- Ja’Marr Chase is in a great position to repeat his excellent 2024 season: Repeating as the overall WR1 is entirely possible considering Chase’s talent and Joe Burrow throwing him the ball.
- Tetairoa McMillan continues to be one of the biggest risers: The Carolina Panthers‘ top-10 rookie is in a great spot to outproduce his current ADP and deliver as a locked-in weekly starter.
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Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
Breaking fantasy football rankings down into tiers helps fantasy managers better understand what separates each group and how to value each player at the position for this coming season.
TIER 1: The best of the best
| RANK | PLAYER | TEAM |
| 1 | Ja'Marr Chase | CIN |
| 2 | Justin Jefferson | MIN |
The top tier of fantasy wide receivers for 2025 consists of three elite options who are consistently among the league’s most targeted and most efficient players at the position.
Ja’Marr Chase delivered an overall WR1 season in 2024, winning the receiving triple crown by leading the league in receiving yards (1,708), receptions (127) and receiving touchdowns (17). Chase is in as good a position as any past WR1 finisher, if not better, to repeat his stellar season, considering the offense and quarterback advantage he holds over most other contenders to his throne. Joe Burrow is coming off the best regular season of his career, throwing for nearly 5,000 yards and finishing as the highest-graded passer (93.0) through 18 weeks. The Bengals offense is set to continue operating at an elite level with Burrow and Chase acting as the catalysts to help the team rebound in 2025.
Justin Jefferson continues to be in the conversation as the league’s best wide receiver and best for fantasy as well, finishing no lower than the PPR WR4 these past four years when playing more than 10 games. Jefferson has also been one of the most quarterback-proof receivers, as he consistently delivers high-end production. Jefferson still delivered 92.4 receiving yards per game last season — second to only Chase (100.8) — with reclamation project Sam Darnold, establishing 1,000 yards as his floor in his career, and even with J.J. McCarthy taking over in 2025, he should have no problem greatly exceeding that mark and returning elite fantasy value once again.
Puka Nacua was the league’s most efficient receiver in 2024, delivering a remarkable 3.56 yards per route run and 18.0% first-down-plus-touchdown rate across his 11 games played. Missed time didn’t allow Nacua to finish as a WR1 on the year, but after finishing as the overall WR5 as a rookie, we should expect no less than that with a fully healthy season in 2025. Nacua welcomes Davante Adams to the team as his newest form of target competition, though having another elite target-earner on the field hasn’t hurt Nacua’s ability to produce in the past and is unlikely to do so in 2025 coming off a year where he was earning a league high 37.1% target rate with Matthew Stafford so willing to get him the ball, making this top-three ranking more than possible.
TIER 2: True WR1 candidates
| RANK | PLAYER | TEAM |
| 3 | Malik Nabers | NYG |
| 4 | CeeDee Lamb | DAL |
| 5 | Nico Collins | HST |
| 6 | Puka Nacua | LA |
| 7 | Amon-Ra St. Brown | DET |
| 8 | Drake London | ATL |
| 9 | Brian Thomas Jr. | JAX |
| 10 | A.J. Brown | PHI |
Malik Nabers put together a very impressive rookie season, delivering 18.2 PPR points per game on the second-most targets in the fantasy season (157) and the second-highest target rate (29.7%) over that stretch as well. Nabers put up his WR6 production with below-average passing from both Daniel Jones and Drew Lock, making his rookie year numbers even more impressive. While Russell Wilson isn’t the quarterback he once was, he should still be an upgrade over Nabers’ quarterback situation last year, helping the offense improve even slightly to create more high-value opportunities for Nabers to cash in on with his elite workload.
Read More: ADP Battle: Amon-Ra St. Brown versus Malik Nabers
Puka Nacua was the league’s most efficient receiver in 2024, delivering a remarkable 3.56 yards per route run and an 18.0% first-down-plus-touchdown rate across 11 games. Missed time didn’t allow Nacua to finish as a WR1 on the year, but he placed as the overall WR5 as a rookie, so we should expect no less than that with a fully healthy season in 2025.
