Fantasy Football Rankings & Tiers: Wide Receivers (Week 1)

Fantasy football expert Pat Fitzmaurice shares all of his Week 1 rankings and tiers in his weekly article. Below you can find his Week 1 fantasy football rankings, tiers, and start/sit lineup advice for Wide Receivers.

Fantasy Football Rankings, Tiers & Start/Sit Lineup Advice: Wide Receivers

Wide Receivers Rankings & Tiers

Tier 1

Ja’Marr Chase
Justin Jefferson

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier 6

Tier 7

Fantasy Football Start/Sit Lineup Advice: Wide Receivers

Understandably, some fantasy managers are skittish about WR Garrett Wilson this week, since Jets-Steelers is a potential rock fight with a Vegas total of 38.5 points. Quarterback Justin Fields has averaged only 25.1 pass attempts over 44 career starts, but Wilson could be among the league leaders in target share. There are no other proven commodities among the Jets’ pass-catchers. And we probably shouldn’t be overly fearful of Wilson matching up against Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. Pro Football Focus (PFF) had Porter graded 98th out of 118 cornerbacks last season. Not that Porter is a bad cover man, as that grade suggests. But he gave up 48 catches for 619 yards last season, per PFF. It’s not a stay-away matchup.

In the seven games that QB Jameis Winston started for the Browns last season, WR Jerry Jeudy averaged seven catches and 112.3 yards per game. Browns Week 1 starting quarterback Joe Flacco is the same sort of hyperaggressive downfield passer that Winston is. Eventually, the Browns will want to audition rookie signal-callers Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders to see where they stand at quarterback going into 2026, when they’ll have two first-round draft picks. But as long as Flacco is quarterbacking the Browns, Jeudy is a must-start — especially against a team like the Bengals, whose high-flying offense and sieve-like defense can turn any game into a track meet.

The biggest reason WR Chris Olave was being drafted as a low-end WR3 this summer was because of his concussion history. It wasn’t because of any questions about whether Olave is good. Olave has averaged 2.21 yards per route run over his first three NFL seasons. That’s just a shade below the career yards per route run for receivers CeeDee Lamb (2.28) and Ja’Marr Chase (2.25). Obviously, the Saints’ quarterbacking is a concern. But as long as Olave is healthy, you should play him. One slight concern for this week is that Saints head coach and play-caller Kellen Moore has been using Olave in the slot quite a bit, which means Olave could see a lot of Arizona’s best cover man, slot corner Garrett Williams, in Week 1.

Wideout Stefon Diggs is healthy again after tearing his ACL midway through the 2024 season. He’s expected to play without limitation in the Patriots’ season opener against the Raiders. Diggs is going to be QB Drake Maye‘s top target, and Las Vegas has one of the weaker groups of cornerbacks in the league. Start Diggs with confidence.

The FantasyPros team is very much in on Ricky Pearsall for the 2025 season. But for Week 1, Pearsall is a marginal fantasy starter. With WR Jauan Jennings in the lineup — and with TE George Kittle and RB Christian McCaffrey sure to demand their share of targets — Pearsall’s Week 1 target outlook is tough to pin down. Plus, he has a tricky Week 1 matchup against a Seattle defense that has a good pair of cornerbacks in Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen. Ideally, your fantasy team is going into the season healthy, and you can give Pearsall a one-week trial run before throwing him into your lineup.

I’m cautiously optimistic that Matthew Golden, the Packers’ first-round rookie, will make an immediate splash. But I’m being cautious with Golden in Week 1, ranking him as a low-end WR4 against a Detroit defense that boasts one of the better secondaries in the league.