Football
6 Wide Receivers the Experts Draft (2024 Fantasy Football)
When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others 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 notable fantasy football players below.
2024 Fantasy Football Draft Advice
PLAYER NAME | TEAM | POSITION RANK | ECR RANK | OVERALL ADP | ECR VS. ADP |
Brandon Aiyuk | SF | WR10 | 16 | 24 | 8 |
Malik Nabers | NYG | WR20 | 39 | 43 | 4 |
Amari Cooper | CLE | WR22 | 43 | 47 | 4 |
Tee Higgins | CIN | WR27 | 53 | 57 | 4 |
Terry McLaurin | WAS | WR28 | 55 | 60 | 5 |
Rome Odunze | CHI | WR38 | 83 | 91 | 8 |
Fantasy Football Draft Outlook
Malik Nabers (NYG)
While we might have worries about the landing spot, there are two undeniable facts here. Nabers is a stone-cold baller, and he will vacuum up all the targets he can handle in 2024. During his final year at LSU, Nabers ranked third in YPRR, first in PFF receiving grade, and fourth in missed tackles forced. Nabers is the clear WR1 for New York this season, and it’s not particularly close. No Giants wide receiver managed over a 16.9% target share last year, so there’s no one standing in Nabers’ way of soaking up a 23-25% target share in his rookie season. The Giants threw the ball 518 times last year. If Nabers can earn a 25% target share and the Giants don’t pass any more than they did last season, he will theoretically see 130 targets. That would have been tied for 19th in targets among wide receivers last season. I’m willing to invest in Nabers’ talent, and I’m just praying that we get at least league-average quarterback play from Daniel Jones and company this season.
– Derek Brown
Amari Cooper (CLE)
Cooper continues to chug along. Entering his age-30 season, he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Last year, he finished as the WR17 in fantasy points per game while ranking 23rd in target share (22.1%), 13th in air-yard share (39%), and 12th in YPRR. While Deshaun Watson wasn’t good last year, that didn’t stop Cooper from excelling with Watson. In the five full games Watson played, Cooper averaged 96 receiving yards per game with 2.96 YPRR and 0.123 FD/RR. Over a full season, among 81 qualifying wide receivers (per Fantasy Points Data), Cooper would have ranked fourth, fifth, and 10th in those statistical categories if he kept up that pace. Cooper is a fantastic value pick this year that has some juicy upside.
– Derek Brown
Terry McLaurin (WAS)
McLaurin is primed for a bounce-back season in 2024. Last year, Sam Howell and his putrid passing sunk McLaurin’s season. McLaurin still led the team with a 20.4% target share, a 34.7% air-yard share, 1.64 YPRR, and a 25.4% first-read share. Don’t forget that this is the same receiver that ranked 16th in YPRR (2.20) and 19th in FD/RR (0.104) in 2023 (per Fantasy Points Data). That talent didn’t suddenly disappear. It was depressed by a quarterback last year that ranked 21st in CPOE and 25th in clean pocket passer rating. Last year, he was the WR34 in fantasy points per game and the WR21 in expected fantasy points per game. With Jayden Daniels under center, McLaurin could return to the WR2 ranks in 2024.
– Derek Brown
Fantasy Football Draft Rankings
Check out the consensus 2024 fantasy football draft rankings from our experts.