Wide Receiver Target Hogs - Upside Fantasy Football Picks for 2025

August 29, 2025

Andrew's must-have wide receiver fantasy football breakouts who will command a massive target share in 2025. He looks at elite fantasy football WR draft targets.

Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, and CeeDee Lamb will lead their team in targets. They have high odds to lead the league in targets, something each has done once in the last three seasons.

But they play with good, if not great, secondary options. Chase has Tee Higgins. Jefferson has former first-round pick Jordan Addison opposite him. George Pickens is bringing a reliable WR2 to Dallas.

There's a group of alpha wide receivers who have little competition for targets. Here are four wide receiver target hogs to draft in fantasy football this summer.

Malik Nabers, New York Giants

New York's passing strategy last season was to target Malik Nabers. And then target him again. And then target him again. And then target him again. Repeat that 166 more times.

The then-rookie didn't quite lead the league in targets, only because he missed two games. On a per-game basis, it was Nabers' title. The LSU product averaged 11.3 targets per game.

Nabers was catching passes from the likes of Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, and Tommy DeVito. Jones is now a (presumed) backup in Indianapolis. Lock holds a second-string title in Seattle. DeVito will likely be cut by the Giants when training camp comes to a close.

It's now Russell Wilson in charge of putting the ball into the hands of New York's best playmaker. If something were to happen to him, Jameis Winston, who has a reputation for hyper-targeting receivers, is the backup. Rookie first-rounder Jaxson Dart is also an improvement over any New York quarterback in 2024.

The wide receiver and tight-end depth chart, however, remains largely unchanged. The three starters -- Nabers, Wan'Dale Robinson, and Darius Slayton -- return. Second-year professional Theo Johnson mans the starting tight-end spot. Nobody else on this roster will command targets.

Malik Nabers was targeted on seven on Russell Wilson's 15 passes in team periods. Marvin Harrison's record of 205 targets in the 2002 season is going to be in jeopardy.

— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) July 23, 2025

WR6, where Nabers finished last season, is easily repeatable on volume alone. The potential downfall is a below-average New York offense that could keep his touchdown total on the lower end for a WR1.

Garrett Wilson, New York Jets

At least Malik Nabers has Wan'Dale Robinson and Darius Slayton. Garrett Wilson would love a supporting cast like that.

The other New York team has a worse collection of receivers than the Giants. Allen Lazard has moved down the depth chart without his buddy Aaron Rodgers under center. Second-year professional Malachi Corley has a lot to prove in his sophomore campaign. Fourth-round rookie Arian Smith and Tyler Johnson, on his third team in five seasons, are also competing for playing time.

Then there's Josh Reynolds, the favorite to start opposite Wilson. The 30-year-old makes team-hopping look routine. The Jets will be his fourth team since the calendar flipped to 2024. He's the definition of a reliable veteran for an NFL team, but for fantasy football, there's no consistency, outside of a short three-game stretch in 2022. For every 6-for-60 week, it's followed by a dud. For every touchdown caught, it's followed by multiple games missing paydirt.

So, that's the extent of the depth chart. Running back Breece Hall is a strong pass-catcher at the position, but he's not threatening downfield. Rookie tight end Mason Taylor, a second-round pick, missed a chunk of training camp with a high ankle sprain and shouldn't be relied upon to be a team's second receiving option.

The Jets are widely expected to rely on the ground game to move the football in 2025. Head coach Aaron Glenn expressed his preference to utilize three running backs (Hall, Braelon Allen, and Isaiah Davis). Quarterback Justin Fields has a 1,000-yard rushing season under his belt.

Fields' inaccuracies are why Wilson is priced as a third-round pick in redraft leagues this summer. He sports a career 61% completion rate (although it has improved in all four seasons of his NFL career) and averages 155 passing yards per game.

Justin Fields - Career average of 25.7 pass attempts in games he has started and finished.

Over 17 games, that's 437 attempts

Let's be generous and give him 500 attempts just for the hell of it.

In an offense that produced 500 attempts, here's the corresponding target share…

— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) August 13, 2025

Wilson has finished sixth (147), fourth (168), and fifth (154) in targets thus far as a pro. A subpar catch rate and low touchdown totals have kept him 21st and 26th in his first two seasons.

