Pat Fitzmaurice has gone position-by-position to provide you with fantasy football draft strategy and advice. Here’s how Fitz is preparing for his fantasy football drafts. His primers include fantasy football draft strategy, targets, rankings, tiers, and more.
Here are each of Fitz’s complete Fantasy Football Draft Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE
Below we dive into some of his fantasy football draft strategy and advice for Wide Receivers.
- Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- Fantasy Football ADP
- 2025 Best Ball Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- Free Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator
Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Wide Receivers
Let’s explore some fantasy football draft strategy and advice from Pat Fitzmaruice for each position.
Wide Receivers
The most important setting is the number of wide receivers you have to start each week.
If you’re only required to start two wide receivers, it’s OK to be somewhat laissez-faire in your approach to drafting wide receivers. It’s acceptable to merely keep pace with your competitors at the WR position, provided you’re building positional advantages elsewhere.
But if you’re required to start three receivers, you should invest heavily in the WR position.
Wide receiver is a crucial position in 3WR leagues simply because receivers make up such a large percentage of your starting lineup. If your league requires you to start 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE and 1 FLEX, at least 37.5% of your non-defense, non-kicker starters will be WRs. That percentage jumps to 50% if you put a WR in the flex spot.
Your goal in 3WR leagues should be to overwhelm your competitors with superior WR firepower. Ideally, your WR4 will be better than everyone else’s WR3 and perhaps even better than some people’s WR2.
In my 3WR leagues, at least three of my first five draft picks are wide receivers, and in many drafts, four of my first six picks are receivers.
The scoring system is another important league setting.
Full-point PPR leagues tend to drive up the overall value of wide receivers — particularly the high-volume receivers. Standard (or, if you prefer, “non-PPR”) leagues reduce the overall value of receivers and close the gap between high-volume receivers such as Garret Wilson and lower-volume, big-play receivers such as Jameson Williams.
Tier 1
Ja’Marr Chase won the pass catchers’ Triple Crown last year, leading the NFL in catches (127), receiving yards (1,708) and TD catches (17). He’s at the height of his powers and plays with one of the best pure passers in the game (and his former college teammate at LSU), Joe Burrow. Chase is a worthy candidate for the No. 1 overall pick in fantasy drafts.
A lot of fantasy managers fretted that QB Sam Darnold might thwart Justin Jefferson’s fantasy value last season. Jefferson finished WR2 in fantasy scoring. Don’t let yourself believe that the inexperience of Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy will restrain Jefferson’s fantasy value this year.
CeeDee Lamb “only” had 101-1,194-6 last year, but he missed two games and had to play half the season without starting QB Dak Prescott. Lamb should be a top-six fantasy draft pick.
Tier 2
- Brian Thomas Jr.
- Puka Nacua
- Malik Nabers
- Amon-Ra St. Brown
- Nico Collins
- Drake London
- A.J. Brown
- Ladd McConkey
Puka Nacua has averaged 9.5 targets, 6.6 catches and 88.4 receiving yards per game in his two NFL seasons. The question is whether the Rams’ addition of veteran WR Davante Adams puts a dent in Puka’s numbers.
Malik Nabers was terrific when healthy in his rookie season, finishing with 109-1,204-7 in 15 games. The Giants’ murky QB situation is an obstacle Nabers will have to overcome, but he’s likely to keep churning out big numbers no matter who’s playing quarterback.
A.J. Brown finished WR18 in half-point PPR fantasy scoring, but that was largely because he missed four games. He tied for WR12 in fantasy points per game despite playing in the league’s run-heaviest offense. He’s still at the height of his powers entering his age-28 season.
Check out Fitz’s full Wide Receiver Fantasy Football Draft Primer 
Subscribe: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart | Castbox | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict | TuneIn
