Sam Darnold’s ability to punch up than with Smith-Njigba (Smith-Njigba had big plays available in the Super Bowl that Darnold missed), but that is still on the table for Darnold this season.

Darnold did not throw multiple touchdown passes in any of those games.

Darnold has had six games with a yards-per-attempt figure below 7.0.

Four of those came in the matchups against Houston (6.9), Carolina (5.4), Minnesota (4.9), and New England (5.3).

Darnold completed fewer than 60% of his passes four times.

Three of those were against Houston (54.8%), Minnesota (53.8%), and New England (50%).

I expect both the Rams and the 49ers to be significantly improved against the pass in their division this season.

At the same time, Seattle opens with New England, has the Chargers and Broncos on the schedule, and playoff matchups against the Eagles, Rams, and Panthers.

On the positive side, Seattle should have to throw more, which can alleviate any real bottom-dropping-out potential, even in the face of natural regression in efficiency and top-down usage.

Seattle led on 50.8% of their offensive snaps last season (2nd in the league) and trailed for only 27.9% (3rd lowest).

Tier 2 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Justin Jefferson
• CeeDee Lamb
• Drake London
• Nico Collins
• Rashee Rice

There is a blemish or two here for these guys compared to the previous tier, but moving down the line at wide receiver, this is the next subset of pass catchers pushing for WR1 status, with favorable odds to threaten the top of the board overall when things come together.

Justin Jefferson

BYE: Week 6

We are coming off the worst season of Jefferson’s early career.

The counting stats were modest for Jefferson, catching 84 passes for 1,048 yards, but he had career lows everywhere across the board.

He only had 2 touchdowns.

His 61.6 yards per game were a massive drop from his previous career low (87.5 yards per game as a rookie).

After posting over 2.5 yards per route run in every season of his career to open, Jefferson was at 1.91 last season.

He ended the season as the WR32 in PPR points per game (11.9).

Jefferson was still the focal point of the offense, commanding 30.1% of the team targets (WR4) and 38.6% of the air yards (WR5), but quarterback play was his undoing.

Justin Jefferson Splits by Quarterback in 2025

Jefferson had a career-high 17% of his targets charted as inaccurate throws last season.

J.J. McCarthy had an 18.5% inaccurate throw rate to wide receivers, ranking 32nd among 33 qualifying passers, behind only Cam Ward (19.5%).

The league rate was 13.2%.

Kyler Murray was at 13% last season and is only at 9.8% for his career throwing to wide receivers.

In Jefferson’s 10 games with McCarthy, he was the WR15 in expected points (15.6), but the WR38 in actual points scored (11.0 per game).

Jefferson had one WR1 scoring week with McCarthy last season, in Week 18, which did not help most gamers.

We don’t need to talk about the Max Brosmer experience, but when you look at Jefferson’s time with Carson Wentz, you still see a top-flight pass catcher for fantasy.

Jefferson was the WR5 in expected points per game (17.1) and the WR10 in points per game (16.3) in his games with Wentz.

In his five games with Wentz, Jefferson did not score a touchdown, but finished as the:

• WR29 (5-75-0) vs. CIN
• WR8 (10-126-0) vs. PIT
• WR11 (7-123-0) vs. CLE
• WR27 (5-79-0) vs. PHI
• WR20 (7-74-0) vs. LAC

And that schedule overlapped several good pass defenses from last season.

I explored several questions still with Murray and his fit in this offense in the QB Tiers, but if all we are asking is for Murray to be a proxy of Wentz for Jefferson, that is an achievable goal in getting him back to WR1 status for fantasy football.

Murray is just leaving a situation where he did not help Marvin Harrison Jr. hit the ground running in the NFL, but how much of that was completely on Murray?

The one true alpha receiver that Murray has played with during his prime was DeAndre Hopkins.

Hopkins caught 115 passes for 1,407 yards and 6 touchdowns in his one full season with Murray in 2020 at age 28.

In 2021 and 2022, with Murray available, Hopkins still posted 2.01 yards per route run.

If anything, Jefferson will be a bounce-back candidate to at least find the end zone more.

He was third among all receivers in end zone targets (16) but only had 2 touchdowns on those throws (12.5%).

Before last year, Jefferson had converted 32.4% of his end-zone targets into touchdowns.

Only one receiver over the past 10 years had a worse end-zone conversion rate on as many scoring targets: Julio Jones in 2018 (catching 2 of 19 end zone targets that season).

Minnesota has our easiest passing schedule for 2026 as an added cherry in getting Jefferson back in the mix to compete as the WR1 overall.

CeeDee Lamb

BYE: Week 14

Lamb ended 2025 with 75 catches on 117 targets for 1,077 yards and 3 touchdowns.

While falling short of preseason expectations as a front-end scorer at the position, there were positives to draw on.

Lamb was still the WR12 in points per game in a year in which he missed three games outright and played fewer than 50% of the snaps in another three games he left with injuries.

An ankle injury just 7 snaps into Week 3 was the real setback for him after opening the season with two 100-yard outings.

Although the counting stats were not as strong as previous seasons, Lamb did average a career-high 14.4 yards per catch while posting 2.38 yards per route (WR9).

A large part of that was that Lamb played less inside than in previous seasons.

Lamb was in the slot for a career-low 34.8% of his snaps.

Playing more outside pushed his target depth up to a career-high 11.9 yards downfield.

17.9% of Lamb’s targets came on throws of 20 or more yards downfield, his highest rate since 2021.

The deeper targets can add more variance, and Lamb was impacted by the addition of George Pickens, which skimmed some usage off the top.

Lamb was targeted on 25.8% of his routes run, which was his lowest rate in a season since 2021.

The three years in between, Lamb was targeted on 27.4%, 29%, and 29.1% of his routes.

That per-route target rate was still good for WR15 this season, which is strong for a player in his offensive environment.

While Pickens did impact Lamb, dominating his target tree as he did in previous seasons, Lamb was still the WR5 in expected points per game, while Pickens was WR11.

Pickens also ran hot while Lamb did not.

Pickens was third in points scored over expectations, while Lamb was 214th.

Natural variance can run back in Lamb’s favor, especially near the end zone.

Lamb only converted 2 of his 12 (16.7%) targets in the end zone for scores.

Before last year, he had converted 36.1% of those opportunities.

We still want Dallas involved in as many shootouts as possible since Lamb is sharing some more work with another high-end receiver and drawing fewer slot targets.

The Dallas defense is going to be better this season, but I do believe this will remain a pass-first offense at the top of the league.

Dak Prescott led the league in completions (404) for the second time in the past three seasons, throwing 30 touchdowns.

The Cowboys were 11th in pass rate over expectations last year (1.7%).

The Dallas defensive improvement projects to be much better up front against the run this season, which can still coax them into strong passing-game environments.

Dallas has a shootout appeal in the fantasy playoffs against the Rams and Jaguars.

Drake London

BYE: Week 11

London was on his way to another stellar season in 2025 before a PCL injury in Week 11 derailed him, limiting him to 12 games.

On a per-game basis, London averaged 5.7 receptions (WR8) for 76.6 yards (WR7) with 7 touchdowns (still tied for 11th for the year).

London was targeted on 28.7% of his routes (WR6), 32.1% of Atlanta's targets, and 41.9% of the air yards when he was on the field.

He was playing his best football right before that PCL injury, posting four top-five scoring weeks over the six games before his injury, leading the position in overall points in two of those games.

London has shown real upside in the past two seasons, ranking only behind Ja’Marr Chase (5) with four 30-point PPR games.

The interesting aspect of the overlap between those spike weeks is that they have come attached to Michael Penix.

I do believe London can thrive with either Penix or Tua Tagovailoa, but up to this stage of his career, we have seen top-heavy results from Penix and London’s other quarterbacks.

The fact that London even has those awesome splits with Penix, given how Penix has played in bulk, is a testament to London’s talent.

Say what you want about Tagovailoa, but he facilitated efficiency to quality WR1 targets over his time in Miami.

Nico Collins

BYE: Week 8

Collins was productive again in 2025, catching 71 passes for 1,117 yards and 6 touchdowns.

He accounted for 24.6% of the Houston targets (WR11) and 37.3% of the air yards (WR7) in his games played, with 2.35 yards per route (WR12).

He did take a slight dip in per-game output.

After 5.3 and 5.7 receptions per game in C.J. Stroud’s first two seasons, Collins averaged 4.7 catches per game in 2025.

His 74.5 yards per game were a smidge down from 83.8 in 2024 and 86.5 in 2023.

He caught 4 or fewer passes in five of his final six games.

Houston has had trouble keeping all of their pass catchers on the field together, but the 2026 version of this target tree, in full, is the most target competition Collins has had since he elevated his status as a feature wideout.

That said, Collins was better last year when Houston was playing their young talent.

Collins averaged 2.57 yards per route on 111 plays with both Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel on the field, with a target on 25.6% of those routes.

With both off the field (240 routes), he dipped to a 23.3% rate and 2.29 yards per route run.

Staying on the field himself has been the primary thorn in keeping Collins more of a back-end fantasy WR1 rather than flirting with WR1-overall level output.

He had two concussions that impacted his season, missing two games in the regular season and then the final playoff game.

Collins has yet to play a full season for over five years.

It takes a step of faith, but I can see an outcome where Nick Caley gets more creative in Year 2 due to a better offensive line, a more balanced offense with the addition of David Montgomery, and a full arsenal of pass catchers with Higgins and Noel having a year under their belts, and Tank Dell returning in some capacity.

Caley ran a restricted offense in Year 1.

The Texans used pre-snap motion on 49.9% of Stroud’s dropbacks (21st) and play action on 24.8% (19th).

The downer is that when Stroud did get to use play action, he averaged 8.5 yards per pass attempt (10th) and 13.1 yards per completion (7th).

When the Texans used motion, Stroud averaged 7.8 Y/A (7th) with 11.7 yards per completion (9th).

Collins was the primary beneficiary when they did get creative, averaging 2.81 yards per route on play action (the base rate for wide receivers is 1.81) and 2.42 yards per route with motion (the base rate here is 1.50), which are both top-10 numbers for a player with his overall target total.

Rashee Rice

BYE: Week 5

Rice has been one of the best receivers in the league in terms of counting production when he has been available.

From Week 7 to Week 15 last year, Rice averaged 6.6 receptions for 71.4 yards per game.

That was good for fifth and 13th in the league among wide receivers over that span.

He also scored 6 touchdowns in those eight games.

Rice has been targeted on 30.4% of his routes over the past two seasons.

Only Puka Nacua (36.8%) has a higher rate.

Rice’s 2.44 yards per route run over that span are sixth in the league among receivers.

Only Nacua (0.81), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (0.74), and Amon-Ra St. Brown (0.57) matched Rice in fantasy points per route run (0.57) last season.

In 2024, he was second in that department (0.74) to only Nacua (0.75).

While Rice has stacked receptions, the question is how much more still needs to be set up for him, and whether that's actually a good thing for the passing game or a necessity given what's been available.

He is the Deebo Samuel-type piece for the offense, but is he a true WR1?

When Rice returned last season, he averaged 4.3 air yards per target.

The only wide receivers last year with a lower depth of target were Khalil Shakir (3.7), Isaiah Williams (3.4), and Greg Dortch (1.8).

Since entering the league, Rice has seen 26.5%, 31%, and 35.9% of his targets come at or behind the line of scrimmage.

If we are expecting the Chiefs to run more this season, given the addition of Kenneth Walker and the injury to Patrick Mahomes, does that alter the necessity of those short targets for Rice in the offense

If so, can Rice show growth as a route runner?

Even with Rice heavily involved, he and the Kansas City passing game were volatile as the season closed out.

Rice was a top-30 scorer in only two of his final five games.

But when he was, he had huge games of top-six overall output.

Rice struggled to win against man coverage last season.

He was targeted on 21.1% of his routes against man coverage compared to 32.1% against zone coverage, averaging 0.72 yards per route against man coverage versus 3.01 yards per route against zone coverage.

Kansas City has been a bit boxed in on offense because they have lacked receivers who can consistently win in isolated situations, but they have also made no significant additions to the wide receiver room to push Rice.

This is still a passing game led by Rice, Year 3 Xavier Worthy, and a 37-year-old Travis Kelce.

Rice also comes with the added discomfort of his off-field track record and getting banged up.

Rice was recently cleared during an offseason investigation of abuse, and he served his jail sentence for violating parole this offseason while recovering from knee surgery.

On a per-game basis, we have pockets in all three seasons when Rice performs as a fantasy WR1.

But he also has not given gamers a top-24 season overall because he has played 12 total games the past two seasons due to suspensions, a significant knee injury in 2024, and ending last season on injured reserve with a concussion.

Tier 3 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Malik Nabers

This is a tier of one because Nabers has a unique set of variables surrounding him this season.

In his age apex, with no injury concerns, Nabers would be a Tier 1 player.

But returning from a major injury and in a new offensive environment, gamers face risk-versus-reward considerations surrounding 2026.

Malik Nabers

BYE: Week 8

After an incredible rookie season, 2025 was close to a lost year for Nabers.

He played in three full games, closing those weeks as the WR29 (5-71-0 on 12 targets), WR2 (9-167-2 on 13 targets), and WR87 (2-13-0 on 7 targets) playing with Russell Wilson.

Nabers then suffered a season-ending torn ACL in Week 4, running only 11 pass routes in Jaxson Dart’s first game.

Nabers had his surgery on October 28, which will put his timeline for recovery at 10 months at the start of the season.

As of right now, there are no long-term concerns about his availability, but there is some trepidation about whether Nabers will be ready for Week 1.

We should get more information as training camps get going.

If Nabers does not start on PUP, then he will be a big riser the rest of the summer.

If Nabers needs to start the year on PUP and then a following ramp-up period, that is already asking a lot of gamers with an early pick.

Injury optimism has been a hill we've all died on playing fantasy football.

I want more assurance of his health, even at the Round 3 cost, than what we currently have.

The Giants do have end-of-the-fantasy-season games against Detroit and Dallas, which could be appealing for gamers who can make it that deep with Nabers, but if you have followed my work over the years, you know I am more cautious on drafting players who are already injured.

Upside wins championships, so I get the appeal if you are less risk-averse.

Given that wide receiver scoring is down across the league, it's harder to feel the need to chase, especially since the wide receiver field in the same range immediately after Nabers currently goes is deep and arguably the most appealing part of the position after the top.

On top of that, we still do not have a sample of him playing with Dart, while the offense as a whole is undergoing wholesale changes.

