My Discord AMA on Wednesday, August 5th was popping. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to log steps on my birthday than by fielding questions from FantasyPros Discord members, and they brought the heat with many excellent questions. The following three questions were among the most interesting. Join our fantasy football Discord community to catch all our mock drafts and AMAs!
- Fantasy Football Research & Advice
- Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- 2026 Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- AI Fantasy Football Tools
Fantasy Football Discord AMA: Burning Questions
Which Wide Receivers Are More Valuable In Leagues That Award a Point Per First Down?
Knowing your league settings is critical, and savvy gamers will make meaningful adjustments to their rankings to cater to their league settings. One FantasyPros Discord user asked which wideouts get a boost in leagues that award a point per first down. I immediately directed them to a tweet of mine with screenshots from the Fantasy Points Data Suite of wideouts who excelled on third-plus-fourth downs in 2025.
Attached are screenshots from the @FantasyPtsData Suite for 110 WRs w/70+ routes on 3rd+4th downs in 2025 and the top 10 in TPRR and YPRR.
Josh Downs and Adonai Mitchell tied with Ja’Marr Chase with 0.29 TPRR ????
Fellow Parker Washington bros, unite. 1st in YPRR (3.09) ???? pic.twitter.com/iIzDHH5Mhr— Josh Shepardson (@BChad50) July 12, 2026
I want to dig deeper into this question. Ryan Heath has been a big proponent of using first downs per route run as a metric to predict breakouts.
It makes intuitive sense that many of the game’s best wide receivers are chain movers. Seeing who else mixes in with the obvious names could be a harbinger of better things to come in 2026. The following table has the rankings for wideouts in first downs per route run (1D/RR) among 91 wide receivers with at least 250 routes run in the regular season and postseason last year, per the Fantasy Points Data Suite.
Parker Washington‘s appearance on the table is exciting, as he’s someone I’ve pounded the table for all offseason. Christian Watson and Josh Downs are others I’ve touted. Ryan Flournoy would be the cover player for waiver articles if CeeDee Lamb or George Pickens were injured, and it might be worth stashing him on the bench to see how much playing time he carves out for himself and if he can cut into Jake Ferguson‘s receiving production. Romeo Doubs and Stefon Diggs are a few of the cheaper wide receivers who get a bump in value from these scoring settings.
Will Jaylen Waddle Be a Top-20 Wide Receiver in 2026?
Jaylen Waddle was tied for fifth in first downs per route run last year, despite a horrendous offensive environment and putrid quarterback play. Early last month, I highlighted Waddle as a WR3 with WR1 potential.
Bo Nix is a better quarterback than Tua Tagovailoa and Quinn Ewers. In addition, as I highlighted in that piece, he joins a pass-happy environment after playing in an offense at the other end of the spectrum. I expect Waddle to finish closer to WR10 than WR20 in 2026 in all scoring formats.
How Should Tight Ends Be Treated in Leagues That Don’t Require a Starting TE and Lump Them in With Wide Receivers?
Most leagues require gamers to start a tight end, but not every league does. One of the FantasyPros Discord users laid out the roster settings in their league, and tight ends can be used in Flex or WR/TE spots, but they’re not required on teams. The specific league settings aren’t particularly important for this discussion, and another FantasyPros Discord user mentioned their league doesn’t require a starting tight end, either.
Their respective roster settings spawned the question of how to treat tight ends in those formats. Simply, tight ends should be treated on even footing as wide receivers. There was a follow-up inquiry about tight ends in expert rankings, and how to apply that information to leagues that don’t require a starting tight end.
Frankly, expert consensus rankings for tight ends in leagues that require a tight end shouldn’t be applied to formats that don’t require a tight end in lineups. The reason tight ends that project to score fewer points than wide receivers rank ahead of them in overall rankings is positional scarcity and differences in scoring between tight end tiers and wide receiver tiers.
According to our half-point per reception (half-PPR) projections, 17 wide receivers project to clear 190 half-PPR points in 2026. Trey McBride (199.8 half-PPR points) and Brock Bowers (195.5 half-PPR points) are the only tight ends who clear that mark. Colston Loveland (170.3), Tyler Warren (160.7) and Kyle Pitts Sr. (155.9) are the only other tight ends projected to clear 150 half-PPR points this season. Comparatively, 34 wide receivers project to exceed 150 half-PPR points.
There’s no reason for gamers to overvalue McBride, Bowers or Loveland in leagues that don’t require starting a tight end. They can still be stellar picks, but their scoring must be viewed through the lens of how it compares to their counterparts at wide receiver.
Subscribe: YouTube |Spotify |Apple Podcasts |iHeart |Castbox |Amazon Music |Podcast Addict |TuneIn
Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.
