2024 Fantasy Football Rankings: Layered Look at the Wide Receiver Draft Landscape

We’re working on the Shuffle Up series for the new Fantasy Football draft season. The dollar values ​​you will see below are not scientific in nature, but reflect how I view the talent pools at the wide receiver position. Use these layers however you want.

We’ve already put the tight ends and quarterbacks through the car wash. Today we worked on wideouts. The running backs will come later in the week.

Do you have any disagreements? Well, that’s why we have a game. I welcome your disagreement based on X: @scott_pianowski.

Wide Receiver Overview

This is a critical position for me because most of my lineup will be dominated by early round receivers. I prefer an Anchor RB build (sometimes called a Hero RB) where the idea is to get a significant runner you trust early in the round and otherwise focus on other positions. But for me, that non-RB focus will almost always be driven by the receiver pursuit.

The simple concept is this: I want a roster of wide receivers who start alone.

I don’t want to play the guessing game about which WR in the 40-60 range will have a playable WR15 type of week. Obviously, I’ll also pick some bench receivers in hopes that some of them break out into reliable weekly plays. But when we talk about finding talent on the ropes, you’re less likely to land an impactful position than a key player at any other position.

I know, Puka Nacua happened last year. This is a big exception, not a new rule.

The big tickets

• $45 CeeDee Lamb

• $43 Mount Tyreek

• $43 Ja’Marr Chase

• $41 Justin Jefferson

• $41 Amun-Ra St.

• $39 AJ Brown

• $37 Puka Nácua

• $37 Garrett Wilson

Lamb’s game went up a notch during an absurd final kick last year; in his last 11 games, he has posted a line of 101-1, 274-11, with touchdowns in nine of his starts. Generally speaking, talk of early summer endurance rarely equates to lost season time; Le’Veon Bell is the only notable exception in recent years. I will continue to aggressively rate Lamb and aggressively target him.

Even after Kirk Cousins ​​was injured last year, coach Kevin O’Connell found a way to make flashy plays. And Jefferson was quite productive down the stretch, posting a 30-476-2 return in his last four games despite Minnesota’s motley group of quarterbacks. Maybe it’s Sam Darnold for part of the year, maybe it’s JJ McCarthy for most of it; we don `t know yet. But I will trust Jefferson and O’Connell until they give me a reason not to.

Boom or bust is a way of life for most NFL receivers, so it’s comforting when you can draft someone like St. Brown, a king of consistency. Brown racked up 164 targets last year, averaging nine per week, and only dropped to six targets once. The Lions largely got the band back together on offense, keeping OC Ben Johnson and extending quarterback Jared Goff. Deus Sol is one of the safest players to park your investment in ADP.

Legitimate building blocks

• $33Mike Evans

• $32 Deebo Samuel

• $30 Brandon Aiyuk

• $28 Marvin Harrison Jr.

• $28 Chris Olave

• $25 Davante Adams

• $25 DK Metcalf

• $23 DeVonta Smith

• $23 Amari Cooper

• $22 Nico Collins

• $22 Drake London

• $22 Jaylen Waddle

Samuel only managed to surpass 95 targets once, a combination of injuries cropping up and the shape of the 49ers’ offense. Samuel will supplement his scoring with regular running work, although his running volume has dropped over the past two seasons. He is usually selected around target monsters, but he needs to be a master of efficiency to recover his ADP. I admire him more as a real-life player than as a fantasy player.

Adams was put on this earth to score touchdowns, but you have to have a strong stomach to pick him early considering the weakness of the Raiders’ quarterback room. Adams had just five touchdowns in his final 14 games last year and is now in his age-32 season.

Collins versus Diggs is an interesting debate in the fantasy community, but I’ll comfortably side with the player who is six years younger and already has play reps on offense. The Collins genie is out of the bottle for good.

Like teammate Kyle Pitts, Drake London has been allergic to the end zone for two years – just six spikes in 33 games. But I feel comfortable blaming the late Arthur Smith and a lackluster group of Atlanta quarterbacks. Kirk Cousins ​​and new OC Zac Robinson (from the Sean McVay tree) can take a sad song and make it better.