The Giants have the look of a team that wants to run the football heavily.

That has been John Harbaugh‘s philosophy throughout his tenure with the Ravens.

Matt Nagy was hired as the new offensive coordinator, and Greg Roman as an assistant.

Roman’s offenses have been in 12 personnel for 34.8% of the time across his stops.

Nagy comes from a high utilization of 2TE sets at Kansas City.

The Chiefs were second in the league in 12-personnel rate over the past three seasons (30.1%) with Nagy there, and fourth in 13-personnel rate (7.9%).

It does not stop there.

The Giants also added fullback Patrick Ricard, who is familiar with Harbaugh and Roman.

It has been a while, but the Giants also look to have the makings of a formidable offensive line.

They selected Francis Mauigoa in the first round.

If Mauigoa is good out of the box as a rookie, this is an offensive line with some strong spots on paper, with Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eluemunor at the tackles.

Tier 4 Fantasy Football WRs:

• A.J. Brown
• George Pickens
• Tee Higgins
• Mike Evans
• Davante Adams

Our next pocket of pass catchers may not carry the overall WR1 in their season-long outcomes, but they possess high-end weekly upside, particularly in touchdown production.

We also have a couple of receivers here with some high-end contingency upside because of their attachment to a wide receiver we have already covered.

We also have a few guys who are approaching the age apex or have shown some signs of decline, which we have to consider.

A.J. Brown

BYE: Week 11

Although Brown is coming off a down season based on his lofty standards, he still managed to post 1,003 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns on 78 receptions.

The top-down stats also do not tell the complete story.

Brown opened the season slowly, missing time in August before the kickoff with a hamstring injury.

From Week 11 to Week 17 (the starters rested in Week 18), Brown was fourth among all wide receivers in receptions and fifth in receiving yards, posting 95 or more yards in four of those games with three 100-yard outings.

He was the WR5 in fantasy points per game over that stretch (18.6).

The Philadelphia passing concepts did not do Brown any favors.

24% of Brown’s routes last season were hitches, the highest rate of his career.

After an 8.2% crossing route rate in 2024, that sagged to 5.8% in 2025, the second-lowest rate of his career.

Brown also had a career low of 24 targets on play action last year to top things off.

Over the past three seasons, Brown's rate of play-action targets:

• 22.2% in 2023
• 25.8% in 2024
• 19.8% in 2025

Over the previous three seasons before that dip, he had 33.9% of his targets as play-action targets in 2020, 42.9% in 2021, and 36.7% in 2022.

Over his four seasons with the Eagles, Brown totaled 19 targets with his quarterback under center.

For his career on 420 routes, he has averaged 4.35 yards per route run with his quarterback under center.

Changing scenery to New England, Brown will be going to one of the league’s top explosive-play passing offenses from a year ago.

Drake Maye ranked 10th in snaps under center last year on passes (23%), while Jalen Hurts ranked 29th (9.1%).

On throws 10 or more yards downfield, Maye completed 60.7% of his passes (2nd) for a league-high 13.4 yards per attempt.

You can make a strong case that Maye will be the best quarterback Brown has worked with in terms of full-field passing acumen.

When Maye worked with Stefon Diggs last season, both were hyper-efficient.

Diggs was on the field for only 68.3% of the team’s dropbacks, but he posted 2.42 yards per route run (WR8) and 0.50 fantasy points per route run (WR11).

We still have a strong sample of Brown playing at a high level last season, and he is going to play more snaps than Diggs did in this offense, with an upgrade in a complete offensive environment.

Josh McDaniels has had attachments to some high-end receiving talent, and we have seen some monster seasons from that group, as well as efficient years like Diggs' last season.

In 2022, Davante Adams had 100 receptions for 1,516 yards and 14 touchdowns under McDaniels.

Of course, we have the ludicrous 2007 season from Randy Moss when he scored 23 touchdowns.

This is a boon for Brown and keeps him firmly in play as a high-end fantasy WR1 for 2026, even if he has lost a bit overall.

George Pickens

BYE: Week 14

Pickens flourished in his first season with Dallas, leading the team in targets (137), catches (93), yards (1,429), and touchdowns (9).

All of those were easily career highs.

His 18 end-zone targets were tied for second-most in the NFL.

53.3% of his targets resulted in a first down or touchdown, the fifth-highest rate for a wide receiver last season.

No receiver ahead of him came close to his overall target count, either.

Pickens had 137 targets, while the next-highest player on that list (Terry McLaurin) had 60.

Pickens received a complete target tree for the first time in his career.

61.3% of his targets were within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, the highest rate of his career.

After relying on deep target rates of 32.1%, 24.5%, and 29.1% while in Pittsburgh as a rookie, that rate dropped to 16.1% in Dallas last season.

That gave Pickens access to a menu of targets with a higher success rate.

We did get a glimpse of the upside Pickens has playing without CeeDee Lamb.

On 185 routes with Lamb sidelined, Pickens was targeted on 25.4% of those with 2.61 yards per route.

With Lamb nursing an ankle injury from Week 3 to Week 6, Pickens had weeks as the WR15 (5-68-1 on 9 targets), WR2 (8-134-2 on 11 targets), WR24 (2-57-1 on 4 targets), and WR1 (9-168-1 on 11 targets).

With Lamb on the field (422 routes), Pickens was targeted on 21.3% of his routes with 2.24 yards per route.

He was a bit more volatile after that stretch, when Lamb returned, posting three more WR1 scoring weeks but also five more games outside the top-24 over the next 10 weeks.

Pickens also ran a bit hotter than Lamb, as we called out earlier.

Pickens was third in points scored over expectations, while Lamb was 214th.

That makes Pickens a bit more fragile than his current ADP suggests, but he is adjacent to someone like Tee Higgins with a cleaner injury history.

Tee Higgins

BYE: Week 6

Higgins took a step back from his massive 2024, going from 6.1 catches for 75.9 yards per game down to 3.9 catches for 56.4 yards per game in 2025.

Quarterback play was the primary reason for the drop.

On 131 routes with Jake Browning under center, Higgins was targeted on 15.3% of his routes for 0.85 yards per route run.

On 223 routes with Joe Flacco, he was targeted on 19.3% of routes for 1.87 yards per route.

On 169 routes with Joe Burrow, Higgins was targeted on 20.7% of those routes with 1.88 yards per route run.

Through all of that, he still caught 11 touchdowns, giving him double-digit scores in each of the past two seasons.

On top of the quarterback changes, Higgins once again missed multiple games last year, the third season in a row (and four of the past five seasons) he has missed multiple games.

When Higgins is on the field and firing with Burrow, we have seen the scoring upside.

He was just the WR6 in fantasy points per game in 2024.

We do not want anything to happen to Ja’Marr Chase, but in any event that something does, then Higgins has even further upside.

Since Chase joined the team, Higgins has run 159 routes with Burrow on the field and Chase off.

On those plays, Higgins has 28.1% of the team’s targets with 2.39 yards per route run.

Mike Evans

BYE: Week 8

One of the league’s most consistent producers is coming off his worst season in the pros, catching 30 of 62 targets (a career-low 48.4% catch rate) for 368 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Evans only appeared in eight games last season.

He suffered a hamstring injury in Week 3, which sidelined him until Week 7.

This was the fifth consecutive season in which Evans has been on the injury report with a hamstring issue.

When Evans returned in Week 7 against Detroit, he suffered a broken clavicle after 14 plays, forcing him out of the lineup for the next two months.

Returning in Week 15, Evans reminded everyone that he still can produce, catching 6 of 12 targets for 132 yards against Atlanta.

He produced only 31, 31, and 34 yards in the final three weeks of the season, but did find the end zone twice over that span.

The largest question here is whether San Francisco (and gamers) is attempting to catch a falling knife.

Evans will be 33 and had an efficiency dip across the board.

His 1.62 yards per route run were the fewest of his career.

He also posted the lowest rate of targets to produce a first down or a touchdown in his career (37.1%).

Baker Mayfield’s efficiency fell off as he dealt with injuries, so there is something of a hall pass to give to Evans here.

Despite playing through multiple ailments, Evans still commanded target opportunities.

His 27.3% target rate per route was his highest since 2016 and good for WR8 on the season among wideouts with 200-plus routes run.

Joining a San Francisco offense with a wide-open target tree, I would bet on Evans to be a target earner once again.

George Kittle is returning from an Achilles injury he suffered in the postseason, raising questions about his availability to open the year.

Ricky Pearsall has played in 20 games through two seasons.

Jauan Jennings (90 targets) and Kendrick Bourne (53 targets) are gone.

Even if Evans did lose a step, he is going to be asked to win in ways he is still capable: running slants, digs, and outs.

That X position has produced some high-value targets for Brandon Aiyuk and even Pearsall when he was available last year.

This is a passing game that extracts efficiency from anyone, let alone a future Hall of Famer.

We still have to price in his age and injury history (the electrical substation digs write themselves), but I believe that Evans has a solid floor here as a target earner and touchdown producer when on the field.

Like Davante Adams with the Rams a year ago, I expect Evans to be at least a major factor near the end zone.

When Evans was on the field last season, he commanded 58.3% of the Tampa Bay end-zone targets.

Adams had 57.1% of his targets in the end zone last season with the Rams as context.

In 2024, Evans was second in the league in end zone targets (18).

Brock Purdy has been the most efficient passer on throws to the end zone.

Since entering the league, Purdy has completed 45.1% of his throws into the end zone.

That is fourth in the league.

In 2025, that rate was 46.2% (QB9) while Mac Jones was first (58.3%).

Even when pricing in his age and injury history, Evans is a best-ball target for touchdown equity.

I can easily see him clearing that cost in managed leagues as well, but we have to price in age and injury history.

Davante Adams

BYE: Week 11

Adams had a solid year in his first season with the Rams, catching 60 passes for 789 yards and a league-high 14 touchdowns at age 33.

Despite the solid production, Adams averaged 56.4 yards per game, his fewest since 2015.

But he more than made up for a dip in yardage through immense touchdown equity.

Even though he missed the final three weeks of the season, Adams led the league in touchdowns.

He had 28 end-zone targets, the most recorded since that data was tracked.

The next closest player last season had 18.

If there is expected touchdown regression through the air for the Rams, then Adams stands to be most affected.

37.7% of his fantasy points came from touchdowns, the highest rate in the league.

Matthew Stafford posted a career-high 7.7% touchdown rate.

His previous high was 6.8% in 2021.

He threw the ball 54 times into the end zone, completing 48.1% of those for touchdowns.

The league rate on end zone passes converted to touchdowns was 37.4%.

His previous touchdown rates on end zone throws with the Rams were 41.8% in 2021, 26.1% in 2022, 35.1% in 2023, and 28.6% in 2024.

There have been 55 times in which a passer has posted a 7% TD rate on 200-plus throws since 1990.

49 of those players threw fewer touchdowns the following season.

While regression is expected, not all regression is a boogeyman.

Even with a drop in scores, Adams is still a good bet to get tangible touchdown production.

Since he entered the league in 2014, only Derrick Henry has scored more touchdowns than Adams.

Since 2020, only Henry and Jonathan Taylor have more touchdowns.

Outside of the touchdown production, Adams still held strong peripherals, and the Rams have not added anything noteworthy to their target tree this offseason.

Adams was targeted on 27.8% of his routes, which was WR8 last season.

He had 29.8% of the team's targets when he was on the field.

Even outside of the red zone, Adams was targeted on 25.3% of his routes.

On 317 routes with Puka Nacua on the field, Adams had 26.8% of the team’s targets.

Adams would get another bump if Nacua were to miss any time.

He ran 93 routes with Nacua off the field last season, drawing a target on 37.6% of those routes with 2.37 yards per route run.

Like Evans, we do have to factor in Adams turning 34 during the season.

That puts him at the bottom of this tier (since Evans is the WR1 on his team), but he will end up being cheaper than a handful of hopeful breakouts that fail to come through.

Tier 5 Fantasy Football WRs:

• DeVonta Smith
• Chris Olave
• Emeka Egbuka
• Zay Flowers
• Ladd McConkey
• Tetairoa McMillan
• Garrett Wilson
• Terry McLaurin
• Jaylen Waddle
• D.J. Moore

This is our first large tier, and it is made up of upside WR1 options who have either not completely gotten over the hump for fantasy to this point or have given us uneven production so far.

Almost everyone here has a bull case for building them up and delivering as a WR1 in their best-case scenario, but also a potential component holding them back, working more as a fantasy WR2 who can moonlight as a WR1 in a given week.

DeVonta Smith

BYE: Week 10

Smith ended 2025 averaging 4.5 receptions and 59.3 yards per game, his lowest per-game averages since his rookie season in 2021.

After scoring 7 or more touchdowns in each of the previous three seasons, Smith found the end zone only 4 times this past season.

That aligns with the struggles we covered with Jalen Hurts dissecting the Philadelphia offense from last season.

Smith’s underlying profile was still solid.

From Week 7 to Week 17, Smith accounted for 27.8% of the targets (WR8), 37.6% of the air yards (WR8), and still posted 2.07 yards per route run (WR21).

With A.J. Brown leaving Philadelphia (and Kevin Patullo no longer calling plays), Smith climbs the board as well as a potential WR1 option.

Since Brown joined the Eagles in 2022, Smith has run 252 routes with him off the field.

On those plays, Smith has been targeted on 29% of his routes (36.7% of the team’s targets) with 2.60 yards per route run.

Those would all be front-end WR1 usage rates and efficiency if static.

Smith had four games over that period of running 20-plus routes with Brown off the field.

Here are those game logs:

There is a difference between Smith being elevated in season or in game with Brown being off the field compared to this offseason when the Eagles have prepared their roster for Brown’s absence, but even with Makai Lemon, Dontayvion Wicks, and Eli Stowers all added to the fold, Smith can shed some percentages of routes per target and overall target share and still have solid usage near the WR1 range.

We have a season with Smith working as the lead receiver before Brown was added as well.

As a rookie in 2021, Smith caught 64 passes for 916 yards and 5 touchdowns, drawing a target on 20.3% of his routes with 1.79 yards per route.

That was as a first-year player with Hurts in his first full season as a starting quarterback.

The Eagles have our second-easiest passing schedule for 2026.

There is some weekly fragility here since the Eagles could remain run-heavy, but with all the pieces in place.

As noted with Hurts, while the Eagles have a great overall schedule, we do have fantasy playoff games looming against Seattle and Houston, which are far less appetizing.

