When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and which 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 wide receivers experts love to target in 2026 fantasy football drafts.
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2026 Fantasy Football Draft Advice: Must-Have Wide Receivers
Derek Brown loves targeting these wide receivers in 2026 fantasy football drafts.
Mike Evans (SF)
Mike Evans has a new home with the 49ers, and he looks like a wonderful value in fantasy drafts. Yes, Evans dealt with hamstring issues again last year, but that wasn’t the big limiting factor in his games played. That was related to a broken collarbone. For all of the injury talk about Evans, before the 2025 season, he had never played less than 13 games in any season, and since 2020 he had played at least 14 games in every season. Evans might be older, but he hasn’t slowed down when you look at his metrics. Last year, during his seven full games played, he had a 24.4% target share, a 30.6% first-read share, and 0.116 first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). Among 109 qualifying receivers last year, those numbers would have ranked 13th-best across the board. Yes, during that sample, he had only 1.86 yards per route run and 52.6 receiving yards per game, which would have ranked 31st and 33rd among the same group of receivers, but that was more related to Baker Mayfield‘s inaccuracy than Evans slowing down. In his full games played, Evans had only a 70.9% catchable target rate, which among those 109 receivers would have ranked 84th. Evans on field production didn’t match his deeper analytics and target-earning ability, as he was also second-best in separation and route win rate last season. If he can stay healthy this season, he should be one of the best values on the board for fantasy season with WR1 upside.
Parker Washington (JAC)
Parker Washington finished last season with a flurry of insane production; if he picks up right where he left off, he’ll be one of the best picks in fantasy football this season. Last year, in Weeks 16-19, Washington asserted himself as the Jags’ clear WR1. During that stretch, he averaged 22.3 PPR points per game while soaking up six red zone targets and 13 deep targets (per Fantasy Points Data). In those four games, he had a 28.9% target share, 113.5 receiving yards per game, 3.78 yards per route run, and a 33.3% first-read share. Those are all absolutely elite metrics no matter how you slice it. There’s some uncertainty about how the Jags target hierarchy sifts out this season with Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter healthy. Each player could effectively put a dent in Washington, putting up monster numbers in 2026, but that risk is baked into Washington’s price in drafts. He’s a wonderful upside swing in the later rounds.
Carnell Tate (TEN)
Drafting Carnell Tate is a bet on talent and Cam Ward‘s ability to take off in his second season with Brian Daboll calling plays. I want to bet on Tate as I’m in love with the talent. Tate is an amazing route runner who can separate at all three levels of the field after ranking tenth in yards per route run and fourth in receiving grade last season (per PFF). He finished college with an otherworldly 68.8% contested catch rate, and he had zero drops in his final season despite a 14.6 aDOT. Tate will have to contend with Wan’Dale Robinson and Calvin Ridley for the WR1 spot in the Tennessee offense, but he has the talent to be the clear WR1 from Week 1. It just comes down to how quickly he can hit the ground running and how many weapons can Ward support in 2026. I’ll be drafting Tate a ton.
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Fantasy Football Draft Rankings
Check out the consensus 2026 fantasy football draft rankings from our experts.
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