Talk to them, talk to them

• $22 DJ Moore

• $22 Cooper Kupp

• $20 Tee Higgins

• $19Michael Pittman

• $18George Pickens

• $17 Stefon Diggs

• $17 Zay Flowers

• $16 Dell Tank

• $16 Jayden Reed

• $16 Christian Kirk

• $16Terry McLaurin

• $15 Chris Godwin

• $14 Malik Nabers

• $14 Calvin Ridley

• $13 Keenan Allen

• Rashee Rice $13

My admiration for McLaurin hasn’t always paid off in fantasy, but I’ll always blame the quarterbacks he’s been linked to. Consider QB McLaurin caught touchdowns from: Taylor Heinicke, Case Keenum, Sam Howell, Dwayne Haskins, Alex Smith’s Last Breath, Kyle Allen, Jacoby Brissett, Carson Wentz. Heck, if Brissett had played all of 2023, I bet McLaurin’s fantasy value would increase 5-8 slots. Jayden Daniels is a quirky prospect, but there’s definitely a ceiling there, and McLaurin could be in line for his best fantasy season.

Godwin never had the touchdown advantage of running mate Mike Evans, but the Buccaneers plan to use Godwin back in the slot this year, which will give him more of Baker Mayfield’s layup targets. Even if we accept that Godwin will likely never have a double-digit touchdown season, there’s no reason he can’t get back to the 5-7 range he was hitting regularly midway through his career. A league winner, no, but perhaps an underrated fantasy target.

I’m probably lower on Nabers than I am on the market, remaining skeptical that Daniel Jones can lead a receiver to an all-star season right away. The Giants didn’t have a single 800-yard receiver during the five-year Jones era.

Some plausible advantages

• $12 Hollywood Brown

• $12 DeAndre Hopkins

• $12 Diontae Johnson

• $12, Christian Watson

• $12 Jordan Addison

• $12 Courtland Sutton

• $11 Tyler Lockett

• $10 Roma Odunze

• $10 Jaxon Smith-Njigba

• $10 Ladd McConkey

• $9Jameson Williams

• $8 Xavier Worthy

• $8 Brian Thomas

• $8Mike Williams

• $8 Brandin Cooks

• $7 Jakobi Meyers

• $6 Rashid Shaheed

• $6 Keon Coleman

• $6 Khalil Shakir

McConkey played in a run-first environment at Georgia, so the move to the NFL won’t be much of an adjustment; we know Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman want to run like crazy with the Chargers. But someone has to lead this list of goals, and McConkey has a plausible case for more than 100 out-of-the-box opportunities. The depth chart ahead of McConkey is fairly modest: unexciting veteran Joshua Palmer and Quentin Johnston, who was a failed rookie last year.

It’s not always easy to trust a part-time player’s efficiency stats, but look at Shakir put up 13.6 yards per target in his limited opportunity last year. Certainly that opportunity is now arising; he is the only wide receiver on Buffalo’s roster to have caught a pass from Josh Allen. Shakir is a perfect depth target for the second part of your draft.

If you like scoring from distance, Shaheed is your type of player. He scored nine professional touchdowns and They were all special away, covering 76, 68, 58, 53, 45, 44, 39, 34 and 19 yards. Derek Carr’s play likely caps Shaheed’s lead, and it’s hard to see Shaheed getting more than 85 targets. But I won’t mind starting Shaheed here and there during the holiday season, and he’s a fun pick for top coaches.

Bargain box

• US$5 Romeo Doubts

• $5Jerry Jeudy

• $5 Jahan Dotson

• $4 Gabe Davis

• $4 Curtis Samuel

• $4 Josh Downs

• $3 Joshua Palmer

• $3Adam Thielen

• $3 Dontayvion wicks

• $2, Adonai Mitchell

• $2Quentin Johnston

• $2 Marvin Mims

• $2 Darnell Mooney

• $2 Rashod Bateman

• $2 Demarcus Robinson

• $2 Darius Slayton

• $1Michael Wilson

• $1 Xavier Legette

• $1Jermaine Burton

• $1 From Mario Douglas

• $1 Ja’Lynn Polk

• $1 Wan’Dale Robinson

• $1 Elias Moore

• $1 Ricky Pearsall

• $1Troy Franklin

• $1 Romano Wilson

• $1 Jalin Hyatt

• $1Javon Baker

• $1Malachi Corley

It’s possible that Wicks is much lower on this list; Green Bay’s stalemate forces me to be conservative, but Wicks may have the ability to eventually be this team’s alpha receiver. He has the physical profile to win contested receptions and in tight spaces, but he won’t run away from defenders regularly. A good kind of choice to keep and see; his current Yahoo ADP is 133.