• 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.
• Plenty of Year 2 wide receivers have set expectations high: Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., Ladd McConkey, and even Marvin Harrison Jr. all find themselves inside the top-15 at their position.
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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

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 of 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

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.

Editor’s note: ADP Battle: Amon-Ra St. Brown versus Malik Nabers

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.

Editor’s note: ADP Battle: Nico Collins versus Brian Thomas Jr.

TIER 3: High-end weekly starters

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.

Editor’s note: 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

Editor’s note: ADP Battle: Courtland Sutton versus D.K. Metcalf

Jauan Jennings stepped up in a big way for the San Francisco 49ers last season with Brandon Aiyuk tearing his ACL, Christian McCaffrey appearing in just four games and even Deebo Samuel missing time. Jennings missed a couple games but delivered three top-10 weekly finishes on the year while closing the fantasy season as the PPR WR25. Jennings accomplished this on a top-15 target rate for his position and a top-15 mark in yards per route run (2.26), which could be repeatable with Aiyuk coming off an ACL tear and Samuel off to Washington. Jennings is as good of a bet as any to lead this team’s wide receivers in production in 2025.

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

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

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 “sleeper” consideration.

TIER 7: Deep-league options