Chris Olave

BYE: Week 8

After an injury-filled 2024 campaign, Olave rebounded in a big way last year, catching 100 balls for 1,163 yards and 9 touchdowns.

Olave accounted for 27.6% of the team’s targets (WR8) and 39.4% of the team’s air yards (WR4).

He ran a career-high 39% of his routes from the slot, up from a career-low 21.1% in 2024.

The addition of Jordyn Tyson could lower that rate, but Olave performed better outside in the first place.

When lined up outside (339 routes), Olave was targeted on 28.9% of his routes for 2.27 yards per route run (0.48 fantasy points per route).

From the slot, he was targeted on 23.6% of his routes with 1.59 yards per route run.

That said, Olave did benefit from a general lack of competition at the position.

He took off after the trade of Rashid Shaheed.

On 282 routes with Shaheed, Olave was targeted on 26.2% of those routes, averaging 1.76 yards per route run and 0.38 fantasy points per route.

On 303 routes without Shaheed, Olave was targeted on 27.1% of his routes with 2.20 yards per route run and 0.53 fantasy points per route.

From Week 1 to Week 9, Olave was the WR16 in points per game (14.3), then the WR3 the rest of the season (20.2).

Over the four games after the trade of Shaheed, Devaughn Vele received 20.3% of the team’s targets, posting more receiving yards (232) than Olave (232) in those games.

With Vele missing the final two games of the fantasy regular season, Olave went bonkers with 10-148-2 (16 targets) against the Jets and 8-119-1 (11 targets) against Tennessee.

Olave ended the season with three WR1 scoring weeks after having just two before that span.

That strong finish to the season came not only after the trade of Shaheed but also after the change at quarterback to Tyler Shough.

With Shough under center and Shaheed no longer on the roster, Olave’s role blossomed downfield.

He went from 10.0 air yards per target and a 15.6% deep target rate with Spencer Rattler playing up to 13.3 air yards per target and a 23.1% deep target rate with Shough.

Olave benefited from the top-down lack of surrounding talent, and that stretch of limited-ceiling games before he was the only target available is potentially a trapdoor, paying up at a much higher price than gamers were paying last season.

But the addition of Tyson can free him up to play more downfield and outside.

The Saints are also stronger as a team, which may reduce Olave’s usage share but raise the overall tide of the offense.

I would say that Tetairoa McMillan and Garrett Wilson have worse quarterback play in this tier, but Olave does have more of a question mark in terms of quarterback attachment than the rest of the tier.

Most of Olave’s ceiling output will be tied to Shough's performance in Year 2.

Emeka Egbuka

BYE: Week 10

The Bucs took some pushback when they selected Emeka Egbuka 19th overall last season, since wide receiver did not appear to be an immediate need.

Still, his usage and necessity to lead this team in Year 1, and moving forward, are examples of how fluid things are in the league and prove to be strong foresight now as we enter 2026.

Egbuka was thrown into a large role immediately due to injuries, leading the team with 127 targets and catching 63 passes for 938 yards and 6 touchdowns.

He opened the season on fire.

Over the opening five games, Egbuka was fourth in the NFL with 445 receiving yards, catching 25 passes with 5 touchdowns.

He then suffered a hamstring injury in Week 6.

After that injury, the Bucs spiraled as an offense.

From Week 7 on, Egbuka had 469 receiving yards (34th among wide receivers), catching 36 passes with 1 touchdown over his final 11 games.

That half of the season overlapped Baker Mayfield playing through a handful of injuries, something Tampa Bay dealt with everywhere last season.

Mayfield dealt with lingering ankle, knee, oblique, and shoulder injuries over the course of the year but never missed a game outright.

Before the Week 9 bye, Mayfield had completed 63.9% of his passes for 7.1 yards per pass attempt with 13 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

Over the final nine games, he then completed 62.4% of his passes for 6.5 Y/A with 13 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

Over the first six weeks of the season, Egbuka only had an 11.9% off-target rate.

He then had an inaccurate target rate of 26.8% for the remainder of the year.

No wide receiver had a higher inaccurate-target rate than Egbuka over that span, given as many overall targets.

Egbuka ended the season on a down note compared to his blistering start, but this is a first-round pick who had top-down success as a rookie and remains in line for significant target volume.

With Mike Evans now gone via free agency, Egbuka should be the featured target in this offense in 2026.

With Evans on the field last season (152 routes), Egbuka was targeted on 18.4% of his routes (1.34 yards per route run).

With Evans off the field (378 routes), Egbuka was targeted on 26.2% of his routes (1.94 yards per route).

The late-season collapse led Tampa Bay to move on from offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard after just one season.

The team hired Zac Robinson to replace him.

Robinson was with the Rams when Mayfield stopped by in 2022 under Liam Coen.

Mayfield, of course, also had a stellar 2024 under Coen.

With Robinson expected to maintain a similar approach and Mayfield healthier, this passing game is poised for a bounce-back.

Egbuka is expected to play the Z in Robinson’s offense, which should give him more advantageous releases.

That showed up as a thorn for Egbuka in Year 1, amid all the other moving parts.

Against man coverage, Egbuka was targeted on 24.3% of his routes but gained only 0.91 yards per route run.

Only 1 of his touchdowns came against man coverage.

Against zone coverages, he was targeted on 23.6% of his routes but posted 2.11 yards per route with 5 touchdowns.

Egbuka does have more target competition than others in this tier, which is a potential downside, but the Bucs are a team I expect to play a high rate of high-scoring games.

Zay Flowers

BYE: Week 13

Flowers took another step forward last season, catching 86 passes for 1,211 yards and 5 touchdowns.

He added another 62 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Flowers has increased his yardage every year in the NFL.

He accounted for 29% of the Baltimore targets (WR5) and 35.7% of the air yards (35.7%) last season, posting 2.53 yards per route run (WR6).

On plays with an actual pass attempt, Flowers posted 3.04 yards per route, which was only bested by Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Of course, Flowers plays with Lamar Jackson, so that is something he will have to contend with.

If there has been one minor bugaboo for Flowers keeping him down as a fantasy asset, it has been a lack of usage near the end zone.

He has 16 touchdowns through three NFL seasons.

That has been due to low utilization in that area of the field.

Flowers has 18 career targets in the end zone.

Last year, he had only 5.

His career target shares in the red zone have been 20.3%, 11.5%, and 19.2%.

Outside the red zone, they have been 23.1%, 27.5%, and 30.4%.

Flowers is not the biggest receiver, which plays a part in his limited usage near the paint, but a new coaching staff could design more for him.

Declan Doyle has spent time as an offensive coach under Sean Payton for the majority of his career and is coming off his first stint as an offensive coordinator under Ben Johnson in Chicago last year.

Doyle’s addition can lead to additional snaps for Jackson under center, which have been on the rise and have helped him take off under Todd Monken.

Jackson’s under-center rate has risen from 13.4% to 16.6%, then 29.1%, and finally 32.9% over the past four seasons.

When under center over that span, Jackson has led the NFL with a 74.7% completion rate while averaging 9.2 yards per pass attempt (QB5) and a league-high 11.2% touchdown rate.

Ladd McConkey

BYE: Week 7

McConkey took a step back in his second season.

After averaging 5.1 receptions for 71.8 yards per game as a rookie, McConkey averaged 4.1 receptions for 49.3 yards per game in 2025.

He went from 14.0 yards per catch as a rookie down to 12.0 yards per catch last season.

After being targeted on 23.4% of his routes for 2.40 yards per route last season, McConkey was targeted on 18.9% of his routes with 1.40 yards per route.

The area where McConkey was most impacted was the loss of a significant number of third-down targets to Keenan Allen.

McConkey’s early-down target share (20.2%) was on par with his rookie season (21.9%), but his target share on third downs (18.4%) was significantly down from 2024 (25.4%).

Allen had 33.6% of the third-down targets last season, which was second in the league behind Amon-Ra St. Brown (37%).

While losing crucial targets on third downs to Allen, McConkey was also torpedoed by the offense crumbling.

From Week 10 on (after losing Joe Alt), the Chargers averaged 4.6 yards per play (27th), had a 46.9% success rate on offense (27th), produced a play of 10 or more yards on 16.1% of their plays (29th), and scored 1.74 points per drive (27th).

After Alt’s injury, McConkey averaged 2.7 catches for 37.9 yards per game.

He ran a league-high 95 pass routes without a pass attempt coming on the play due to sacks, scrambles, and throwaways.

With a healthier offensive line, the addition of Mike McDaniel, and Allen no longer being on the roster, McConkey is a prime candidate to bounce back.

Even for all of the struggles ending his run in Miami, McDaniel coaxed efficiency from Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

Hill averaged 2.62 yards per route run before his injury (WR4), while Waddle posted 2.25 yards per route run last season (WR13).

McDaniel used motion on a league-high 65.9% of the dropbacks over the past four seasons, with play action on a league-high 32.9%.

Miami also led the league in pass plays in one and two WR sets over that period.

All of those are efficiency hacks, and McConkey has an attachment to much better quarterback play.

As a rookie, McConkey averaged a robust 4.28 yards per route run on play-action passes.

On plays with motion, he posted 2.95 yards per route.

In one or two receiver sets, he posted 3.40 yards per route.

If there’s one small ounce of shade, we have never seen McConkey sport a hyper-elite target share, even through college.

He has been outside the top 24 in target-per-route rate in each of his first two seasons.

He has hit a 30% target share in four career games so far.

The Chargers are deeper at pass catcher than the Miami teams McDaniel had, but McDaniel has shown he will give his best players opportunities, which could lead to a spike in McConkey’s usage.

Even if McConkey may not have the outright target share as others in this tier, the play-calling and quarterback leverage are among the best.

If there is one added potential thorn, the Chargers do have a potentially tough slate in the middle of the year, seeing Seattle, Denver, Houston, the Rams, and Patriots all in a window from Week 4 to Week 12.

Tetairoa McMillan

BYE: Week 5

McMillan turned in a productive rookie campaign, securing 70 of 122 targets for 1,014 yards and 7 touchdowns on his way to a Rookie of the Year Award.

McMillan’s usage splits were strong on the surface, accounting for 25.4% of the team’s targets (11th) with 43.3% of the air yards (2nd).

But because Carolina was so run-heavy, McMillan had inconsistent opportunities in the box score.

Carolina ran an ultra-conservative game plan, throwing the ball 4% below expectations, which was 29th in the league.

Bryce Young threw for 200 yards in only four games.

McMillan had 3 or fewer receptions in seven games as a rookie.

Carolina did not do a great job getting McMillan involved in the base offense.

He had a 32.8% target share on third down (3rd in the league), but only a 21.1% target share on early down (22nd) when Carolina was throwing on those downs.

For fantasy purposes, he logged only two WR1 scoring weeks, with 11 outside the top-24.

We would love to see Carolina put more on McMillan’s plate in Year 2 and develop him to work around Young’s shortcomings as a passer.

McMillan’s rookie season closely resembled Marvin Harrison Jr.‘s.

Through two years, Harrison has played 80% of his snaps out wide with 1.6% of his targets at or behind the line of scrimmage.

As a rookie, McMillan was out wide for 85% of his snaps with a 1.6% target rate at the line of scrimmage.

Young threw the ball outside of the numbers 38.6% of the time, which was 24th in the league.

Young had one of the lowest deep-passing rates in the league last year, which affected McMillan.

In 2025, Young completed 42.7% of his throws 10 or more yards downfield, which ranked 28th in the league.

Pair that with 72.6% of his passes going shorter than 10 yards downfield, the seventh-highest rate in the league.

21.3% of McMillan’s targets were on go routes, which ranked 11th among 76 wide receivers with 300-plus pass routes.

That is part of why we saw Jalen Coker come on strong to close the year, when he finally leaped over Xavier Legette in the offense.

Coker caught 33 of 43 targets for 394 yards (11.9 yards per reception) and 3 touchdowns over 11 games last season.

He then closed the year with 9 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown in the playoff loss to the Rams.

Over the final seven games of the season, Coker had the same number of targets (40) as McMillan and caught 31 of them for 410 yards and 4 touchdowns.

McMillan dealt with foot and hamstring injuries over that stretch.

Those are an added hall pass for the decline to close out the year, but he has already missed a section of the early summer due to ongoing issues with his foot, which appears to be lingering.

He is still a strong bet to deliver a quality share of his team’s opportunities, but his quarterback and team environment do create some pause compared to other players in this tier.

Garrett Wilson

BYE: Week 13

If you want to know how rough it was for the Jets last season, Wilson led the team with 395 receiving yards.

He played only 19 snaps after Week 6 due to an ongoing knee injury.

Through Week 6, Wilson ranked third among wide receivers in targets (56), receptions (36), and receiving yards (395), and tied for second in touchdowns (4).

When he was on the field, Wilson had 35.5% of the team’s targets and 48.8% of the air yards.

That was playing in a run-first offense with Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor.

The Jets threw the ball 6.7% below expectations last season, the worst differential in the league.

Even with all his own issues, you can make the argument that Geno Smith is an upgrade at quarterback and can provide enough consistency for Wilson to finally cash in for gamers.

Smith can get the football to Wilson a lot, at least, even if he is not delivering on his own for fantasy purposes.

The question is, will Smith and the team win enough games to keep him under center for a full season?

If not, we are in a similar spot to where we have been with Wilson every year of his career, except for the one with Aaron Rodgers, which was cut short by the addition of Davante Adams midway through the season.

Cade Klubnik has flashed upside, but down-to-down consistency and winning in high-leverage spots are issues he has to iron out if we see him late in the year when the fantasy season is at its most critical point.

Klubnik’s career rate of 7.1 yards per pass attempt in college ranked in the 13th percentile.

His 3.0 touchdown-to-interception rate was at the 66th percentile but was heavily influenced by his unsustainable efficiency in 2024.

And while we expect Wilson to be the focal point of this passing game, the Jets do have more young talent to push him than previous versions of the offense.

Omar Cooper Jr. and Kenyon Sadiq were added as first-round draft picks, while Adonai Mitchell was targeted on 23.8% of his routes (12th) after he was added to the roster at the deadline last season.

Terry McLaurin

BYE: Week 7

Missing nearly the entire summer due to a holdout and quad and core injuries, McLaurin played in only 10 games, appearing on 41.1% of the offensive snaps and running a route on 46.5% of the dropbacks.

When he did play, McLaurin remained an effective player amid the chaos of this offense.

