When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and 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 league mates is to use our expert consensus rankings (ECR).
In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at their average draft position (ADP) and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football sleepers at wide receiver.
Fantasy Football Sleeper Wide Receivers
Jakobi Meyers broke out in his second season with Las Vegas and year three in the NFL, surpassing the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career. Despite missing two games, he recorded 87 receptions on 129 targets for 1,027 yards and four touchdowns. His 21.6% target share when active tied Brock Bowers for first on the team. Myers led the Raiders in air yard share (32.8%), while averaging 5.8 receptions on 8.6 targets for 68.5 yards per game.
Without Davante Adams, Meyers took over as the clear No. 1 WR1, out-targeting Bowers 112 to 108 in 12 games together, seeing a team-high 23.6% target share and 34.8% air yard share, averaging 6.1 grabs on 9.3 targets for 72.9 yards from Week 4 on. Although Vegas added three receivers in Jack Bech (No. 26), Dont’e Thornton Jr. (No. 108) and Tommy Mellott (No. 213) in the 2025 NFL Draft, there’s little competition for targets outside of Meyers and Bowers, who should both benefit in an improved offense with stability under center.
Pete Carroll was brought out of retirement and hired as the team’s new head coach, immediately bringing back his guy from Seattle, trading a 2025 third-round pick (No. 92) for two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Geno Smith. The Seahawks missed the playoffs last season, but it’s hard to put too much blame on Smith, who continued to prove his doubters wrong and produce at an elite level. He threw for a career-high 4,320 yards on a 70.4% completion rate, leading all qualified quarterbacks in on-target pass rate (81.8%).
Rashid Shaheed appeared in only six games before suffering a season-ending knee injury, but looked like a league winner in his new role as a full-time wide receiver. He overtook Chris Olave as the No. 1 WR in NOLA, leading the team in route participation rate (88.6%), targets (41), target share (22.0%), receiving yards (349) and receiving touchdowns (three). Shaheed saw most of his looks downfield, posting a league-high 50.3% air yard share in Weeks 1-6.
With Derek Carr under center (five games), Shaheed found the end zone and finished as a top-15 receiver in three out of five (60%) games, averaging 3.8 receptions on 6.8 targets for 67.6 yards during that span. He wasn’t nearly as productive in Spencer Rattler‘s first career NFL start (Week 6), catching just one pass for 11 scoreless yards, but still saw seven targets come his way, despite playing through a torn meniscus that would ultimately require a full repair. Fortunately, Shaheed’s surgery was early enough to make a full recovery before training camp and suit up in the last two games of the preseason.
Although the quarterback situation is less than ideal, with the Saints yet to name a starter between Rattler and second-round rookie Tyler Shough (No. 40), the risk is more than baked into Shaheed’s 12th-round fantasy football ADP. He’s one of the better deep threats in the league with the ability to win you a week on a single play, averaging 17.5 yards per reception last season, finishing third among all players with 20+ targets in average depth of target (aDOT) with a mark of 17.6.
The Saints’ offense isn’t exciting, but the addition of new head coach Kellen Moore should at least improve the situation, ranking in the top four in pace (seconds per play) in five out of six seasons as an offensive coordinator, having yet to average fewer than 65 plays per game.
Marvin Mims Jr. was a non-factor for most of last season, primarily playing on special teams with a handful of schemed-up touches week to week. From Weeks 1-10, Mims had no more than 18 receiving yards in all 10 games, playing on only 20.3% of Denver’s offensive snaps and running a route on 22.4% of Bo Nix‘s dropbacks during that span.
Mims never saw a full complement of snaps but started taking on a larger role to close out the season, scoring six touchdowns over his last seven games, averaging 4.0 receptions on 4.7 targets for 62 yards from Week 11 on. As a result, Mims started to earn more playing time, posting a season-high 62.7% snap share and 64% route participation rate in the Wild Card round. Although he was quiet in his playoff debut, catching two passes for 12 scoreless yards, Mims saw six opportunities against Buffalo, trailing only Courtland Sutton (36%) for second on the team in target share (16%).
If his usage holds, Mims could be in line for a third-year breakout. He’s already one of the most efficient players in the league, finishing second in the NFL in fantasy points per route run (0.72 PPR points) in 2024. Based on what we’ve seen in the preseason, Mims looks to be locked in as the No. 2 WR alongside Sutton, playing on 31 out of 34 snaps (91.2%) with Nix and the starters. It’s also worth noting that the Broncos let go of Javonte Williams and traded away Devaughn Vele, who were second and third, respectively, on the team in routes and targets.
Keenan Allen or “Fat Keenan” turned into a meme last offseason with reports and pictures of the Bears’ new wide receiver surfacing across the interwebs, looking a bit out of shape, perhaps enjoying the Chicago lifestyle a little too much. Allen didn’t look himself, clearly on the decline, but still led the team with a 22.7% target share and 30.7% air yard share when active (15 games), averaging 5.6 receptions on 8.1 targets for 55.7 yards and 0.4 touchdowns.
Allen was even better to close out the season, scoring over 20 PPR points and finishing as a top-15 receiver in four out of his last seven (57.1%) games. At 33 years old, entering his 13th season in the NFL, Allen is well beyond his prime but still has value as a depth piece, returning to Los Angeles, where he has finished as a WR1 in fantasy points per game in seven out of the last eight (87.5%) seasons.
The last time Allen played with Justin Herbert (2023), he led the NFL in targets (150) and receptions (108), trailing only Tyreek Hill (1,542) and A.J. Brown (1,258) in receiving yards from Weeks 1-14 before getting shut down for the season. His 21.7 PPR points per game were third among all receivers in 2023, averaging 8.3 receptions on 11.5 targets for 96.7 yards and 0.5 touchdowns.
Although Allen is unlikely to command the same volume alongside Ladd McConkey, he’s still far too cheap given his upside and familiarity with the offense, currently being selected outside of the top 150 picks.
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