Nacua welcomes Davante Adams to the team as his newest form of target competition, though having another elite target-earner on the field hasn’t hurt Nacua’s ability to produce in the past and is unlikely to do so in 2025. However, Nacua's drop in the ranks (previously WR3) comes from uncertainty around Matthew Stafford’s health as he deals with back issues. Stafford’s willingness to feed Nacua so often is a big part of his appeal, and if Stafford isn’t healthy this season, then the downgrade at quarterback is naturally going to hurt Nacua’s overall ranking.
Brian Thomas Jr. is coming off an impressive rookie season of his own, leading all rookies in yards per route run (2.45), receiving yards (1,282) and receiving touchdowns (10) in 2024. Thomas really took off in the latter half of the year, as he averaged 60.7 yards per game from Weeks 1-10 as the PPR WR13, which was still great, but then really kicked into high gear, averaging 96.7 yards per game as the PPR WR5 from Weeks 11-18. Year 2 expectations are high, even with potentially significant target competition added in the form of Travis Hunter. This upgraded offense should allow both to deliver starting fantasy potential. Thomas should be the greatest beneficiary of Liam Coen’s offense, and hopefully, a healthy Trevor Lawrence will allow this high-end potential to come to fruition.
Read More: ADP Battle: Nico Collins versus Brian Thomas Jr.
TIER 3: High-end weekly starters
| RANK | PLAYER | TEAM |
| 11 | Garrett Wilson | NYJ |
| 12 | Marvin Harrison Jr. | ARZ |
| 13 | Jaxon Smith-Njigba | SEA |
| 14 | Ladd McConkey | LAC |
| 15 | Tee Higgins | CIN |
| 16 | Tetairoa McMillan | CAR |
| 17 | Davante Adams | LAR |
| 18 | Terry McLaurin | WAS |
| 19 | Mike Evans | TB |
| 20 | Tyreek Hill | MIA |
Marvin Harrison Jr. didn’t perform up to standard in his rookie year, though his ADP hasn’t changed all that drastically, as there’s still a belief that he can reclaim that WR1 value in Year 2. Harrison still saw 114 targets in 2024, a top-20 mark for the position; however, he was unable to replicate top-20 production with only a 54.4% reception rate – the worst mark among the top-40 wide receivers in total targets. A large part of this was a result of one of the league’s worst catchable target rates (59%) greatly hurting his overall fantasy production (as highlighted here). Kyler Murray and Harrison should both get back on the same page this season and allow for less meat to be left on the bone in terms of his fantasy production this season, getting him back closer to that WR1 potential.
Tetairoa McMillan is the most consistent riser in every rankings update. He represents one of the biggest discrepancies in these rankings compared to the consensus, as he’s currently being drafted as WR32 on Yahoo and WR29 on Sleeper. McMillan’s overall potential in year one is significantly higher than that of just a WR3 in fantasy. He checks enough boxes to qualify as a darkhorse WR1 this season, coming out of college with a strong receiving profile. He should operate as the clear top option in the Carolina Panthers‘ passing game.
If Bryce Young can continue to play as well as he did in the latter half of last season, then McMillan should benefit greatly and easily return consistent WR2 value in fantasy this season, if not higher.
Read More: ADP Battle: Tyreek Hill versus Terry McLaurin
Tyreek Hill has been in the WR1 conversation every year since 2017, and he’s delivered on that potential much more often than not. However, 2024 was undoubtedly a disappointing season, as he appeared to take a big step back in terms of performance, setting a new career low in receiving grade (77.3) and yards per route run (1.75), which perhaps should have been a huge surprise considering he’s now 31 years old and heading into Year 10. However, considering Hill's past efficiency and big-play upside, there’s still hope that he can deliver those week-winning performances throughout the season based on his average WR15 ADP. Unfortunately, this ranking is less optimistic with the expectation that what we saw from Hill in 2024 could be the new norm for him at this point in his career, albeit still qualifying him as a low-end WR2.
