Wide Receiver Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Picks for Fantasy Football Week 2 (2025)

September 13, 2025

John's wide receiver start 'em, sit 'em picks for fantasy football Week 2 lineups (2025). Read his expert WR start/sit advice for George Pickens, Tee Higgins, Cedric Tillman, others.

Choosing the right wide receivers to start can make or break your fantasy football teams on a weekly basis, o rin the long term. It's important to make sure you don't start players that will drop duds.

It's hard to predict when this will happen, but it's also difficult to ascertain which receivers are on the cusp of having breakout performances, continuing streaks of good games, or breaking a stretch of poor outings.

So let's break down five receivers for fantasy football -- three that you should lock into your starting lineups and two that you should leave on your benches or on waivers -- for Week 2 of the 2025 NFL season!

Week 2 Starts - Potential Fantasy Football Booms

George Pickens, Dallas Cowboys 

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens makes his living on making a lot of downfield, highly contested catches, making acrobatic leaps and highlight-reel haul-ins. That's his specialty. This week, the Cowboys face the New York Giants, who have had a struggling pass defense for many seasons.

Naturally, downfield receivers that play on the perimeter excel against single-high safety looks. A single-high safety usually plays far behind the cornerbacks and is the last line of defense, and he has far more ground to cover to defend deep routes on the perimeter.

Look who the first player was to greet George Pickens in the endzone after this touchdown pic.twitter.com/CrkKxFJJIJ

— Mike Nicastro (@MikedUpSports1) December 25, 2023

Pickens makes a killing grabbing deep downfield passes, and single coverage often isn't enough to stop him from hauling in contested catches. The Giants will be in a tough position -- if, for some reason, they decide to switch to mostly two-high safety coverages, they'll likely be shredded by WR CeeDee Lamb on underneath routes.

It's doubtful they do this, so Pickens should have a much better game in Week 2 than he did in Week 1, and will likely draw more targets.

Cedric Tillman, Cleveland Browns

Tillman had a nice game in Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals, when he hauled in five receptions for 52 yards and a touchdown, totaling 16.2 PPR fantasy points. Tillman could have another nice day against the Baltimore Ravens.

The Ravens run a lot of man coverage defensive shells. Tillman excels against these looks, averaging 0.60 fantasy points per route run as opposed to 0.32 FP/RR against all coverages on average. He essentially double his average points scored when he's facing man coverage.

Just thinking about how Cedric Tillman was well on his way to a breakout season before his concussion.

Throwback to sending the rat birds home losers. 😤 pic.twitter.com/m2piPf3W9d

— Nick Karns (@karnsies817) May 30, 2025

Tillman's biggest game of last season was easily against the Baltimore Ravens, of course, when he caught seven of his nine targets for 99 yards and two touchdowns, including a massive game-winner late in the fourth quarter in the upset win. The Ravens retained the same defensive coordinator from a year ago.

Browns quarterback Joe Flacco is still playing well, despite his age, and Tillman should be able to get open often against the Ravens secondary and produce nicely. I expect another good game from him in Week 2.

Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals

After his dud of a performance in Week 1, where he caught just three passes for 33 receiving yards, you might be considering benching Higgins for another player in your WR2 or flex spot. But I'd advise against it. The Bengals face the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow tends to struggle mightily against the Browns. They have a great defensive line and pass rush, and Cincinnati's offensive line consistently struggles to keep them in check. Weird things happen in divisional rivalries. The Jaguars defense is much less talented, and has performed much worse in recent years, than Cleveland's unit.

Do we think that the Jaguars take a massive leap on defense, or do we think Trevor Lawrence, Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter will get plenty of opportunities to put up big fantasy points trying to keep them in games? pic.twitter.com/mWH68lEDFE

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) May 29, 2025

As you can see from the above chart, the 2024 Jacksonville defense allowed the second highest Expected Points Added (EPA) per pass play on defense in the last 20 years. EPA essentially measures the effectiveness of each play at helping the offense score points in this context.