McLaurin posted 2.22 yards per route run, the 14th-highest mark among all receivers with 100 routes in 2025.

When he was on the field, McLaurin accounted for 30.9% of the team's targets and 45.7% of the air yards.

55% of his targets resulted in a first down or touchdown, which was third in the league.

One of David Blough’s early quotes this offseason was, “How do we get Terry 10 targets a game?”

That is exciting when factoring in the unique deployment we can see in this offense.

Coming from time under Dan Campbell and working with Ben Johnson, Blough has stated that he will bring a more balanced offensive approach featuring more packages with Jayden Daniels playing under center in 2026.

Since entering the NFL, Daniels has been in shotgun for a league-high 92.9% of his dropbacks.

Through two NFL seasons (one and change, really), Daniels has only 33 dropbacks from under center.

That has led Daniels to use below-league-average rates of pre-snap motion (45.6%, 24th) and play action (24.8%, 18th).

Over the past two years, when NFL passers have been under center, they have used pre-snap motion on 66.8% of dropbacks and run play action at an 85.3% rate.

Johnson’s teams in Detroit and Chicago over those seasons were a 65.8% motion rate and an 88% play-action rate when they were under center.

That should lead to higher-quality opportunities for McLaurin.

Under Kliff Kingsbury, McLaurin was stuck in a static role, lining up on the line of scrimmage for 85% of his snaps and playing LWR on 74% of his snaps out wide.

He has run only 13.1 routes per game with pre-snap motion (WR61).

Jaylen Waddle

BYE: Week 10

Waddle showed last season that he can still be a feature target earner.

After Tyreek Hill was lost for the season in 2025, Waddle was pushed into the WR1 role we craved.

While active from Week 5 to Week 17, Waddle was the WR12 in team target share (24.3%), the WR1 in share of air yards (48.4%), WR10 in target rate per route (26.2%), and the WR7 in yards per route run (2.47).

While gamers will surely fret over Sean Payton’s wide receiver rotations, Waddle steps into a passing environment where he can excel and should push to be the WR1 target in the offense.

We saw a stretch last season when Denver was pushing Troy Franklin as the engine of the passing game, and Waddle can handle targets near the line of scrimmage and is a better all-around receiver than Franklin.

From Week 2 to Week 11, Franklin out-targeted Courtland Sutton (75 to 65) and even out-targeted him in the end zone (9 to 5) over that period.

When Denver threw the ball to wide receivers last season, they ranked second in the league in screen rate (12%), third in go-route rate (17.7%), and 12th in crossing-route targets (13.4%).

Those are all areas where Waddle can excel.

Sutton can still make an impact, but he conceded more work to worse teammates last season and is turning 31.

After drawing a target on 23.2% of his routes for 1.86 yards per route in 2024, Sutton was targeted on 20.1% of his routes (WR42) for 1.65 yards per route run (WR43) last season.

After accounting for 43.8% of the Denver air yards in 2024, he tallied 35.2% this past season.

That was while Sutton was on the field for 92% of the dropbacks.

Denver has young depth on rookie contracts who have flashed, but the next-closest Bronco (Franklin) was at 71.8%.

Waddle will clear that easily while healthy.

To top things off, Denver still has a light tight end room.

Denver's tight ends were 26th in the NFL in receiving yards and 28th in touchdowns last season, while adding only late-day-three rookies Justin Joly and Dallen Bentley to the roster.

D.J. Moore

BYE: Week 7

Moore has always been a bit of a fantasy conundrum, often failing to live up to high-end expectations, but he has been a reliable player who stays on the field and delivers floor-based production.

2025 saw Moore set career lows in just about every category, but if you look at his career production, his overlap with Joe Brady in Carolina was strong.

The hope is that a reunion with Brady, while playing alongside Josh Allen, keeps Moore engaged.

Moore is at a crossroads in his career, and this change of scenery is a boost to his chances of leading a passing game again.

Buffalo was one of the neediest teams for a wide receiver, while Allen is the best quarterback Moore has played with to date.

In 2025, Buffalo's wide receivers averaged 10.6 receptions (18th) and 125.8 yards (22nd) per game with 11 touchdowns (23rd) in the regular season.

Collectively, Buffalo wideouts were targeted on 21.4% of their routes, which was 27th in the league.

Allen has not had a feature WR1 since Buffalo moved on from Stefon Diggs.

Diggs ended his run with Allen and Brady on a sour note.

In the games where Diggs played under Brady in 2023, he was the WR18 in expected points per game and even worse in results, ranking WR38 in actual points scored per game.

That gives us a ballpark for Moore's back-end WR2 aspirations, while accounting for some volatility should he settle in the WR20-WR30 range.

Since taking over as the play-caller in Buffalo, Brady has called conservative game plans.

Over the final nine games in 2023, Buffalo ranked 31st in the NFL in dropback rate (52.4%) and 27th in passing yardage rate (60.7%).

Before that, they were seventh in the NFL in dropback rate (63.2%), and 68.5% of their yardage came through the air (13th).

In 2024, Buffalo had a 56.3% dropback rate (25th) with 63.5% of their yardage through the air (22nd).

This past season, the Bills posted a 54.3% dropback rate (30th) with 57.6% of their yardage via passing (30th).

Buffalo’s strengths have been the offensive line and running game, which have made them a successful team on the scoreboard and limited their passing volume.

However, Brady has leaned into their run game more than the base rate, even with a talented WR1.

How much of that was by Brady’s own design or top-down influence from Sean McDermott?

Now that Brady is running the entire show, will Buffalo cut it loose more often?

The defense could also be worse without McDermott as an added variable in driving up Buffalo's passing volume.

Even if you are keeping one foot out on Moore, this is an upgrade for him in terms of opportunity and increased efficiency through quarterback play.

Tier 6 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Luther Burden
• Christian Watson
• Jameson Williams
• Carnell Tate
• Rome Odunze
• Alec Pierce
• Parker Washington

Now we are starting to have some fun.

This is our high-upside tier, which has a wider range of outcomes.

These guys will get attached to phrases such as “better in best ball” or “volatile,” but they are spike-week candidates who can win weeks when they pop off, and they have the potential to become strong week-to-week winners if everything comes together.

Luther Burden

BYE: Week 10

Burden will be tasked with a larger role in Year 2, with D.J. Moore getting traded this offseason.

Moore was on the field for 86.2% of the Chicago dropbacks last season, including the postseason.

The next-closest player on the team (Rome Odunze) was at 65.6%, while Colston Loveland was at 62% and Burden at 41.1%.

We are going to see those rates significantly higher in 2026, but Burden will receive the largest spike in playing time compared to where this unit was a year ago.

Burden did not have a single game as a rookie in which he was on the field for 70% of the team's dropbacks, and only four reaching 60%.

He closed the season quietly (6 catches for 66 yards in the postseason).

Still, he flashed in his limited opportunities as a rookie, drawing a target on a team-high 24.3% of his routes and averaging 2.36 yards per route run (including the postseason).

Those totals are influenced by a period of the season when he entered games for designed play calls when the team was at full strength.

Still, when Odunze missed the final five games of the regular season, Burden led the team with 324 receiving yards despite missing a game himself over that span.

In the four games that Burden played without Odunze over that stretch, he had 21.1% of the team targets and posted 3.52 yards per route run.

In those weeks, Burden closed out as the WR24, WR23, WR1, and WR40 despite scoring only 1 touchdown.

Going back to his rookie profile, I always considered Burden misrepresented as a slot-only player, which played out in his rookie year.

He played 57.4% of his snaps out wide and 40.7% from the slot.

The one area where gamers might get too aggressive with Burden is that he only had 2 targets in the end zone as a rookie.

Burden is not a small guy (he is 6-foot-even and 206 pounds), so there can be more meat on the bone here if Ben Johnson is creating scoring opportunities for him.

Those 2 end-zone targets will definitely go up since Moore is leaving some on the table.

Still, Loveland and Odunze are thorns in that area for first-read scoring opportunities, making Burden a better PPR selection than in formats that are more touchdown-driven.

While Caleb Williams still had accuracy issues despite growth in 2025, Burden should still be the target in this offense who draws the most “easy buttons,” which can keep his floor more stable than Odunze’s.

Burden had the lowest inaccurate target rate of the three core players in 2025 at 9.5%.

Loveland was at 15.9% while Odunze was at 24.5%.

Burden received 21.6% of his targets at or behind the line of scrimmage, while Odunze was at 2.9%.

That rate will go down as Burden takes on a larger role and more of Moore’s route tree, but he will still get a handful of free squares in the offense.

Christian Watson

BYE: Week 11

Watson started the season recovering from an ACL injury he suffered in 2024, but when he returned to the field, he was efficient.

Watson played in 10 games, catching 35 of 55 targets for 611 yards and 6 touchdowns.

While active from Week 8 to Week 17, Watson was seventh among all wide receivers in the league with 2.54 yards per route run.

Over that period, he was the WR13 in air yard share (35.8%)

That was the third season of his rookie contract in which Watson was over 2.0 yards per route run.

Since entering the league, Watson is averaging 2.15 yards per route run (WR15).

He is the WR13 in fantasy points per target and the WR17 in fantasy points per route run.

With Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks no longer on the roster, Watson has the inside track to run more routes and have access to more of the target tree.

We saw some of this already take place last season.

Doubs was the only Green Bay wide receiver to run a route on 50% of the dropbacks last season (74.3%).

When Watson played, 14.9% of his routes were out routes (a career high).

14.1% were hitches (the 2nd-highest rate of his career).

Those are fantasy-smoothing opportunities that can bolster a player who still commands so many downfield targets.

Watson still had 32.7% of his targets on throws 20 or more yards downfield.

No player with as many overall targets last season had a higher rate.

Everything is set up for Watson to have the best role of his career.

Now he needs to stay on the field.

Watson has missed multiple games every year in the league, totaling 20 regular-season games missed over his rookie contract.

Jameson Williams

BYE: Week 6

Things got off to a bumpy start for Williams in 2025.

Through the opening seven games of the season, Williams had just 17 receptions for 289 yards and 2 touchdowns.

His role had reverted to that of a vertical lid lifter.

Over that span, Williams averaged 17.0 air yards per target with 33.3% of his targets coming on throws 20 or more yards downfield.

Then over the final 10 games of the season, Williams caught 48 passes for 828 yards and a team-high 5 touchdowns.

He was fifth among wide receivers in receiving yards over that stretch.

Dan Campbell took over play-calling while Sam LaPorta was out of the lineup, which helped spark Williams' rebound to end the season, as the Lions got him the football at the intermediate level more often.

Over those final 10 games, Williams had a depth of target of 10.8 air yards with only 15.3% of his targets coming on throws 20 or more yards downfield.

Williams went from WR45 in fantasy points over that front sample to WR8 over the back half.

LaPorta’s availability will be called into question by that spike in output.

On 258 routes last season with LaPorta on the field, Williams was targeted on 14.7% of those routes, averaging 1.66 yards per route.

On 340 routes without LaPorta, Williams was targeted on 18.8% of his routes for 2.03 yards per route run.

In 2024, we saw something similar.

Two years ago, Williams was targeted on 23.6% of his routes for 3.99 yards per route without LaPorta on the field (72 routes), compared to 17.6% of his routes for 1.65 yards per route with LaPorta on the field (443 routes).

We inherently know Williams can be a spike-week player.

He has 14 games over the past two seasons with 15-plus PPR points and seven games of 20-plus points.

That ranks tied for ninth among wide receivers over the past two seasons.

He also has another 12 games with single-digit scoring.

I do believe there is enough for all the pieces of the Detroit offense to help Williams put together a complete season, but even as just a spike-week player, he has value.

Williams also has some of the best contingency value in drafts at his cost.

While Amon-Ra St. Brown has not missed much time and has regularly played through injuries, we did get a peek at Williams working as the WR1 in one game last year, and it was glorious.

When St. Brown left Thanksgiving after only 4 snaps, Williams received a career-high 37% target share, catching 7 of 10 targets for a career-high 144 yards and a touchdown.

Carnell Tate

BYE: Week 9

The highlight of the Titans' offseason was selecting Carnell Tate with the No. 4 overall pick.

It is no secret that this roster needs more firepower for Cam Ward.

In 2025, Tennessee wide receivers combined for 9.2 receptions (26th), 107.2 yards per game (27th), and 9 touchdowns (28th).

The players with 50-plus targets on the Titans last year were Elic Ayomanor (89), Chig Okonkwo (79), Chimere Dike (74), Gunnar Helm (55), Van Jefferson (52), and Tyjae Spears (50).

Tate improved his receiving yardage and touchdowns each season in college while playing alongside Marvin Harrison Jr, Emeka Egbuka, and Jeremiah Smith.

He closed out 2025 with 51 catches for 875 yards and 9 touchdowns over 11 games.

Tate had 2.14 yards per team pass attempt (WR11 in this class) while his 3.02 yards per route run were third.

The types of targets he earned helped anchor that yardage as he posted 17.2 yards per catch this past season.

53% of his targets resulted in a first down or a touchdown (2nd in this class), while 17.7% of his receptions were touchdowns (5th in this class).

Tate was one of the best boundary receivers in the country last season, catching 12 of 14 contested targets (85.7%) and 11 of 17 (64.7%) on throws 20 or more yards downfield.

6 of those resulted in touchdowns, tied for the most in this class.

Tate is the same weight as Makai Lemon (192 pounds) but has a size advantage (6-foot-2) with longer arms (31.75 inches) and huge hands (10.25 inches) that show up as he wins in tight coverage.

He was not credited with a drop on his 66 targets.

He will not draw many slot reps right away playing alongside Wan’Dale Robinson, but Tate can win as a vertical slot if he gets chances there.

Paired with Ward’s big arm, Tate will have plenty of shot-play opportunities.

Tate has the skill set needed to help Ward make a jump in Year 2, but this landing spot requires a step of faith in Ward's ability to make a vast improvement.

13.7% of Ward’s rookie throws were inaccurate, which ranked 29th.

Ward had plenty of rookie-year struggles, but we have seen Brian Daboll feed lead targets.

A rookie Malik Nabers had 170 targets under Daboll in 2024, while Robinson still had 140 targets of his own.

Brandon Marshall in 2011 (142) as well as Stefon Diggs in 2020 (166) and 2021 (164) cleared 150 targets in their offenses, while Dwayne Bowe held a 24.5% target share in 2012 under Daboll.

Rome Odunze

BYE: Week 10

Odunze closed his second season with 44 receptions for 661 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Odunze has had steam in each of the past two seasons and ultimately fell short of expectations.