TIER 4: A testament to the position’s depth
| RANK | PLAYER | TEAM |
| 21 | Travis Hunter | JAX |
| 22 | DeVonta Smith | PHI |
| 23 | DJ Moore | CHI |
| 24 | Chris Olave | NO |
| 25 | Rome Odunze | CHI |
| 26 | Rashee Rice | KC |
| 27 | Jameson Williams | DET |
| 28 | Xavier Worthy | KC |
| 29 | Jaylen Waddle | MIA |
| 30 | Courtland Sutton | DEN |
| 31 | Zay Flowers | BLT |
| 32 | D.K. Metcalf | PIT |
| 33 | Calvin Ridley | TEN |
| 34 | George Pickens | DAL |
| 35 | Jerry Jeudy | CLV |
The Chicago Bears‘ offense is full of high-end fantasy potential, as several players are in contention to emerge as the prime beneficiary of this new and improved outlook heading into 2025. Rome Odunze is likely to start the year as the team’s WR2 next to DJ Moore, but there’s breakout potential heading into Year 2 that could allow Odunze to emerge as the team’s WR1 as soon as this season. There is more target competition in Chicago than there was even last season. Still, Odunze taking on a larger role while developing into the player he was drafted to be as a top-10 pick could enable him to create his breakout season. Being drafted outside of the top-30 wide receivers at the moment makes the ceiling more than enticing enough to bet on him as a high-upside option heading into 2025.
Rashee Rice is expected to serve a suspension this season; it’s just a matter of how long he’ll have to be out. Either way, that naturally causes a drop in his ranking. Rice has been the Chiefs‘ clear top target as long as he’s in the lineup, so he’ll still be worth targeting in the high-end WR3 range because we’ll likely have him in lineups for the fantasy playoffs. However, there are other players to home in on while we wait for the right value for Rice, who could seemingly be out for as many as six games. Of course, we will adjust accordingly, but for now, we’ll treat him as a high-end WR3 in drafts who can return much better value once he’s back in the lineup.
Read More: ADP Battle: Courtland Sutton versus D.K. Metcalf
Jerry Jeudy finished as the PPR WR11 in 2024, making him the lowest-ranked/drafted top-12 finisher of the 2024 season, as he’s currently being selected outside of the top-30 players at his position in drafts. Jeudy was Cleveland's clear leader last season, doubling the yardage of the next closest player on the team. This was a result of 142 targets (seventh among wide receivers) as there were no other consistent receiving threats for the Browns outside of David Njoku, who missed time. It’s clear that the expectation is for him to come back down to Earth in 2025. While 2024 was Jeudy’s best fantasy season, his underlying metrics, specifically yards per route run (1.72), point more to the same player that we’ve seen in the past, and with less volume more than likely, Jeudy makes sense as a player to temper expectations for compared to last season.
TIER 5: Starters with potential
| RANK | PLAYER | TEAM |
| 36 | Ricky Pearsall | SF |
| 37 | Deebo Samuel | WAS |
| 38 | Cooper Kupp | SEA |
| 39 | Josh Downs | IND |
| 40 | Marvin Mims Jr. | DEN |
| 41 | Emeka Egbuka | TB |
| 42 | Chris Godwin | TB |
| 43 | Jakobi Meyers | LV |
| 44 | Khalil Shakir | BUF |
| 45 | Stefon Diggs | NE |
| 46 | Jauan Jennings | SF |
| 47 | Darnell Mooney | ATL |
| 48 | Jordan Addison | MIN |
| 49 | Jayden Reed | GB |
| 50 | Matthew Golden | GB |
| 51 | Wan'Dale Robinson | NYG |
| 52 | Michael Pittman Jr. | IND |
Marvin Mims Jr. presents an interesting value if he takes on a larger role this season, as he was trending in that direction in the latter half of last season. Mims went from running only about 24% of the team’s routes through the first 10 weeks, increasing to about 38% from Weeks 11-18 and then 72% in Denver’s lone playoff game. Mims was very efficient with his opportunities as a receiver on the year, earning a top-five mark in yards per route run (2.57) and fantasy points per snap (0.39). Mims’ involvement out of the backfield also increased, as he went from just one lone carry through the first nine weeks on two backfield snaps to 14 carries on 37 backfield snaps from Week 10 through the playoffs. While Sean Payton has often deployed a rotation amongst his wide receivers in Denver, the signs of a larger role for Mims are at least encouraging, making him worthy of “breakout” consideration.
