13 Wide Receivers Experts Avoid (Fantasy Football)

When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football players our experts avoid in fantasy football drafts. And you can check out which experts are higher or lower than our expert consensus rankings using our Fantasy Football Rankings Comparison Tools.

Fantasy Football Draft Picks to Avoid: Wide Receivers

Let’s dive into wide receivers our experts like less than the expert consensus rankings.

Wide Receivers to Avoid

Players Andrew Erickson Avoids

Expert Consensus’s Rank	Player	Andrew Erickson’s Rank	Diff.
14	Tyreek Hill MIA – WR	25	11
23	Courtland Sutton DEN – WR	29	6
24	DeVonta Smith PHI – WR	33	9
29	Chris Olave NO – WR	39	10
31	Jordan Addison MIN – WR	40	9

Players Derek Brown Avoids

Expert Consensus’s Rank	Player	Derek Brown’s Rank	Diff.
7	Nico Collins HOU – WR	13	6.0
12	Jaxon Smith-Njigba SEA – WR	21	9
14	Tyreek Hill MIA – WR	20	6
19	Rashee Rice KC – WR	33	14
20	DJ Moore CHI – WR	27	7

Players Pat Fitzmaurice Avoids

Expert Consensus’s Rank	Player	Pat Fitzmaurice’s Rank	Diff.
19	Rashee Rice KC – WR	28	9.0
28	Chris Godwin TB – WR	36	8
47	Cooper Kupp SEA – WR	53	6
50	Christian Kirk HOU – WR	60	10
55	Jalen McMillan TB – WR	64	9

Chris Olave (NO)

Chris Olave enters 2025 with more red flags than breakout buzz. Now 25, he’s coming off an injury-riddled 2024 season in which he played just six full games and averaged a disappointing 10 fantasy points per game (WR40). While still efficient on a per-route basis (2.15 YPRR), Olave was out-targeted and out-produced by Rashid Shaheed, who doubled him in air yards and posted more top-12 weekly finishes. Olave has struggled to deliver high-end fantasy weeks throughout his career and now faces even murkier outlooks with shaky QB play likely incoming in New Orleans.
– Andrew Erickson

Tyreek Hill (MIA)

Tyreek Hill was a mega bust in 2024, but so much of his poor performance can be placed on the injury to Tua Tagovailoa. Now, admittedly, even when Tua was healthy, Hill still underperformed vs. draft expectations. In those 11 games with his southpaw starting QB, Hill went over 100 yards twice, averaging 12.4 fantasy points per game (WR18). He had a wrist injury that he dealt with from Week 1 and his yards per route run cratered to a 1.75 mark – less than half of his 2023 yards per route run. Not to mention, the Cheetah just turned 31 years old, suggesting the age cliff might be near. And let’s not forget Hill’s outburst at the end of the 2024 season, which could lead to Miami moving on from the veteran WR.
– Andrew Erickson

Courtland Sutton (DEN)

Courtland Sutton thrived in the red zone in 2024, tying for the league lead in end-zone targets and finishing as the WR13 overall (WR23 in points per game). After a rocky start with a rookie QB – including a zero-target game in Week 7 – Sutton rebounded in a big way. Over his final 11 games, he posted eight games with 70+ yards, averaged nearly 15 PPG (WR10 pace), and commanded a dominant 26% target share and 50% air yards share. Bo Nix clearly leaned on Sutton, but with added competition in 2025 from Evan Engram, Marvin Mims, and rookie WR Pat Bryant, his volume grip may loosen.
– Andrew Erickson