If you’re deep into your fantasy football research, you’ve seen our WR rankings along with the sleepers at the position.
So now it’s time to help you out by breaking WRs into tiers, a really good exercise for fantasy football leagues both with snake or salary cap drafts. When is there a dropoff at the position as the draft goes on? Who’s elite and who might have some flaws?
This should hopefully help at the position that’s pretty deep, although you’re probably not going want to go without someone from the first two to three tiers in your draft.
So let’s break them down by tier, starting with the elite names:
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Tier 1: The first-rounders
1. Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings
2. Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams
3. Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals
Here you have it, the guys you can grab after the top RBs are taken — or before! Jefferson is primed to have a huge year, Kupp may come down from last year’s unreal season and still be top-three, and Chase in Year 2 could be explosive.
2
Tier 2: Still mostly WR1s
4. Davante Adams, Las Vegas Raiders
5. Stefon Diggs, Buffalo Bills
6. CeeDee Lamb, Dallas Cowboys
7. Deebo Samuel, San Francisco 49ers
8. Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I’d be more than happy with any of them as my first receiver off the board. There are a few questions here — will Adams and Derek Carr have good chemistry? Is Samuel going to repeat? And so on — but they’re minimal.
3
Tier 3: Upside galore, but added risk
9. A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles
10. Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins
11. Michael Pittman Jr., Indianapolis Colts
12. Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals
13. Keenan Allen, Los Angeles Chargers
14. DJ Moore, Carolina Panthers
15. Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos
16. Mike Williams, Los Angeles Chargers
A deliberately large bunch here. I like most of them … but in a lot of cases, you’re betting on their talent and have some concern over their situations, whether it’s playing in run-heavy schemes, age, or QBs.
4
Tier 4: Who's throwing them the ball?
17. Terry McLaurin, Washington Commanders
18. Diontae Johnson, Pittsburgh Steelers
19. Jaylen Waddle, Miami Dolphins
20. Brandin Cooks, Houston Texans
21. DK Metcalf, Seattle Seahawks
You love all five. You don’t love their QB situations, hence this tier.
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Tier 5: Sleepers, Part I (and Chris Godwin)
22. Chris Godwin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
23. Gabriel Davis, Buffalo Bills
24. Marquise Brown, Arizona Cardinals
25. Rashod Bateman, Baltimore Ravens
26. Allen Robinson II, Los Angeles Rams
27. Darnell Mooney, Chicago Bears
I LOVE this tier. Any or all of them could be money.
Note: Godwin isn’t a sleeper. But the injury news has been encouraging enough that I put him here as a sleeper of sorts if he drops in your draft.
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Tier 6: Good with chances to be great
28. JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kansas City Chiefs
29. Jerry Jeudy, Denver Broncos
30. Elijah Moore, New York Jets
31. Michael Thomas, New Orleans Saints
32. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions
33. Adam Thielen, Minnesota Vikings
34. Allen Lazard, Green Bay Packers
35. Drake London, Atlanta Falcons
36. Christian Kirk, Jacksonville Jaguars
37. Hunter Renfrow, Las Vegas Raiders
38. George Pickens, Pittsburgh Steelers
Another large grouping that features dudes who could be top receivers for their teams, some veterans and more.
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Tier 7: Some upside, but we have questions
39. Brandon Aiyuk, San Francisco 49ers
40. DeAndre Hopkins, Arizona Cardinals
41. Robert Woods, Tennessee Titans
42. Chris Olave, New Orleans Saints
43. Treylon Burks, Tennessee Titans
44. Kadarius Toney, New York Giants
45. Chase Claypool, Pittsburgh Steelers
I’m probably underrating some/most/all of these names. But there’s enough concern about roles/preseason/situations that I’m fine with taking them toward the end of your draft.
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Tier 8: Let's throw some darts
46. Skyy Moore, Kansas City Chiefs
47. Garrett Wilson, New York Jets
48. Russell Gage, Tampa Bay Bucccaneers
49. DJ Chark Jr., Detroit Lions
50. DeVante Parker, New England Patriots
51. Julio Jones, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
52. Joshua Palmer, Los Angeles Chargers