He opened last season hot, scoring 5 touchdowns over the opening four games.

He had over 60 yards receiving in three of those four games.

Then the wheels came off.

Odunze was a WR3 or better in weekly scoring in two of his eight games after the bye.

He scored 1 touchdown the rest of the season and then missed the final five games with a foot injury.

Before his injury, Odunze led the team with 23.7% of the targets and 38.2% of the air yards.

He was still the WR24 in expected points per game over that period, but the WR46 in actual points per game.

The undoing was evident in his rookie season.

While Caleb Williams still had accuracy issues despite growth in 2025, Odunze took the brunt of it again because his route tree featured higher-variance target opportunities.

Over those final eight games, 27.3% of Odunze’s targets were inaccurate.

No player with as many targets had a higher rate of off-target opportunities.

As a rookie in 2024, 26.7% of Odunze’s targets were inaccurate.

No player had a higher rate with as many targets.

What we are left with is nearly a two-year sample of Williams and Odunze being disconnected, which spans two different schemes.

Colston Loveland had a 15.9% inaccurate target rate last year, while Luther Burden was at 9.5%.

Odunze has averaged a team-high 14.1 air yards per target in the first two years of his career, with a team-high 25.6% of his targets 20 or more yards downfield.

He has had just 5.4% of his targets at or behind the line of scrimmage.

It is not hard to give Odunze somewhat of a pass since his end-of-the-year decline overlapped with his injury, but we also saw Loveland and Burden come on strongly at the end of their rookie seasons.

Given top-down concerns about the quality of targets and the emergence of younger pass catchers in the offense, Odunze looks more like a player who will be driven by scoring and efficiency bursts when those high-variance targets start connecting.

If Williams outright takes a step forward in developing that portion of his game, Odunze can flourish.

Where Odunze still has upside is in the types of targets he gets and in his continued profiling as a vertical and red-zone option.

Despite missing time, Odunze had 13 targets in the end zone.

Odunze had 39.3% of the end zone targets before his injury, which was WR9 at the time.

Alec Pierce

BYE: Week 13

Pierce had a career year last season, catching 47 passes for 1,003 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Pierce led the NFL in yards per catch (21.3) for the second straight season, becoming the first player since James Lofton in 1983 and 1984 to have back-to-back seasons averaging over 20 yards per catch with 6 or more touchdowns.

The Colts rewarded Pierce with a four-year contract extension worth up to $114 million this offseason ($84 million guaranteed).

Pierce has yet to reach even 50 receptions in an NFL season and has not been a major target earner.

Out of 76 wide receivers to run 300 or more routes last season, Pierce was targeted on 18.3%, which ranked 50th.

There is certainly some risk here, given the cost and to-date output, but the Colts are projecting to put more on Pierce’s plate at this salary moving forward.

Pierce has had his counting stats muted due to his role, something the Colts should expand after trading Michael Pittman immediately following Pierce’s extension.

Similar to what we covered with Christian Watson, Pierce has access to the best role of his career entering 2026.

Still, we need that role expansion and access to more fantasy-smoothing targets to establish Pierce as a more complete player.

Since entering the NFL, Pierce has averaged 16.5 air yards per target.

No player with as many targets over that span has had a higher target depth than Pierce.

He has played 88.3% of his career snaps out wide, with 31.4% of his targets coming on throws of 20 or more yards downfield.

That ranks sixth in the NFL over the past four years, with again, none of the players ahead of him having as many overall targets.

22% of his career targets have been on go routes.

How much more of the target tree Pierce gains access to is relevant because of Daniel Jones returning from an Achilles injury to his right leg.

If Jones loses velocity and the ability to push the rock downfield to the same degree as last year, and Pierce has no expansion to his role, then that is a fragile combination.

Pierce is also returning for his own ankle surgery, which has sidelined him this entire offseason.

The most recent word is that Pierce is expected to return late in training camp, further complicating matters.

Parker Washington

BYE: Week 7

Washington has had the best season of his early career in 2025.

After being targeted on 11.9% and 13.3% of his routes in his first two seasons, Washington was targeted on 23.3% of his routes this past year.

He averaged 2.08 yards per route run after 0.75 yards per route run as a rookie and 1.02 yards per route run in his second season.

Travis Hunter’s injury changed everything for Washington and this offense.

Before Hunter’s injury, Washington only had 17 catches for 207 yards and a touchdown over those seven games.

He then led the team with 640 receiving yards over the rest of the season on 41 receptions with 4 touchdowns.

He ended the year on a tear.

Over his final four games, including the postseason, Washington posted outings of 6-145-1, 8-115-0, 5-87-1, and 7-107-1.

He was their best pass catcher bar none.

With all of Washington, Jakobi Meyers, and Brian Thomas on the field together, Washington had a team-high 31% target share with 3.17 yards per route run.

Washington played 63% of his snaps from the slot when all three receivers were on the field together, but do not mistake him as needing the slot to flourish.

He also posted 2.33 yards per route with a 24.4% target rate on the outside.

On 44 routes lined up out wide, with both Meyers and Thomas on the field as well, Washington was targeted on 29.5% of those routes and averaged 4.50 yards per route.

This offseason, the Jaguars and Liam Coen have consistently brought up Washington taking on a larger role in the offense due to his end-of-the-season output.

The timing could not be better for Washington as he enters a contract season.

The only questions surrounding Washington are how much that role expands and what this offense looks like after an interesting offseason.

Washington was still on the field for only 69.8% of the team's dropbacks when both Thomas and Meyers were available.

We need that to get higher.

The top fantasy scorers at wide receiver are in the 80-plus range.

There is some minor concern here that Jacksonville could get in its own way following a draft that saw it select two tight ends and express a desire to swerve toward league trends by playing more multiple-tight-end sets.

This is an offense that proved its best unit is 11 personnel.

I have faith that Coen is smart enough to recognize the best deployment of his roster, but he does come from the Sean McVay coaching tree, so there is a nonzero chance he tries to follow suit to some degree.

We will also see Hunter play offense to some degree this year, though how much is to be determined.

That all said, when it comes to this crowded pass-catching group, Washington stands out to me as the player I want to target.

His inside/outside role is best tailored to exploit the current defensive meta (scroll down to see some notes on Thomas), and his upside with expanded playing time is appealing.

Tier 7 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Marvin Harrison Jr.
• Brian Thomas Jr.
• Quentin Johnston
• DK Metcalf
• Courtland Sutton
• Jordan Addison

This next tier of wideouts is not far from the previous group in terms of high-upside weekly outcomes.

Many of the receivers here also have some high-end contingency outcomes as they are attached to other wideouts higher on the board.

I almost tied them together, but ultimately felt like this group was a bit more volatile and took a larger step of faith under the 2026 microscope of their offensive fits.

Marvin Harrison Jr.

BYE: Week 14

Things did not go much better for Harrison in Year 2 after a mixed rookie campaign.

He ended the season with 41 catches on 73 targets for 608 yards with 4 touchdowns and 5 drops.

Injuries on top of another mixed sample on the field marred his second season.

Harrison suffered a concussion that forced him to leave Week 6.

He then got appendicitis that required surgery in November, and then suffered a foot injury that landed him on injured reserve to close the season.

Harrison played only 85 offensive snaps after Week 10.

No matter where you want to attribute blame between Harrison’s own play, quarterback play, or deployment with the Arizona offense, it is hard not to label Harrison’s first two seasons as underwhelming.

Among first- and second-year receivers who ran 200-plus routes over the past two seasons, Harrison’s 1.62 yards per route run ranks 14th.

His 51.5 yards per game rank 11th.

What makes Harrison’s struggles so fascinating is that once he went down, Michael Wilson immediately stepped into a large role and flourished.

We will never know what Harrison would have done given the same runway of target opportunities and game environments, but things could have gone better than where we ended up.

The narrative for Harrison heading into Year 3 could have changed had he stayed healthy through the end of the season.

He had a big game in Week 9 against Dallas with 7 catches for 96 yards and a touchdown.

He then had 12 targets the following week (3-33-1) in a blowout loss to Seattle.

After missing the next two games, he had 33% of the team’s targets against Tampa Bay before his ankle injury, catching 6 passes for 69 yards.

Harrison ended up only playing 35.9% of the dropbacks with Jacoby Brissett.

On the 170 routes he ran with Brissett and Wilson on the field, Harrison commanded 27.2% of the targets, compared to 16.9% for Wilson.

Harrison posted 1.62 yards per route on those snaps compared to 1.34 for Wilson.

While I am still willing to keep the lights on for Harrison’s career, buying into the 2026 Arizona offense is something I have consistently questioned in every one of these articles so far, even with players I have more confidence in such as Trey McBride and Jeremiyah Love.

I would still be buying Harrison in dynasty, but I am not overly bullish that this is the year things flip and he is a reliable fantasy starter.

If Arizona is as bad of a real team again when it opens 2026, Carson Beck will find the field sooner rather than later.

Arizona got hammered by scheduling this season.

Arizona opens the season against the Chargers, Seahawks, 49ers, Giants, Lions, Rams, Broncos, Cowboys, Seahawks, Rams, Chiefs, Commanders, and Eagles before their Week 14 bye.

Not only are they front-loaded, but, to compound matters, the Cardinals play only four home games through the opening 11 weeks, and they are against the Seahawks, Lions, Broncos, and Rams.

Brian Thomas Jr.

BYE: Week 7

Thomas is coming off a down second season in the league.

After averaging 75.4 yards per game as a rookie, he has posted 50.5 yards per game last season.

After catching 10 touchdowns last season, he had 2 in 2025.

Thomas has 8 drops after 6 during his rookie season.

He battled wrist and shoulder injuries over the first half of the season while struggling to find a fit in Liam Coen’s offense, which was built more around intermediate crossing routes.

When Jakobi Meyers was added to the roster and Travis Hunter’s injury propelled Parker Washington into a larger role, Thomas shifted to a more vertical X role in the offense.

With all three wideouts on the field together, Thomas ranked third among the trio with targets on 17% of his routes, compared to 20.8% for Meyers and 25.5% for Washington.

From Week 10 on, Thomas averaged 17.1 air yards per target, with 33.3% of his targets coming on throws 20 or more yards downfield.

That is a tough way to live as a reliable weekly fantasy target.

Over that span, only Isaiah Bond (26.5), Brandin Cooks (24.9), and Kyle Williams (20.2) averaged more air yards per target than Thomas.

His end-of-the-year role was similar to that of Kayshon Boutte with the Patriots.

Thomas will look to find the middle ground in his rookie season and second year in the league, but the dynamics of the Jacksonville offense suggest he will once again play more as an outside receiver.

He is a strong bet to be healthier, and I would easily take the over on him scoring more than his 2 touchdowns next year, but if he is in a similar role, that makes it tougher to go all in on a bounce-back.

As we discussed with Christian Watson, Alec Pierce, and Rome Odunze, we need more access to the complete route tree for Thomas in 2026 than we did last season.

Jacksonville also has a brutal opening outlook for outside receiver play.

If Thomas is an isolated receiver, the Jags open the year facing Denzel Ward, Patrick Surtain, Christian Gonzalez, DJ Turner, Quinyon Mitchell, and Derek Stingley before their Week 7 bye.

Things lighten up after that for a potentially stronger outlook to end the year, but that is close to the opening two months of the season, where Thomas is going to be a start/sit dilemma for managed rosters.

Quentin Johnston

BYE: Week 7

Johnston improved for the second season in a row, averaging a career-high 14.4 yards per catch and 52.5 yards per game.

That yardage per game led the team, while he led the team with 8 touchdowns over 14 games.

Johnston was a boom-or-bust option for the full season, but his top-down production was impacted by the Chargers' offense falling apart across the board.

He had fewer than 50 yards in half of his games, with two games with zero catches.

But over the first 8 games, when the offense was healthier and playing at its best, Johnston was a stable fantasy commodity.

He was a top-30 scorer in six of his first eight games with two WR1 scoring weeks over that stretch.

At that time of the year, Johnston was averaging 4.0 receptions for 57.5 yards per game, with 6 touchdowns.

He still had only 52 targets over that span, compared to 75 for Keenan Allen and 74 for Ladd McConkey, but the big plays were evident.

Johnston had 9 receptions of 20-plus yards.

After the Joe Alt injury, the explosive plays from this offense disappeared.

Johnston then had 19 total receptions for 275 yards and 2 touchdowns over six games after Alt’s injury.

He had four catches of 20-plus yards over that span.

Keenan Allen is no longer on the roster.

Mike McDaniel can create explosives, and Johnston has that in his tool kit.

Even if Johnston is the same player he has always been, there are reasons to be excited about his insertion into McDaniel’s offense.

But there is potential for a larger outcome should Johnston get shorter targets mixed in that create yards-after-catch opportunities, which has been alluded to this offseason.

Johnston is more rugged and physical, making him better suited for targets in the offense than Ladd McConkey.

Over the past two seasons, Johnston has averaged 7.1 yards per catch on throws at or behind the line of scrimmage (he has 31 of those targets).

That is above the base rate for wide receivers (5.6).

His 8.9 yards after the catch on those is also above position rates (8.2).

Both of those are much higher than McConkey on those targets.

He has averaged 3.0 yards per catch and 6.1 yards after the catch on his opportunities at the line of scrimmage.

DK Metcalf

BYE: Week 9

It was a down season for Metcalf in 2025, his first with the Steelers.

Metcalf averaged 3.9 receptions for 56.7 yards per game, the lowest rates since his rookie season.

Metcalf had the lowest target depth of his career (10.6 air yards), with 55 or fewer yards in 11 of his 15 games.

At 1.84 yards per route run (WR34), Metcalf has been below 2.0 yards per route run in four of his past five seasons.

He has been WR23 or lower in points per game for four straight seasons.

The new offense under Mike McCarthy and the addition of Michael Pittman allow Metcalf to see more downfield usage this season.

Still, we also need Aaron Rodgers to be willing to push the ball downfield more to reclaim some of that upside.

Rodgers had the quickest time to throw from the snap in the league (2.52 seconds), paired with the shortest depth of target (6.0 air yards).

Only 25.5% of his throws went 10 or more yards downfield, the lowest rate in the league.

The league average among qualifiers for rating was 33.1%.

Rodgers threw a league-high 31.7% of his passes at or behind the line of scrimmage.

The league rate in that department was 21.3%.

Courtland Sutton

BYE: Week 10

Sutton wrapped up the season catching 74 passes for 1,017 yards and 7 touchdowns.