Josh Downs quietly emerged as the Indianapolis Colts’ top receiving option in 2024 – at least while he was in the lineup, as he did miss three games. Downs led the team in receiving grade (85.1), yards per route run (2.20), yards per game (54.5) and target rate (28.0%). Downs took a big step forward in his development in Year 2 after cooling down from a hotter start to the first half of his rookie year. It was promising to see Downs set new career highs in receiving grade (85.1), yards per route run and typical counting stats. This didn’t result in a massive fantasy season for Downs, and a poor offense can play a part in that, though there’s reason to believe that he can improve in 2025, which could make him a nice value at this point in drafts.
TIER 6: Sleeper territory
| RANK | PLAYER | TEAM |
| 53 | Demario Douglas | NE |
| 54 | Cedric Tillman | CLV |
| 55 | Keon Coleman | BUF |
| 56 | Jalen Coker | CAR |
| 57 | Rashid Shaheed | NO |
| 58 | Jayden Higgins | HST |
| 59 | Keenan Allen | LAC |
| 60 | Luther Burden III | CHI |
| 61 | Tre Harris | LAC |
| 62 | D'Onte Thornton Jr. | LV |
| 63 | Rashod Bateman | BLT |
| 64 | Brandon Aiyuk | SF |
| 65 | Adam Thielen | CAR |
| 66 | Amari Cooper | LV |
| 67 | Christian Kirk | HST |
| 68 | Troy Franklin | DEN |
| 69 | Adonai Mitchell | IND |
| 70 | Xavier Legette | CAR |
Several rookies with potential to earn larger roles as the season progresses exist within this tier, including the Bears' Luther Burden III, who, in the same vein as Rome Odunze’s breakout potential, may be the perfect fit to play the Amon-Ra St. Brown role in Ben Johnson’s offense. That won't be an easy path to fantasy stardom, though.
Both Jayden Higgins and Tre Harris have the draft capital and talent to become consistent WR2 options in their respective offenses as soon as Year 1. Both of those offenses in Houston and Los Angeles, respectively, offer high-end quarterbacks enough passing potential that those WR2 roles could allow each player to exceed their current value.
Fourth-round rookie D'Onte Thornton Jr. of the Las Vegas Raiders is one interesting rookie sleeper option. He has the size and speed to thrive as a potential deep threat in the NFL, and if he can continue to develop his game at the next level, he’ll be well worth the late-round swing in fantasy drafts this season. Helping matters is that Thornton has also surpassed second-round rookie Jack Bech in terms of expected playing time this season, indicating that his strong college profile has already begun to translate in the NFL.
TIER 7: Deep-league options
| RANK | PLAYER | TEAM |
| 71 | Joshua Palmer | BUF |
| 72 | Tory Horton | SEA |
| 73 | Michael Wilson | ARZ |
| 74 | Pat Bryant | DEN |
| 75 | Elic Ayomanor | TEN |
| 76 | Isaac TeSlaa | DET |
| 77 | DeAndre Hopkins | BLT |
| 78 | Kyle Williams | NE |
| 79 | Calvin Austin III | PIT |
| 80 | Dontayvion Wicks | GB |
| 81 | Andrei Iosivas | CIN |
| 82 | Roman Wilson | PIT |
| 83 | Jaylin Noel | HST |
| 84 | Olamide Zaccheaus | WAS |
| 85 | Elijah Moore | BUF |
| 86 | Jack Bech | LV |
| 87 | Alec Pierce | IND |
| 88 | Tutu Atwell | LA |
| 89 | Tyler Lockett | TEN |
| 90 | Darius Slayton | NYG |
| 91 | Devaughn Vele | NO |
| 92 | Jalen Royals | KC |
| 93 | Christian Watson | GB |
| 94 | Romeo Doubs | GB |
| 95 | Tre Tucker | LV |
| 96 | Dyami Brown | JAX |
| 97 | Mike Williams | LAC |
| 98 | Jalen McMillan | TB |
| 99 | Jalen Tolbert | DAL |
| 100 | Noah Brown | WAS |
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