Rodgers elevated Wilson into WR1 territory last year. We can project Wilson to be amongst the target leaders again, but quarterback play could keep him in the WR2 range. Expect to see a lot of "Justin Fields incomplete pass to Garrett Wilson" in the weekly play-by-play.

Calvin Ridley, Tennessee Titans

Is Calvin Ridley going for 200+ targets this season? If the admittedly small preseason Week 1 sample size continues, the veteran wide receiver will lead the league in targets.

Rookie quarterback Cameron Ward threw a pass in Ridley's direction on three of eight dropbacks in Tennessee's preseason opener. Ridley caught all of them for 50 yards, accounting for 74.6% of the team's total receiving yards.

Cam to Calvin for 27 yards and the first down!

📺: #TENvsTB on @WKRN & NFL+ pic.twitter.com/z1ilZ6zct2

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) August 10, 2025

It's been a while since Ridley was a great fantasy football wide receiver. He's logged back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons but failed to deliver on preseason hype during his lone season in Jacksonville, largely due to timing issues with Trevor Lawrence.

His quarterback play only declined when he joined division-rival Tennessee. The former first-round pick earned 120 targets, good for 21st in the league, but only secured 64 of them (a career-low 53.3% catch rate). His catchable target rate ranked 97th among wideouts. Will Levis and the quarterback room are to blame.

Did you accidentally drink something poisonous and need to vomit it up quickly? Consider watching all 8 of Calvin Ridley's "targets" in yesterday's game. This is not football. pic.twitter.com/bKbFyxJOWm

— Andy Holloway (@andyholloway) October 14, 2024

Through all of the offensive woes in Tennessee, Ridley finished as the WR28. That's about where he's being drafted this year, despite the perceived massive upgrade at quarterback and, once again, little target competition.

Ridley doubled Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (60) in the metric last season. Westbrook-Ikhine was Tennessee's second-most-targeted wide receiver and third overall behind tight end Chig Okonkwo (70). Tyler Boyd (57) rounded out the top four.

Okonkwo remains, and newcomers Tyler Lockett and Van Jefferson are projected to top the wide receiver depth chart. Jefferson has logged more than 45 targets just once in his five-year career. Lockett will turn 33 early in the 2025 campaign and has seen his play decline over his final days in Seattle.

There are also three rookies -- Elic Ayomanor, Chimere Dike, and Xavier Restrepo -- all drafted on Day 3 or worse. Ridley seems almost certain to deliver on his Round 6 ADP and should dominate the target share in Tennessee.

Drake London, Atlanta Falcons

Drake London was quietly the third-most-targeted player in football (sixth in targets per game) thanks to a sizzling finish to the season (39 over the final three games). Coincidentally, those are the three career starts for Michael Penix Jr., the new franchise quarterback in Atlanta. Two of those games went into an extra frame, but Atlanta didn't possess the football in either.

London's final stat line for his breakout season: 158 targets (third), 100 receptions (seventh), 1,271 yards (fourth), and nine touchdowns (ninth). We've been spoiled recently by first-round wide receivers breaking out in their first or second season (see Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., Chase, and more).

London took the more traditional third-year breakout path, mostly because last season was the first with a capable quarterback under center. A benchworthy Kirk Cousins was still notably better than Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder.

London also finished third among all wide receivers in red-zone targets (25) and accounted for more than half of Atlanta's targets inside the 10-yard line. His 6'4" frame is his best asset, and head coach Raheem Morris is utilizing it when it matters the most.

Falcons WR Drake London…. baaaaaad man in 1 v 1’s against Tennessee Titans pic.twitter.com/aTxp30CIeN

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) August 12, 2025

London's second-round ADP is a product of a wealth of first-round talent at the position and what is essentially a rookie quarterback under center. Opposing defenses will adjust to Penix's play. The question is how he'll adjust accordingly. A sample size of three games is too small.

London should get peppered with targets regardless of Penix's ability to quarterback the Falcons. His early season target share may be amplified due to Darnell Mooney, the team's No. 2, being sidelined throughout training camp (and maybe beyond) with a shoulder injury. London is comfortably an early second-round pick, and it would be hard to fault someone who spent the 1.11 or 1.12 on Atlanta's alpha.

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