Fantasy Football Rankings: The Top 50 Wide Receivers
Wide Receivers 1-10
| Rank | Player (Team, Bye) | Recs | Yds | TDs | FP | FireFactor™ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonio Brown (PIT, 8) | 131.22 | 1694.28 | 11.93 | 246.51 | 167.1 |
| 2 | Julio Jones (ATL, 11) | 121.53 | 1686.68 | 9.62 | 225.19 | 145.78 |
| 3 | Odell Beckham (NYG, 8) | 95.73 | 1530.59 | 11.83 | 224.59 | 145.18 |
| 4 | DeAndre Hopkins (HOU, 9) | 101.99 | 1542.93 | 11.25 | 220.95 | 141.54 |
| 5 | Jordy Nelson (GB, 4) | 97.86 | 1372.06 | 6.76 | 176.77 | 97.36 |
| 6 | A.J. Green (CIN, 9) | 85.61 | 1201.41 | 8.99 | 173.86 | 94.45 |
| 7 | Dez Bryant (DAL, 7) | 86.27 | 1177.62 | 9.01 | 171.9 | 92.49 |
| 8 | Allen Robinson (JAC, 5) | 78.83 | 1244 | 7.84 | 171.77 | 92.36 |
| 9 | Alshon Jeffery (CHI, 9) | 82.35 | 1205.16 | 8.13 | 169.44 | 90.03 |
| 10 | Brandon Marshall (NYJ, 11) | 87.42 | 1202.55 | 8.12 | 166.78 | 87.37 |
Notes:
1. Antonio Brown - The Pittsburgh Steelers’ star put himself in a class of his own in 2015, with a stone-cold 136 receptions for 1,834 yards and 10 touchdowns. And he didn’t even have starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for four games. When Roethlisberger was healthy, Brown was on a full-season pace for 2,141 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns on nearly 160 catches. It’s no small wonder he’s our top wide receiver in 2016 and comps closest to Marvin Harrison’s record-setting 2002 season.
3. Odell Beckham - This may seem high for a wide receiver only in his third season in the league, but the fact remains that no wideout in NFL history has had more receptions or more receiving yards in their first two years than Beckham. The football wunderkind, in fact, posted a 0.96 Reception Net Expected Points (NEP) per target rate in 2015, good for the sixth-most among the 86 receivers with at least 50 targets. He now has a legitimate second receiver to take coverage pressure off of him, so Beckham figures to maintain his production easily.
7. Dez Bryant - For all of his struggles in 2015, there’s no reason to believe that a healthy Bryant won’t be able to regain his standing among the top-tier of fantasy wideouts this year. The Dallas Cowboys still don’t have any other legitimate targets in their offense, so Bryant’s 86.27 projected receptions may even be a conservative estimate. 2014 saw Bryant post an absurd 0.94 Reception NEP per target rate, second-best among receivers. He’s still that good.
10. Brandon Marshall - He may be 34 this year, but Marshall is still a ridiculous player in the NFL, and he’ll be rejoined by newly re-signed New York Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Marshall saw 173 targets in 2015, posting a near-top-30 Reception NEP per target rate, and scored the third-most fantasy points of any wide receiver. That top-three fantasy rank was sustained more by target volume than anything else, but there’s little reason to expect the Jets’ passing attack to regress in quality in 2016 even if the opportunities do slightly.