After back-to-back seasons with 1,000 receiving yards, Sutton ceded more work to his teammates last season.

After drawing a target on 23.2% of his routes for 1.86 yards per route in 2024, Sutton was targeted on 20.1% of his routes (WR42) for 1.65 yards per route run (WR43) in 2025.

After accounting for 43.8% of the Denver air yards two years ago, he tallied 35.2% last season.

That was while Sutton was on the field for 92% of the dropbacks.

The next closest Bronco (Franklin) was at 71.8%.

With Jaylen Waddle on board and Sutton turning 31, we should expect more of that transition.

We saw a stretch last season when Denver was pushing Troy Franklin as the engine of the passing game, and Waddle can handle targets near the line of scrimmage and is a better all-around receiver than Franklin.

From Weeks 2-11, Franklin out-targeted Sutton (75 to 65) and even out-targeted him in the end zone (9 to 5).

Jordan Addison

BYE: Week 6

Addison had a disappointing season last year, catching 42 passes for 610 yards and 3 touchdowns over 14 games.

He added 81 yards and a rushing touchdown, but if Justin Jefferson could not survive playing with JJ McCarthy and Max Brosmer, then you already knew what it was going to be rough going for Addison.

Jordan Addison Splits by QB in 2025

In his games with McCarthy, Addison ranked WR59 in expected points per game (8.3) and WR71 in actual points per game (6.3).

Once again, the small sample with Carson Wentz against good competition paints a more promising story.

With Wentz, Addison was the WR15 in expected points per game (14.6) and even out-kicked that as the WR11 in actual points (16.0 per game).

Even at the apex of Kyler Murray, he struggled to carry a secondary target, so Addison still has more appeal in Best Ball than managed formats.

However, if the bar is once again asking Murray to deliver in the same range as Wentz did a year ago, Addison is more than an upside play at his current price.

Addison also has the added component of contingency upside attached to a front-end fantasy receiver.

Should anything happen to Justin Jefferson, Addison plays a larger role in this offense.

On 341 career routes with Jefferson off the field, Addison has received 24% of the team’s targets and 40.1% of the air yards.

Tier 8 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Jordyn Tyson
• Ricky Pearsall
• Matthew Golden
• Xavier Worthy
• Jayden Higgins

We are reaching a tier where there is not a wealth of on-field production to latch onto. Still, all of these are young players who have either flashed in small samples or come with draft investment that will grant them added playing-role lifelines in their offenses, leading to a better top-down outcome than we have had thus far.

Jordyn Tyson

BYE: Week 8

Tyson joined the Saints with the No. 8 selection in the 2026 NFL Draft, with one of the best production resumes in this class.

Over four seasons at Colorado and Arizona State, Tyson has averaged 4.8 receptions (6th in this class), 69.2 yards per game (4th), and 0.67 receiving touchdowns per game (3rd).

When Tyson was on the field in college (more on this later), he was the most dominant player in this class, accounting for 46.7% of Arizona State’s receiving yardage and 64.7% of their receiving scores.

This past season, Tyson was targeted on 32.3% of his routes (2nd).

He was in the slot for 24% of his routes, where he gobbled up target opportunities, drawing a target on 37.5% of his routes.

One area where Tyson needs to grow to the next level is with the ball.

As good as he is at getting open in space, that did not translate to the football in his hands.

He has only averaged 5.1 yards after the catch for his career.

That is the 20th percentile for prospects since 2015.

In 2025, Tyson had a lower rate of missed tackles per reception (9.8%) than lid lifters such as Carnell Tate and Denzel Boston while averaging 3.0 fewer air yards per target than those guys.

On the field, Tyson has a strong full-field profile, which suits Kellen Moore, who prefers to play his receivers in multiple roles when possible.

Tyson has reps at all three receiver positions, has manufactured production, and wins in every area.

The rub is that he has to stay on the field.

Tyson has missed time in every season and has missed a third of his available games due to injuries.

In 2022, in Colorado, he tore his ACL, MCL, and PCL.

That caused him to miss the remainder of that season and limited his 2023 season to only three games.

In 2024, he fractured his collarbone.

This past season, he missed three games due to a hamstring injury.

You can make the case that all of Tyson’s injuries are unrelated and that he has been a victim of bad luck, but that will be a stigma for him to shed early in his career.

Joining the Saints, Tyson can come in and play alongside a target-earner in Chris Olave.

Even though he will not project to overtake Olave as WR1, we saw both Rashid Shaheed and Devaughn Vele have strong target rates playing alongside Olave last year.

Shaheed had a 21.8% target share while on the roster, while Vele received 20.3% of the team’s targets over his final four games.

Ricky Pearsall

BYE: Week 8

Pearsall’s second season never reached the breakout status gamers hoped for, catching 36 passes for 528 yards and zero touchdowns.

Pearsall appeared in only 9 games due to a PCL injury that cost him most of the year and a late-season ankle injury.

Pearsall was on the field for only 45% of dropbacks last season.

He opened the season strong, producing 108, 56, and 117 yards over his first three full games before injury in Week 4.

Pearsall then closed the year with games of 6 catches for 96 yards in Week 14 and then 5 catches for 85 yards in Week 16.

Pearsall has solid underlying output over two seasons, but he has played in only 20 games in that span.

Pearsall was in the X role a year ago when he was available.

Pearsall averaged a team-high 14.1 air yards per target, and 32.1% of his targets were on throws 20 or more yards downfield.

I expect Evans to take on many of those routes while Pearsall moves into more of the role he had during his rookie season and takes on more assignments given to Jauan Jennings, which was the plan in 2024.

Pearsall played 34.4% of his snaps in the slot as a rookie compared to 19% last season.

Only 15.2% of his targets as a rookie were deep targets, while he averaged 3.7 yards after the catch, up from 2.6 yards after the catch last season.

While Pearsall can work in a friendlier role this season, when the 49ers offense is at full strength, he still projects as the fourth wheel behind Evans, Christian McCaffrey, and George Kittle.

Those are all players who have massive equity in red-zone touches, something Pearsall has not earned, given his limited playing time.

Touchdown production still feels like a flimsy bet here at face value, but all those veterans are past their apex ages, and contingency upside can exist if anyone goes down.

Matthew Golden

BYE: Week 11

Selected in the first round last season (23rd overall), Golden did not have the rookie season many were looking for, especially when accounting for the missed time within this pass-catching unit.

Golden closed his rookie season with 29 catches on 44 targets for 361 yards and 0 touchdowns, and rushed 10 times for 49 yards.

He was forced to play a lot to open the season with injuries to Watson and Reed.

Golden ran a route on 68.2% of the dropbacks through 9 weeks (2nd among wide receivers) but managed only 23 catches for 262 yards.

He averaged 1.40 yards per route run on targets on only 15.5% of his routes over that stretch, with the early door open to establish himself in the offense.

He also picked up a shoulder injury in Week 10 that limited him for the rest of the year, coinciding with the return of several receivers to the lineup.

From Week 10 onward, Golden played only 28.1% of the passing snaps, catching 6 passes for 99 yards.

Although his rookie season was underwhelming, Golden did catch 4 passes for 84 yards and a touchdown in the playoff loss to the Bears, providing something to build on heading into 2026.

As a rookie, Golden did play 72 snaps in 1-2 WR sets, so he has a leg up on taking on more work with the moving parts this wide receiver unit has had this offseason.

Romeo Doubs was the only Green Bay wide receiver to run a route on 50% of the dropbacks last season (74.3%), while he and Dontayvion Wicks are no longer on the roster.

Xavier Worthy

BYE: Week 5

Worthy only caught 42 of 73 targets for 532 yards and 1 touchdown in his second season.

Things got off to a brutal start for Worthy.

Just three plays into the season, he suffered a torn labrum colliding with Travis Kelce.

Worthy returned in Week 4 but played the remainder of the year with a harness.

He had surgery in January to repair that shoulder.

Worthy also dealt with an ongoing ankle injury.

Those injuries give Worthy a bit of a hall pass for the down season, but he is now entering his third season with three games of 80+ receiving yards over 34 appearances.

Behind Rashee Rice and Worthy, the cupboard is bare, so Worthy is still a solid bet to have another opportunity share in this passing game for 2026.

Jayden Higgins

BYE: Week 8

Higgins was on the field for 56.4% of the dropbacks as a rookie, catching 41 of 68 targets for 525 yards and 6 touchdowns.

He only played more than 67% of the passing plays in two games as a rookie, but Higgins was second among the receivers with a target on 18.7% of his routes and produced a first down or touchdown on a team-high 41.2% of his targets.

Higgins was on the field for 84.3% of the dropbacks when Houston went to 1-2 WR sets.

If they are running the ball better this season, given the moves they have made up front and by adding David Montgomery, that is a strong signal that Higgins will be on the field.

Tank Dell’s return is a wild card here, while Houston’s defense is so good that they can prevent shootouts, but Higgins should have a larger role in 2026.

He is also another player with contingency upside, since he is the best option to take over for what Nico Collins is asked to do, and Collins has missed time every season.

As a rookie, Higgins ran 210 routes with Collins absent, accounting for 22.4% of the team’s targets on those routes.

Tier 9 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Chris Godwin
• Michael Pittman
• Josh Downs
• Jayden Reed
• Wan’Dale Robinson
• Jalen Coker

These wideouts have higher floors than the tier above, but their upside is lower given the roles they are projected to play in their offenses.

A large portion of these guys have been restricted to lower-depth target roles, even if they are not entirely slot-centric.

That puts them in a spot where added volume is needed to propel their ceiling outcomes, while if they do end up restricted to slot snaps, it is harder to project.

That said, these are all players who have new opportunities this year to expand on any recent limitations and raise those ceiling outcomes.

Chris Godwin

BYE: Week 10

Godwin never got on track last season, coming back from a devastating lower-leg injury in 2024.

He played in 9 games last season, catching 33 passes for 360 yards and 2 touchdowns.

He only averaged 10.9 yards per catch (the second-lowest rate of his career) with a career-low 7.1 yards per target.

He only played 80% of the offensive snaps in two games, with only one game over 80.6%.

Turning 30 this past February, this could be the end of the ride for Godwin in Tampa Bay, but Godwin has a fresh start this season.

If Zac Robinson’s offense resembles Liam Coen’s to the extent we discussed with Baker Mayfield, then Godwin is a role he excelled in during 2024.

There are more moving parts here with Tampa Bay in terms of young talent and where Godwin himself is at physically, so it's hard to suggest Godwin would easily be back in play as a top-5 scorer in points per game like that season before the injury.

But a lot of the lower-end outcomes here are already priced in as well if Godwin ends up as a floor-based PPR option.

Up until Godwin was injured in 2024, he was averaging a league-high 7.1 receptions per game, a career high.

His 82.3 yards per game were his most per game since the 2019 season.

Coen played a role in Godwin recapturing his success, using him effectively near the line of scrimmage.

Godwin averaged a career-low 5.7 air yards per target.

As a result, a career-high 62.3% of his yards came after the catch.

Only 1.6% of his targets came 20 yards or further downfield, the lowest rate of his career.

Michael Pittman

BYE: Week 9

Pittman will shake up the Steelers' target distribution.

After setting career highs with 6.8 receptions and 72.0 yards per game in 2023, Pittman has since averaged 4.3 and 4.7 receptions per game over the past two seasons, for 50.5 and 46.1 yards per game.

Pittman only averaged 9.8 yards per catch last season, which ranked 127th among wide receivers.

On a positive note, Pittman did score 7 touchdowns, a career high.

Pittman has declined over the past two seasons, but the area where he has earned targets overlaps the field area where Rodgers throws the ball most often.

Rodgers had the quickest time to throw from the snap in the league (2.52 seconds), paired with the shortest depth of target (6.0 air yards).

Only 25.5% of his throws went 10 or more yards downfield, the lowest rate in the league.

The league average among qualifiers for rating was 33.1%.

Rodgers threw a league-high 31.7% of his passes at or behind the line of scrimmage.

The league rate in that department was 21.3%.

Josh Downs

BYE: Week 13

Downs has at least 50 receptions in each of his first three NFL seasons, but has been limited to a slot-centric role in a crowded target tree with limited quarterback play.

Pittman's trade to Pittsburgh also frees up short-term snaps, allowing Josh Downs to have an expanded role.

Through three NFL seasons, Downs has run only 33 routes in 1-2 WR sets.

When he has been on the field, Downs has been targeted on 23.9% of his routes over his rookie contract, which is 24th in the league over that span (and the same rate as Pittman).

When Pittman has not been on the field (122 routes), Downs has been targeted on 25.4% of his routes.

On 229 career routes not from the slot, Downs has averaged 1.87 yards per route run compared to 1.72 yards per route run from the slot (995 routes).

The rub here, however, is that Downs has not yet seen a significant increase in downfield target opportunities when lined up out wide.

On those targets outside, he still has averaged only 4.3 air yards per target.

On the one hand, Daniel Jones's return from an Achilles injury to his plant leg can limit any rise in downfield targets.

On the other hand, it may lend itself to where Downs has already drawn his opportunities.

The Colts also have Alec Pierce returning from an ankle injury, further opening the door for Downs.

Jayden Reed

BYE: Week 11

A fractured collarbone in Week 2 derailed Reed’s 2025.

That injury limited him to 7 games, during which he caught 19 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown.

His air yards per target have dropped each year of his career, from 10.3 yards downfield as a rookie in 2023 to 9.1 in 2024 and then 8.1 last season.

Returning from injury last season, Reed had a 13.6% deep target rate, down from 21.3% in each of his first two seasons.

Reed has been a bit roadblocked by his limited involvement in heavier sets on a run-first team.

When Reed returned in Week 14, he was on the field for 68.1% of dropbacks and played 71.9% of his snaps from the slot.

Over three NFL seasons, Reed has run a pass route on only 8 plays in 1-2 WR sets.

The losses of Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks create an opportunity for Reed’s involvement in tighter splits to rise.

Even if they do not, the Packers will have a tighter receiver rotation than in previous seasons.

His primary competition is still Christian Watson, who has missed time each season, and Matthew Golden, who had his own set of issues as a rookie.

Reed was a high-upside player per target in each of his first two seasons and averaged over 2.0 yards per route run, so there is room for a bounce-back.

It is minor, but one thing that may be unlikely to bounce back for Reed is the sprinkling of rushing work he had early in his career.

Given his injury history, the thinner receiver depth chart, and Savion Williams's ability to take those ancillary touches.

