Mike Tagliere is back with his top-50 wide receiver rankings to help you prepare for your fantasy football season.
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ADP – Average Draft Position
Julio Jones (TEN)
The public perception on Jones is that he’s towards the end of his career, but that’s simply not true. In fact, he averaged a career-high 11.3 yards per target during the 2020 season and was the WR13 in half-PPR points per game while ceding plenty of work to up-and-coming superstar Calvin Ridley. It’ll be a similar situation in Tennessee, as Jones will now play alongside what might be the next generation’s Julio Jones, and that’s A.J. Brown. Similar to Atlanta, Jones and Brown are going to cap each other’s truly elite ceiling, but as Jones and Ridley proved last year, it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibilities that they’re both top-12 wide receivers, especially when you factor in Ryan Tannehill‘s efficiency. Oh, and stop calling Jones injury prone – he’s played at least 14 games in seven of the last nine seasons, and has totaled at least 1,394 yards in six of the last seven seasons. You don’t do that if you’re injury prone.
Ja’Marr Chase (CIN)
If you follow college football and/or the NFL Draft, you know that Chase was a superior prospect to Tee Higgins. What we saw Higgins do as a rookie with Joe Burrow was impressive, as he was the WR11 during the eight full games they played together. Keep in mind that was with zero chemistry. Now you insert Chase into the offense, who already has chemistry with Burrow, as they set records at LSU together, and what do we get? I’ll acknowledge that Higgins is going to cap Chase’s ceiling and that he may not get to top-12 production, but you don’t draft Chase at No. 5 overall (over an elite offensive tackle) if you’re not going to highlight him in the offense immediately. Heck, even A.J. Green, who averaged 5.0 yards per target, saw 104 targets in this offense last year. Chase should be a WR2 right out of the gate.
DeVonta Smith (PHI)
If you’re looking for the clear-cut No. 1 wide receiver for his team who’s not being drafted like it, Smith is your guy. The Eagles were severely lacking wide receiver talent last year, and it led to them trading up to take Smith to solidify their go-to receiver for Jalen Hurts. Smith was the most pro-ready receiver in the draft, though some are concerned with his lack of weight. Even though every college knew he was getting the ball, they couldn’t stop him, and it’s not like Alabama plays weak opponents. He dominated everyone he came across. As someone who should get a consistent six-plus targets per game, Smith should be a WR3, even in his rookie season.
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