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4 Wide Receivers to Target (2022 Fantasy Football)

4 Wide Receivers to Target (2022 Fantasy Football)

Our analysts are here to share a few of the wide receivers they are targeting this fantasy football draft season. And be sure to check out their full list of players to avoid as part of our 2022 Fantasy Football Draft Kit.

Rankings noted using FantasyPros half-PPR Expert Consensus Rankings (ECR) and Consensus ADP.

Fantasy Football Redraft Draft Kit

4 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers to Target

Elijah Moore (NYJ)
ECR WR29 | ADP WR30

Moore’s rookie season got off to a slow start, but then he caught fire. Over a five-game span from Week 9 to Week 13, Moore was the WR2 in PPR scoring, averaging 20.1 fantasy points per game. Unfortunately, he strained his quad in the last of those games and missed the rest of the season.

My colleague Matthew Freedman writes this about Moore:

Elijah Moore balled out as a 20-year-old true junior in the SEC (86-1,193-8 receiving in eight games), he can line up across the formation, he has top-end speed (4.35-second 40-yard dash), and he flashed in his final six games as a rookie last year (34-459-5 receiving, 4-35-0 rushing).”

The Jets’ selection of WR Garrett Wilson with the 10th overall pick in this year’s draft has splashed some cold water on the Moore enthusiasm. Consider it a buying opportunity.

– Pat Fitzmaurice

Allen Lazard (GB)
ECR WR45 | ADP WR47

Allen Lazard is not a highlight reel WR talent, but he’s the last man standing in the Packers’ WR corps, and the quality volume will be there for the taking in 2022. In addition, he has familiarity with Rodgers, and Rodgers has expressed confidence in him. That’s enough for me to spend that draft capital on him as a WR3/flex play.

– Joe Pisapia

JuJu Smith-Schuster (KC)
ECR WR31 | ADP WR34

For the past three years, Smith-Schuster has been hamstrung (pun intended) by injuries and the diminishing ability of former QB Ben Roethlisberger. But in his first two seasons he amassed 2,343 yards receiving, which puts him No. 4 on the all-time receiving list for players under the age of 23, behind only Justin Jefferson, Randy Moss and Josh Gordon. Turning 26 in November, Smith-Schuster is still young, and now he has a chance to be the No. 1 wide receiver for QB Patrick Mahomes. WRs Tyreek Hill, Byron Pringle and Demarcus Robinson have vacated 260 targets. Here be the dragon of opportunity.

– Matthew Freedman

Courtland Sutton (DEN)
ECR WR21 | ADP WR27

Entering Year 3, it looked like Courtland Sutton was on the cusp of true elite fantasy WR1 production, but his 2020 season was lost due to a torn ACL in Week 2. It was unclear how productive Sutton would be returning from the devastating knee injury.

But to start the 2021 season, the Broncos wide receiver looked like his old self. He averaged 13.8 fantasy points per game (17th) and had a 27% target share in Weeks 2-7 during the regular season.

It wasn’t until Jerry Jeudy‘s return from injury that Sutton — and the rest of the Broncos’ pass catchers — became obsolete in a crowded, run-heavy offense led by a combination of Drew Lock/Teddy Bridgewater. Nevertheless, Sutton finished the season as the fantasy WR46.

However, even in the anemic offense, Sutton still finished seventh in air yards (1,756), cemented in between Tyler Lockett and D.K. Metcalf, in 2021.

Sutton has a real chance to recapture his elite form another year removed from his ACL injury. It also helps substantially that he has received an ultra upgrade at the quarterback position with Denver’s trade for Russell Wilson.

Wilson has always been an elite downfield passer — he had the sixth-highest passer rating on throws of 20-plus air yards last season — which plays heavily into Sutton’s strengths as a vertical threat.

Based on the receiver’s track record of commanding targets near the pylon, I fully expect Sutton to emerge as Wilson’s go-to red-zone target. He led the Broncos in red-zone targets in 2021 and led all WRs in target rate inside the 10-yard line in 2019.

Wilson has an affinity for attacking receivers in the red zone; a Seattle WR has finished top five in red-zone targets for three straight seasons.

Simply put: The fit between Wilson and Sutton could not be better for 2022. And I’m not afraid to go all-in and declare that Sutton will be this year’s Cooper Kupp — a wide receiver drafted in the middle rounds of redraft leagues who takes a massive leap. The similarities between the two situations are uncanny.

Major quarterback upgrade, wide receiver entering Year 5, another season removed from an ACL injury, history of commanding red-zone targets, and high-end past production were all reasons why you should have bought into Kupp before the start of the 2021 season. And they are all reasons to be aggressive in drafting Sutton before this season kicks off.

He’s still reasonably affordable because of how strong the Jerry Jeudy hype is, even though the latter has still yet to do anything worthwhile in terms of fantasy two years into his NFL career.

The Broncos also open the season with a favorable schedule against suspect secondaries like Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Detroit. It’s the exact start for my Courtland Sutton to be this year’s Cooper Kupp prediction to be realized.

Denver’s playoff schedule also features potential shootouts against Kansas City, the Rams, and Arizona, further bolstering the case for heavy exposure of their players in summer best ball drafts.

– Andrew Erickson

FantasyPros Staff Consensus 2022 Redraft Fantasy Football Rankings

2022 Fantasy Football Rankings powered by FantasyPros

 

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If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.

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