Reed had only one rushing attempt after returning last season, down from 11 and 20 in his first two years.

Wan’Dale Robinson

BYE: Week 9

Robinson has caught more passes per game than the year prior every season in the league.

He is coming off his best season, catching 92 of 140 targets for 1,014 yards and four touchdowns.

He has only scored 10 touchdowns for his career, and 2025 was his first year to clear 699 receiving yards in a season.

Robinson, of course, played that rookie deal attached to Brian Daboll, so the fit with the Titans is familiar.

He did finally get some downfield and versatile usage for the first time in his career.

Robinson averaged a career-high 8.5 air yards per target.

15% of his targets were on throws 20 or more yards downfield, compared to rates of 6.5%, 7.7%, and 2.9% at the start of his career.

He played 55.7% of his snaps in the slot after rates of 70.2%, 72.6%, and 77.9% to open his career.

Joining a roster with Carnell Tate and Calvin Ridley, I would anticipate that Robinson goes back into more of a slot-centric role this upcoming season, but Cam Ward can keep the depth of target higher than what Robinson had in previous seasons before last year playing with Russell Wilson and Jaxson Dart.

Regardless, one thing Robinson will surely draw is third-down targets.

After a league-high 38.9% target share on third down in 2024, Robinson had 31.1% of the team's targets on third down in 2025 (8th in the league).

This was a major problem area for this passing game in 2025.

Ward was 31st in the league in the rate at which third-down throws resulted in a first down (28.3%).

Jalen Coker

BYE: Week 5

Coker caught 33 of 43 targets for 394 yards (11.9 yards per reception) and 3 touchdowns over 11 games last season.

He then closed the year with 9 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown in the playoff loss to the Rams.

Over the final 7 games of the season, Coker had the same number of targets (40) as Tetairoa McMillan and caught 31 of them for 410 yards and 4 touchdowns.

McMillan had 21 catches for 347 yards and 3 touchdowns in those games.

Coker has only run 35 career routes in 1-2 WR sets, but during that surge, Coker was finally a full-time player, seeing 88% of the dropbacks.

Coker was rewarded with a contract extension this offseason, signaling the team's buy-in to his end-of-the-year production.

The question for gamers is what the ceiling of this passing game can be under Bryce Young, and whether Brad Idzik pushes more tempo and a higher pass rate.

Tier 10 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Makai Lemon
• KC Concepcion
• Denzel Boston
• Omar Cooper Jr.
• Antonio Williams

This is our tier of rookies who may not be as clean as a Carnell Tate or Jordyn Tyson for initial projection. I believe there will be a slower burn here, but each comes with tangible draft capital or has landed on a depth chart to make an immediate impact.

Makai Lemon

BYE: Week 10

Lemon was the 2025 Biletnikoff Award winner, an award that new teammate DeVonta Smith also has in his trophy case.

Following a 2024 breakout at age 20, in which he posted 3.03 yards per route run while playing alongside Ja’Kobi Lane and Zachariah Branch, Lemon snagged 79 receptions for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns this past season.

In 2025, Lemon was targeted on 29.3% of his routes (7th in this class) with 3.13 yards per route run (2nd).

He is one of only two wideouts in this class to average over 3.0 yards per route run against both man (3.29) and zone (3.09) coverage.

He produced a first down or touchdown on 13.6% of his routes (3rd) while posting 2.75 yards per team pass attempt (2nd).

If there are any nits to pick with Lemon on the field, it is that he has not logged significant time playing outside in college and is not built like a prototypical lead wideout in the traditional sense.

Lemon ran 70.7% of his routes from the slot last season (8th in this class), where he caught 52 passes for 791 yards and 7 touchdowns.

At 5’11 and 192 pounds, Lemon has 30.5’ arms (12th percentile) and 8 ¾” hands (6th percentile).

That was not an issue for him, however, when he was forced to win the contested catch game. He attacks the football and has won on his contested targets.

His 2.2% career drop rate is the second-best in this class.

Lemon won 10 of his 15 contested catch opportunities (tied for fourth in this class).

He also converted 58.3% of his targets in the red zone (7 of 12) for scores, which was second in the class.

Lemon may take a step of faith in projecting as a winning outside receiver because he was so dominant from the slot, but when tasked with doing so, he posted 3.37 yards per route run as an outside receiver as well.

Joining the Eagles, Lemon should play a hybrid role (assuming Brown is not on the roster).

He should be able to push past Dontayvion Wicks as the WR2 early on in 2WR sets and then kick inside when the Eagles play in 3WR sets.

Living as the WR2 in the Eagles' offense has been a volatile experience for fantasy gamers who have rostered Smith since the team added Brown.

KC Concepcion

BYE: Week 11

Concepcion broke out as a true freshman in his age-18 season at North Carolina State, catching 71 passes for 839 yards and 10 touchdowns, adding 320 rushing yards.

He then suffered a down season in 2024, posting only 496 total yards and 6.9 yards per touch (though he still found the end zone 8 times).

He led the team with 53 catches, but was out-gained by Justin Joly, who is in this tight end class.

Transferring to Texas A&M this past season injected new life into Concepcion, who caught 61 passes for 919 yards and 9 touchdowns through the air, tacking on 75 yards and a rushing score.

Concepcion was targeted on 27% of his routes (WR10 in this class) with 2.26 yards per team attempt (WR8) and 2.46 yards per route (WR11).

He produced a first down or touchdown on 12.8% of his routes, which was WR4 in the class.

He did that with some up-and-down quarterback play.

25% of Concepcion’s targets were off target.

There was also a handful of self-induced mistakes.

His10.3% drop rate was the fourth highest in the class.

In 2024, he had an 11.7% drop rate, so this has been a steady issue over the past two seasons.

Matt Waldman has highlighted some of the technical flaws that have led to Concepcion's drops, which we hope to clean up in the NFL.

A high drop rate can also indicate that a team really wants to keep getting the football to a player, which is the case here.

Concepcion kept getting opportunities because he is always getting open.

Matt Harmon labeled Concepcion the best separator in this class, and that is hard to argue with.

He had steady production in 2025 against both man coverage (2.83 yards per route) and zone coverage (2.52 yards per route).

He makes up for some mistakes by creating on his own.

With 70 career rushes, Concepcion is one of the best in this class when he does hang onto the ball.

Concepcion averaged 7.2 yards after the catch, paired with an average depth of target of 12.3 yards downfield.

No player in this class posted more yards after the catch per reception with a higher target depth.

For a player with his background as a rusher, only 12.9% of Concepcion’s targets were screens.

Compare that to a 21.3% rate for Makai Lemon and a 27.5% rate for Omar Cooper, and that stands out.

While Concepcion dropped more passes than Lemon, he plays aggressively and wins in the contested area of the game despite his size limitations (30 ¼” arms and 9 ¼” hands).

While the landing spot in Cleveland comes with short-term ceiling question marks, there is runway for Concepcion to be a full-time player on a team that should throw a ton.

I do expect the Browns to play Jerry Jeudy and Isaiah Bond early in the year, but Concepcion should be involved as a playmaker.

Concepcion was often compared to Zay Flowers, for whom Todd Monken dialed up production in Baltimore.

The one potential hangup with that overlap (outside of the Browns not having Lamar Jackson, of course) is what type of touchdown equity Concepcion can have in putting together his receiver archetype within a top-down team environment.

We have seen the best version of Flowers still end up limited in the touchdown department in a high-powered offense.

Denzel Boston

BYE: Week 11

Boston is coming off back-to-back seasons at Washington, catching over 60 passes for 800 yards with 9 and 11 touchdowns.

With a true sophomore quarterback taking over this past season, Boston posted the best season of his career, posting 2.44 yards per route run with 11 scores.

He produced a first down or a touchdown on 13.6% of his routes in 2025, the second-highest rate in this class.

51.6% of his targets resulted in a first down or touchdown (4th).

At 6’4” and 212 pounds, he was used as a primary X receiver in college, playing out wide on 84.4% of his career snaps.

Boston averaged 14.4 air yards per target, which was WR8 in this class.

The players who have succeeded under that archetype have had a significant boost from their top-down offenses while playing with elite, versatile pass catchers.

This is what unlocked George Pickens last season and has worked for Tee Higgins as well.

The Browns could have a long-term pairing with KC Concepcion that is a strong marriage, but there will be an acclimation period for both rookies.

That said, Boston has a few outs here for Year 1 production.

He could outright play better than Concepcion this summer and get ahead of him for early playing time.

He is the best fit at X receiver and can win that job.

He could also be the top red-zone target on the roster, even if he ends up a niche player as a rookie, for when Cleveland gets to that area of the field.

Omar Cooper Jr.

BYE: Week 13

The Jets traded back into the first round to select Cooper with the 30th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

2025 was a perfect storm, as Cooper recorded 69 receptions for 937 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Cooper closed his career with Indiana by producing a first down or touchdown on 48.4% of his targets, WR7 in this class.

19.1% of his career receptions resulted in touchdowns, the second-highest rate in this draft class.

While we will always take a nose for the end zone, where Cooper made his bank this past season was winning after the catch.

He forced a missed tackle on a class-high 39.1% of his receptions.

Cooper averaged 7.2 yards after the catch (WR8).

He did have more manufactured for him in the Indiana RPO-heavy offense than the previous players of his archetype have.

27.5% of his targets and 31.9% of his receptions were at or behind the line of scrimmage.

At 6’0” and 199 pounds, Cooper shares some overlap with the physical profiles we covered so far with Makai Lemon and KC Concepcion.

Cooper played out wide on only 15.7% of his snaps, the fourth-lowest rate in this class.

84% of his yardage came via the slot, while Lemon was at 68.4% and Concepcion was at 30.6%.

The Jets have Adonai Mitchell as the downfield lid lifter, so I do believe Cooper will be playing more slot receiver in Year 1.

Cooper joins Kenyon Sadiq, and both players won in the same area of the field.

Because Sadiq is eligible at a low-bar position for fantasy and was taken ahead of Cooper, I edge to Sadiq for fantasy out of the box.

Antonio Williams

BYE: Week 7

Williams has a strong production profile, racking up 208 career receptions for 2,336 yards and 21 touchdowns over four seasons at Clemson.

He tacked on 25 runs for 187 yards and 2 scores.

He stacked those counting stats despite ankle and toe injuries in 2023 (5 games), then dealt with a hamstring issue last year that limited him to 10 games, catching 55 passes for 604 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Williams is compact (5-foot-11 and 187 pounds), and his overall frame is not far off from Makai Lemon or KC Concepcion, while having that production in his profile.

Williams could be confined to the slot, where he played 78% of his career snaps.

In 2024, he played 40.5% of his snaps out wide, which overlaps with his best season and suggests there is more here if given the chance.

Landing in Washington, Williams has a wide-open depth chart and a strong summer to make a push for immediate playing time.

The Commanders are still a team that can add one of the veteran free agents still on the market, but as of now, the primary competition for targets after Terry McLaurin is up for grabs.

Even if Williams ends up as a slot-centric player in Year 1, the best middle-of-the-field target currently on the roster is Chig Okonkwo.

Tier 11 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Michael Wilson
• Romeo Doubs
• Jakobi Meyers
• Rashid Shaheed
• Jauan Jennings
• Khalil Shakir

We have another pocket of veteran receivers who are perfectly cromulent options to add to benches.

If you twisted my arm, I would label this tier as having better real players than fantasy options in bulk, but we have seen everyone here have points in their careers when they also made a fantasy impact.

Nearly all of these guys play in offenses we believe will produce overall as well, so there are outcomes where they are viable starters, even if the median outcome is that they are bench options you can use in a bind for floor production.

Michael Wilson

BYE: Week 14

After 565 yards on 38 receptions as a rookie in 2023 and then 548 yards on 47 catches in 2024, Wilson pulled in 78 of 126 targets for 1,006 yards and 7 touchdowns last year.

Over the final 8 games of the season, Wilson was tied for second among wide receivers in receptions (56) and was second in receiving yards (775).

Only Puka Nacua caught more passes for more yards than Wilson over that stretch.

In nine games before that, Wilson had 22 catches for 231 yards and 1 touchdown.

Several factors led to the game scripts and passing environments that Arizona had to close last season, so Wilson’s late-year output is harder to take in at face value.

It appears to be very similar to what we had with Jerry Jeudy to end the 2024 season when Jameis Winston stepped in while David Njoku and Cedric Tillman were out.

I have already covered why Arizona will not have the passing volume it did last season in the Trey McBride and Jacoby Brissett sections of the tiers.

Still, even if you can make the case that Arizona is trailing and throwing at similar rates this year, the primary question will be whether Wilson can coexist as a contributor alongside Marvin Harrison Jr.

Wilson ran 327 routes with Harrison on the field last year.

On those plays, Wilson was targeted on 12.5% of his routes with 0.85 yards per route.

On 303 routes with Harrison off the field, Wilson was targeted on 28.1% of those routes, averaging 2.40 yards per route run.

This was on full display when Harrison played sparingly toward the end of the season.

In the 56 plays Wilson played with Harrison after Week 10, he was targeted on only 17.9% of his routes, compared to 30.1% with Harrison sidelined.

Romeo Doubs

BYE: Week 11

Doubs was a solid and arguably underrated player over his rookie contract in Green Bay, but he has not yet hit 100 targets in an NFL season, with a career-high of 724 receiving yards set last season.

Among 76 wide receivers that ran 300-plus routes in 2025, Doubs was targeted on 20.7% of his routes (WR31) for 1.77 yards per route run (WR24).

He is a better full-field player than Kayshon Boutte and still has an attachment to Drake Maye, but A.J. Brown is going to occupy more snaps and target equity than Stefon Diggs had as a part-time player last season, making Doubs more of a touchdown-based bet for weekly lineups while having contingency upside should Brown miss any action.

Jakobi Meyers

BYE: Week 7

Meyers caught 42 of 61 targets for 483 yards and 3 touchdowns after joining the Jaguars.

The addition of Meyers meant more for this offense as a whole, getting the wide receiver room in the right place.

Meyers played more Z with the Jacksonville Jaguars than with the Raiders.

He went from a 59% slot rate with the Raiders to a 29% slot rate with the Jags.

Meyers played 73% of his snaps out wide when all three primary receivers are on the field together.

He did lead the team with 7 targets in the end zone after joining the team, but also only cleared 50 yards receiving in three of those nine games.

