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2020 FantasyProjections: Notable Wide Receivers (Fantasy Football)

2020 FantasyProjections: Notable Wide Receivers (Fantasy Football)

I’ve gotten quite a few questions the past couple of months about what I will be writing on during the NFL season. My co-host on The FantasyPros Football Podcast, Mike Tagliere, obviously has The Primer and it’s an incredibly valuable asset during the season.

Well, this year, I will be writing an article every week that will give you a breakdown of every fantasy relevant player on every team and my projected stats for them in the upcoming matchup. I’ll be utilizing several resources at my disposal to make these as accurate as possible in hopes of helping you construct the best possible fantasy lineup.

With that being said, I wanted to spend the next couple of weeks giving you a preview into my season-long projections and how I construct my rankings. Each day, you’ll find a different category highlighting ten players and a brief summary on my thoughts for them in 2020. If you’ve missed the previous two articles in this series, you can the links for those below.

Notable Quarterbacks
Notable Running Backs

Let’s get right to it!

Michael Thomas, New Orleans Saints

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
139 1641 9 287.64

___

If you’re looking for consistency at the WR position early in your drafts, you need to be looking at MT. Thomas was utterly unstoppable last season with both Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater at QB and that doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon. While I’m not the biggest fan of taking a WR with a top-5 pick in your drafts, there’s a clear competitive advantage with drafting Thomas. His numbers should fall off slightly from last season, but he’s still worthy of being drafted as the first WR off the board. It all depends on how you want to construct your roster.

Chris Godwin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
94 1268 8 221.72

___

Godwin burst onto the scene last season and he was an absolute star for fantasy football purposes. He’s established himself already as one of the league’s top receivers and he’s going to be dominant again this year with Tom Brady behind center. Godwin’s going to be the slot receiver in this offense and Brady prefers to get the ball out quickly and surgically dissect a defense with the quick passing game. Godwin could easily see more targets than he did in 2019 and that’s scary. He’s a top-5 lock at the WR position this season, in my opinion.

Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
72 1137 7 191.65

___

Evans was dominant last year with Jameis Winston too, but the times are changing in Tampa Bay and Brady’s a different QB than Winston. Winston was willing to stand in the pocket the extra second it took to deliver the big shot downfield to Evans, which is where he’s excelled and made his mark in the NFL. However, Brady is not going to be willing to hold onto that ball if it puts him in danger of taking a big shot at his age. He’s going to always go with the player that’s open and survive for another down. Evans is still going to be fine from a fantasy perspective and he’ll have some big weeks, but he’s not going to be as consistent of an option as he’s been in previous seasons.

Tyreek Hill, Kansas City Chiefs

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
80 1208 9 214.74

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If you want to take Hill as a top-5 WR this season, I’m not going to fault you. He comes with immense upside on a weekly basis and he’s tied to the best QB in the game right now in Patrick Mahomes. We’ve seen Mahomes throw for 50 touchdowns before and there’s a very good possibility that he could come close to that number again this year. Hill is going to give you some weeks here or there where he disappoints you, but you can pair with him a solid and stable option at your WR2 or WR3 slot to offset it. If you draft Hill, be looking at someone like Robert Woods or Calvin Ridley in the 4th/5th round.

Kenny Golladay, Detroit Lions

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
71 1094 9 198.75

___

Golladay was a fantastic fantasy WR last season, despite playing with Jeff Driskel and David Blough for the last half of the year. He produced for your team in a big way and he looks poised to repeat that type of performance again in 2020. Marvin Jones coming back into the lineup certainly limits Golladay’s true upside, but they compliment each other very well. Golladay should be back in the top-10 at the WR position when it’s all said and done.

Robert Woods, Los Angeles Rams

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
90 1176 6 198.84

___

Woods would be drafted much higher this year than he is right now if he had finished with his Expected TD rate. Woods finished last season with 90 receptions for 1134 yards and 2 receiving touchdowns. Based on the league average, Woods should have finished with 6 or 7 last season. If he can remain as involved in the offense as he has been over the past couple of seasons, but can bounce back to his normal TD rate, Woods will be a top-10 receiver this year. He’s an absolute steal in drafts right now and he’s going to be on a lot of championship rosters at the end of the season.

Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
81 953 7 178.05

___

Kupp’s 2019 season is a tale of two halves. The first half of the season, Kupp was on fire and was the WR2 in all of fantasy football. However, after their bye week last year, Kupp’s production fell off a cliff and he was a WR3. This was, in large part, due to the offensive shift towards heavy 12-personnel – one RB and two TEs – which removes the slot receiver from the field. Kupp will still be involved this season and should have games where he single-handedly wins you a matchup, but there are too many question marks surrounding him in order to feel confident drafting him at his current price tag. With these projected stats, Kupp slides in at WR23 in my rankings.

Calvin Ridley, Atlanta Falcons

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
82 1071 9 202.26

___

If you’re looking for this year’s version of Chris Godwin, look no further than Calvin Ridley. Ridley has steadily been developing into one of the league’s most dynamic route-runners and he’s in the perfect offense for him to make a huge impact for fantasy football. Mohamed Sanu is no longer in town, which is what was preventing Ridley from seeing a large target share previously. Russell Gage is a good slot receiver, but he’s not going to see more than 4 to 5 targets per game. Even with Julio Jones still on the field, Ridley should easily see over 115 targets this season. With his route-running savvy and nose for the end zone, Ridley’s a solid bet to finish within the top-10 at the position this year. Based on these projections, Ridley slides in at WR7.

Odell Beckham Jr, Cleveland Browns

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
78 1093 8 196.35

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It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Beckham at the top of the fantasy WRs season-end list, but injuries have plagued him the past several seasons. This offense should bounce back from the dysfunctional circus that we saw on the field last year with Freddie Kitchens, which means that we could see Beckham bounce back to top-tier WR status. While there are obvious risks involved with drafting OBJ, the potential payoff is enormous. He’s being drafted right now as the WR12 in ADP Consensus, which is exactly where this projected point total puts him in my WR rankings.

Jarvis Landry, Cleveland Browns

RECEPTIONS REC YDS TDs FPTS
75 1002 7 179.92

___

Landry’s done nothing but outproduce expectations every single season he’s been in the NFL. While he’s been rehabbing this offseason from hip surgery, he was recently cleared and appears to be good to go for the NFL campaign. Landry’s a steal right now at his WR31 price tag and there’s a very good chance that we see him prove the doubters wrong yet again in 2020.



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Kyle Yates is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Kyle, check out his archive and follow him @KyleYNFL.

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