Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Kate Magdziuk ranks the best wide receivers in the NFL for the 2024 fantasy football season and examines some of the biggest risers and fallers in her ranks heading into the biggest draft weekend of the year.
We’re heading into fantasy football’s biggest draft weekend of the year, and SB Nation is here to help you make your most challenging decisions.
It’s been a big week for some top-name wide receivers, with Dallas Cowboys wideout CeeDee Lamb and San Francisco 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk both ending summer-long contract disputes and signing long-term extensions with their respective teams. Fantasy football managers can breathe a sigh of relief as the stars will be available for their Week 1 lineups.
What about the rest of the wide receivers around the league, though? Let’s first take a look at some of the players rising and falling in my ranks heading into the draft weekend before diving into the meat of the rankings!
Wide receiver risers
Rashee Rice (Kansas City Chiefs)
The Chiefs’ receiving corps got a bit more crowded this offseason with the additions of Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and first-round rookie Xavier Worthy. However, it’s second-year man Rashee Rice who has the established rapport with QB Patrick Mahomes as a holdover from last season. It’s looking very unlikely that Rice will face a suspension for some of his off-the-field issues this offseason. Rice is a solid WR2 option with weekly WR1 upside, particularly in PPR leagues, as long as Mahomes is under center.
George Pickens (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Pickens was already a player I had ranked higher than most, but now that the Steelers failed to acquire Brandon Aiyuk, it’s a done deal — he’s now made his way into my top-20 wide receiver rankings. (Yeah. I might be a delusional Steelers fan.)
Regardless of what you think of the Steelers, their quarterback situation or their play-caller, there’s absolutely no doubt that any product the team puts on the table in 204 is a massive step up from what we’ve seen over the past two seasons. Pickens logged a WR26 finish on a 63-1,140-5 season just last year and is somehow being selected at that exact same spot in drafts this year, despite upgrades in the offense and the absence of Diontae Johnson, who’s averaged 7.8 targets per game over the past two seasons.
Wide receiver fallers
Christian Kirk (Jacksonville Jaguars)
The more time that passes this offseason, the less excited I’m feeling about veteran wideout Christian Kirk, despite his ranking as WR28 leading up to his season-ending injury in Week 13. He’s currently being drafted as the WR32 according to FantasyPros cumulative ADP, which sounds like it could be a value, but I worry after suffering a soft-tissue injury late in training camp and the offseason additions of Gabe Davis and projected WR1 rookie Brian Thomas Jr., there may be too many hands in the pot. Add in the fact that Evan Engram was one of the most prolific tight ends out of the slot last year, and suddenly, Kirk is looking more like a player I’d prefer to avoid in drafts altogether.
Ladd McConkey (Los Angeles Chargers)
Despite my immense excitement for the talent of second-round wideout Ladd McConkey, one of the best route-runners in this class tied to an elite quarterback, he’s trending down in my rankings the closer we get to the season. At one point this offseason, he looked like one of the few rookie wide receivers that could top 130+ targets in Year 1, but between some missed time in training camp with an undisclosed injury and role-playing primarily out of the slot, there’s some concern that he may not see the kind of volume fantasy managers were hoping for right out of the gate. The Chargers already project for a low-volume passing offense under new HC Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman, which means McConkey will need to be uber-efficient with his opportunities to make a dent for fantasy.
2024 WR rankings
Kate Magdziuk is an editor and contributor for Yahoo Fantasy and co-host of the Locked On Dynasty Football podcast. She is also the managing editor for Behind The Steel Curtain, SB Nation’s exclusive Pittsburgh Steelers blog. Her previous bylines include Pro Football Focus, NBC Sports Rotoworld and 4for4 Football, among others.