Rashid Shaheed

BYE: Week 11

Over his nine regular-season games with Seattle, Shaheed caught 15 of 26 targets for 188 yards and no touchdowns.

In the postseason, he had only 3 catches for 78 yards.

He was targeted on only 13.9% of his routes for 1.03 yards per route since joining the team, compared to 22.2% of his routes for 1.68 yards per route with New Orleans.

Onboarding a Seattle offense that was heavily working through Jaxon Smith-Njigba at the time, it is easy to see how Shaheed never established any real footing.

He now has an entire offseason, a big payday, and a new play-caller to play a larger role in the offense as the 2026 season opens.

Seattle is still a team we expect to have lower-end passing volume, which will make Shaheed more dependent on big plays, but he also has added contingency upside should Smith-Njigba miss any time.

Shaheed does offer tactical leverage as a vertical threat and was an excellent kick returner.

With Seattle, Shaheed averaged 16.2 yards per punt return and 29.9 yards per kickoff return, with 3 special-teams touchdowns.

Jauan Jennings

BYE: Week 6

Jennings is coming off catching 55 passes for 643 yards and 9 touchdowns over 15 games with the 49ers last season.

He averaged a career-low 11.7 yards per catch and was more of a touchdown-or-bust fantasy option.

31.2% of his fantasy points came from touchdowns.

Landing in Minnesota, Jennings will find it harder to command end-zone targets over Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, while competing for targets overall with those receivers.

Khalil Shakir

BYE: Week 7

Shakir led the Bills in targets (95), catches (72), and receiving yards (719) in 2025, but is coming off a down year compared to his career output.

His production was down from a year ago, dropping to a career low 10.0 yards per reception.

Shakir was playing through an ankle issue, which led to offseason surgery.

The addition of D.J. Moore allows Shakir to serve in a more ancillary role, since he is not an alpha WR1.

Through four NFL seasons, Shakir has run 73 total pass routes in 1-2 WR sets,

Last year, with a limited roster, he was on the field for 25 routes in 1-2 WR sets, accounting for 18.8% of those play calls.

Shakir also has a limited presence near the end zone, with just 6 targets in the end zone over four seasons.

Tier 12 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Stefon Diggs
• Deebo Samuel
• Brandon Aiyuk
• Tyreek Hill

Our veteran tier of receivers is still looking for teams in 2026.

Last year at this time, we saw Keenan Allen get on a roster and jump significantly in terms of draft stock.

Stefon Diggs is the best bet here, based on recent play and the lack of injury concerns, if a team is willing to take on the consistent off-field baggage that ran him out of New England after just one season.

Diggs was on the field for only 68.3% of the New England dropbacks, but when he was, he posted 2.42 yards per route run (WR8) and 0.50 fantasy points per route run (WR11).

Deebo Samuel is the only player here with no real question marks regarding health or off-field concerns.

Turning 30 in January, Samuel has not reached 1,000 total yards in three of the past four seasons and has cleared 6 touchdowns only once over that span.

In a terrible Washington offense last season, Samuel was targeted on 22.7% of his routes (WR30) for 1.66 yards per route run (WR42), so he still has something left.

We have not seen Brandon Aiyuk playing football at a high level since 2023.

Early this offseason, I would have bet that Aiyuk would be back on the field and likely a Washington Commander.

At only 28 years old, his immediate future is highly questionable.

The past month has made it harder to place faith in him finding a new home, with the saga between him and the 49ers still at a stalemate and, apparently, burning the bridge he had with Jayden Daniels in joining Washington if the situation with San Francisco resolves itself.

Tyreek Hill was still very good last year despite his limited sample size.

Only Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba posted more yards per route run than Hill (2.62).

Hill ranked WR5 in fantasy points per route (0.53) and WR7 in targets per route (28.7%).

But he is 32 and attempting to return from a devastating injury, dislocating his knee and tearing multiple ligaments.

His original recovery timeline was rumored to be as long as 15 months, and his playing in 2026 is a question mark.

As of now, I would not expect Hill to make a roster before the season, and he is more of someone to keep tabs on for an in-season addition.

Tier 13 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Jalen McMillan
• Jerry Jeudy
• Adonai Mitchell
• Tre Tucker
• Jalen Nailor
• Rashod Bateman
• Tank Dell
• Calvin Ridley

We still have some names that carry recognition and players who have produced at points in their careers.

There is also some downside to each, but almost everyone here still has a path to playing time that could lead to contributions in 2026.

Jalen McMillan

BYE: Week 10

2025 was a near-lost season for McMillan.

McMillan suffered a severe neck injury last preseason and was on injured reserve until Week 15.

He returned for the final four games, catching 12 passes for 178 yards.

McMillan flashed as a rookie (37 catches for 461 yards and 8 touchdowns), so he is also getting a fresh start in this new offense.

It is hard to find projectable targets on the surface for McMillan, given the crowded Tampa Bay receiving room, but there are multiple angles here that boost his upside.

If Emeka Egbuka’s second-half splits are static, Chris Godwin is on the wrong side of the age apex, and Ted Hurst being slow to develop are all on the table here as outcomes that can aid McMillan in having a larger target share.

Jerry Jeudy

BYE: Week 11

After a breakout season in 2024 with 90 catches for 1,229 yards and 4 touchdowns, Jeudy totaled 50 catches for 602 yards and 2 touchdowns last season.

Jeudy’s 2024 output was fueled by his splits while playing with Jameis Winston, but the Browns also changed his usage, which limited his opportunities for success.

After playing 63.7% of his snaps out wide in 2024, Jeudy lined up out wide for 86.3% of his snaps last year.

His slot rate dropped from 34.6% to 13.3% last season.

As a result, he went from an 11.7% deep target rate in 2024 up to a 17% rate in 2025.

Only 6.9% of Jeudy’s targets in 2024 were on go routes, but that rate ballooned to 15.1% last year.

As a result, he went from a 10.3% inaccurate target rate in 2024 up to 16% last season.

Jeudy is still only 27 and is under contract for the next two seasons.

I do not expect him to just be shelved in 2026, but the Browns have a new regime, have added two high-capital receivers in the draft, and still have quarterback questions.

The addition of Denzel Boston can help Jeudy get out of the role he was in last season and into more space, but on the other hand, the addition of KC Concepcion is a variable that limits that role.

Adonai Mitchell

BYE: Week 13

Mitchell has consistently drawn targets whenever he has played.

Since entering the NFL, Mitchell has been targeted on 25% of his routes, which ranks as WR17 for all players with 500-plus routes over that span.

From Week 11 on last season with the Jets, Mitchell was targeted on 23.8% of his routes (12th among receivers).

27.1% of his career targets have been inaccurate, the highest rate on that same list since entering the league.

Mitchell still has two more years on his rookie deal, giving him room to grow, while Geno Smith (really him, Joe Flacco, or Daniel Jones) is arguably the best quarterback he has played with.

The question marks center on the Jets' offense in general, and on how much meat there is on the bone behind Garrett Wilson, while the team used first-round picks on Omar Cooper Jr. and Kenyon Sadiq as added targets.

Tre Tucker

BYE: Week 13

Tucker has flashed at times on his rookie contract (in Week 3 last year, he had 8 catches for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns), but has struggled to maintain consistency amid poor quarterback play.

Over the past two seasons, Tucker has run the fourth-most pass routes in the NFL (1,219), but his 1.01 yards per route rank 84th among 96 wide receivers with 500-plus routes.

Tucker has the vertical ability to make an impact in Klint Kubiak’s scheme. Still, he is not a true No. 1 receiver and is in the final year of his rookie contract, which could mean the Raiders push some of their younger options as the season progresses.

Jalen Nailor

BYE: Week 13

One of the players who can push Tucker is Nailor, whom the team added on a three-year deal in free agency to provide more experience and push their younger receivers.

Nailor had 69 receptions for 1,066 yards and 11 touchdowns over his rookie contract with the Vikings.

Rashod Bateman

BYE: Week 13

The Ravens have been waiting for a full breakout for Bateman, but it just has not happened to this point.

Bateman caught only 19 passes for 224 yards and 2 touchdowns across 13 games in 2025.

Through five NFL seasons, Bateman has yet to catch 50 passes in a year.

He is still signed through 2029, but the Ravens used draft picks on Ja’Kobi Lane and Elijah Surratt this spring to push Bateman.

Both rookies also have the potential to contribute as role players in the red zone, which has been a key factor keeping Bateman afloat when he has been relevant to gamers.

Tank Dell

BYE: Week 8

Houston is expected to get Dell back in some capacity this season.

Dell missed all of the 2025 season with a devastating knee injury at the end of 2024, suffering a torn ACL, MCL, LCL, meniscus, and dislocated kneecap.

Houston is optimistic that he will play in 2026, but there is no current timetable for his availability.

Dell will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, and the team has invested a lot in Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel, who should take steps forward.

Calvin Ridley

BYE: Week 9

Ridley played only 7 games last year, catching 17 of 36 targets for 303 yards and no touchdowns.

Ridley suffered a season-ending broken fibula in Week 11.

Turning 32 this December, Ridley restructured his deal to remain with Tennessee.

Ridley played his final season at Alabama under Brian Daboll, so there is some familiarity here, but Tennessee has also made investments in Carnell Tate and Wan’Dale Robinson, likely pushing Ridley into a volatile role in the offense.

Tier 14 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Ryan Flournoy
• Germie Bernard
• Jaylin Noel
• Isaac TeSlaa
• Zachariah Branch
• De’Zhaun Stribling
• Travis Hunter
• Ted Hurst
• Chris Bell
• Caleb Douglas
• Malik Washington
• Tre Harris
• Pat Bryant
• Troy Franklin

These wideouts lack the name-brand recognition of the previous group, but they are younger players who could be breakout candidates at a discounted price.

Ryan Flournoy is coming off the best year of his rookie contract, catching 40 of 56 targets for 475 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Flournoy has a clean line as the WR3 for Dallas and has contingency value tied to CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.

We already saw his upside last year, as he had two strong outings in games that Lamb either missed or left early.

In Week 5 against the Jets, he grabbed 6 receptions for 114 yards.

Then, with Lamb leaving with a concussion in Week 14, Flournoy caught 9 of 13 targets for 115 yards and a score.

Germie Bernard is the favorite to open his career as the Steelers' slot receiver.

Bernard never had elite production in college, but he did improve his output every season while playing alongside some strong draft talent throughout his career.

Bernard came out of the NFL Combine with a 75th-percentile physical score.

He only had 1 drop on 102 targets last season and 5 drops on 232 career targets.

Jayin Noel only played 31.4% of the dropbacks as a rookie, catching 26 of 35 targets for 292 yards and 2 touchdowns.

He did not play 50% of the passing plays in any game.

Isaac TeSlaa only caught 16 passes during his rookie season, but 6 of them resulted in touchdowns.

He only ran a route on 47% of the dropbacks, a role that should be expanded with Kalif Raymond leaving in free agency.

Raymond was on the field for 35% of the dropbacks last year.

Detroit also added Greg Dortch to fill Raymond's vacated role, a similar archetype as a slot receiver plus returner.

De’Zhaun Stribling was the sixth wide receiver selected in the NFL Draft, picked by the 49ers at No. 33.

While his YAC ability is a strong fit with the scheme, the initial playing time and target opportunities out of the box are harder to see without injuries.

The 49ers have consistently been a lower-end 11-personnel team, but Mike Evans, Christian McCaffrey, Ricky Pearsall, George Kittle, and Christian Kirk are all players who have the potential to miss time.

As a rookie, Travis Hunter caught 28 of 45 targets for 298 yards and a touchdown over seven games.

Starting the season slowly, Hunter was ramping up as a full-time receiver in the offense.

In his three games before his injury, Hunter went to 67%, 78%, and 87% of the offensive snaps.

In Week 7, he caught 8 of 14 targets for 101 yards and a touchdown against the Rams in London.

Going into the bye week after that game, there was significant buzz on Hunter taking over as the feature target for the rest of the season.

He then suffered a season-ending LCL injury in practice.

Early reports this offseason indicate that Hunter will primarily play cornerback in 2026, moonlighting on offense.

The cornerback room in Jacksonville is more of an immediate need to push him on defense this season.

While his actual role on offense is to be determined and likely nebulous, as it stands today, he is a good bet to still be behind Brian Thomas, Jakobi Meyers, and Parker Washington in terms of playing time at wide receiver while those players are active.

Zachariah Branch lands in an Atlanta offense with no clear WR2, but he takes some squinting as an actual wide receiver, given how he has been used and his physical frame.

His 10.3 yards per catch for his career ranks 44th among receivers invited to the NFL Combine.

5.7% of his career receptions went for touchdowns, which was 41st.

78.2% of his yardage last year was after the catch.

He only averaged 3.6 air yards per target.

60.5% of his catches were at or behind the line of scrimmage.

He has to be fast because he checked in at 5-foot-9 and 177 pounds with 29 3/8-inch arms (3rd percentile) and 9-inch hands.

I expect Miami to use a receiver rotation similar to Green Bay's while remaining a low-volume passing team overall.

That makes it harder to chase any of Malik Washington, Chris Bell, Caleb Douglas (or your flavor of choice from the remaining receivers), but those are the three most appealing players on the depth chart.

Tier 15 Fantasy Football WRs:

• Jahan Dotson
• Dontayvion Wicks
• Isaiah Bond
• Cooper Kupp
• Darius Slayton
• Darnell Mooney
• Malachi Fields
• Jack Bech

Wrapping things up with a handful of names at the back end of drafts.

I do believe we will see Jahan Dotson play in one and two WR sets, but I do not know whether that will mean anything for his fantasy scoring.

Dotson had only 19 and 18 receptions over the past two seasons.

Still, Atlanta is hoping to find something here on the cheap, as he is a former first-round pick who was buried behind A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in Philadelphia.

Over three seasons with the Packers, Dontayvion Wicks reeled in 108 receptions for 1,328 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Wicks has been a target earner whenever he has gotten playing time.

Over the past three seasons, Wicks has been targeted on 22.3% of his routes, which ranks WR38.

The hangup is that he has been on the field for only 47.4% of dropbacks.

Wicks takes some heat for drops, but that was really only in one of his three seasons.

In 2024, he dropped 8 passes (10.5% of his targets), but he had only 2 drops as a rookie (3.4%) and 3 last season (6.5%).

If Malik Nabers misses any action, someone will get a lift for the Giants.

In that event, I would bet Darius Slayton and Darnell Mooney are the starters, but even including Malachi Fields, all of those receivers overlap in where they win on the field.