While the Jaguars had a nice outing against quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, it should be noted that Young struggled mightily last season in his first two games, and was benched afterward for QB Andy Dalton. Young has passed for 300 yards just one single time in 31 career games. He's not played very well.

Tee Higgins having perhaps the game of his career in what could be his final home game as a Bengal.

- 11 catches
- 131 yards
- 3 TDs (GW in OT)

Cincy might have to just back up the brinks truck.pic.twitter.com/pBpFVr4gkr

— Mike Kennedy (@MikeKennedyNFL) December 29, 2024

Higgins would be the WR1 on a large number of NFL teams, and just last season, he finished his year with 19.8, 19.8, and 40.1 PPR fantasy points in the fantasy playoffs, or in Weeks 15-17. Burrow and the Bengals also tend to start out slow, but against a porous pass defense, they should hit their stride quickly.

Week 2 Concerns - Potential Fantasy Football Busts

Cooper Kupp, Seattle Seahawks

Three straight years of big declines in his efficiency and ESPN Analytics receiving grades weren't enough to convince many fantasy managers that Kupp was gradually becoming fantasy irrelevant. Perhaps his first game of 2025 might have convinced even the biggest Kupp fans that his career is drawing to a close.

It's not a huge surprise. He's a 32-year-old wideout that never won with elite athleticism, anyway. He also has an extensive injury history. He's missed 18 games in the last three seasons since his Triple Crown season in 2021, and hasn't looked the part of an elite wideout since 2022, before he got hurt again.

Some of Cooper Kupp's injury history:
-Groin pull
-Sprained MCL
-Torn ACL
-Knee bruise
-Low ankle sprain
-High ankle sprain
-Hamstring strain
-Low ankle sprain again
-High ankle sprain again
All in his left leg. Does no one really think that leg is cooked? pic.twitter.com/plGinwkvRD

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 14, 2025

In their first game with quarterback Sam Darnold, who had a putrid career before he lucked into a Minnesota Vikings starting job and benefitted from an elite receiving corps, an elite pass-blocking offensive line, and an elite offensive-minded head coach, the Seahawks mustered just 150 passing yards.

Darnold completed just 16 of his 23 pass attempts, didn't throw a single touchdown pass, and averaged a similar yardage per attempt as Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell did last season. And Kupp was targeted just three times, hauling in two passes for 15 yards.

If Sam Darnold read correctly.... Cooper Kupp TD. pic.twitter.com/ortZ354bU2

— Alexandre Castro (@alexcastrofilho) September 9, 2025

Darnold got a significant downgrade in offensive line play going from the Vikings to the Seahawks. Seattle's general manager, John Schneider, invariably has one of the cheapest offensive lines in football, and it shows up in the film and stat sheets. They struggle to pass-block and often have very little depth.

It might take just one key offensive line injury for things to get even worse, and Darnold hasn't played well when pressured for the vast majority of his career. Darnold passed for the third-fewest yards in Week 1, only more than J.J. McCarthy in his first career game and Tua Tagovailoa, who played an awful game in Week 1.

The Seahawks will face the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have a very good defense, though they did struggle in Week 1 against the New York Jets. But the Jets had great blocking in the trenches, especially from rookie OL Armand Membou. Seattle finished 21st in ESPN's run block win rate in 2024. We could see a lot of Darnold getting walloped by Pittsburgh All-Pro pass-rusher T.J. Watt.

Calvin Ridley, Tennessee Titans 

Ridley might languish for yet another season under the tyranny of having another poorly performing quarterback. Last season, Ridley was one of the top wide receivers in the league -- at earning targets that turned into big chunks of uncatchable air yards.

This year doesn't appear to be much different. The Titans spent their No. 1 overall pick on QB Cam Ward, and likely entered the season with high hopes. Fantasy managers who selected Ridley had plenty of hope as well, but hope doesn't translate into on-the-field production.

Cam Ward was objectively awful in Week 1. Idk why ESPN is trying to gaslight you

1.82 ANY/A [2nd-worst of 32 QBs]
35.7% highly-accurate throw rate [worst]
-9.7% CPOE [2nd-worst]
67.9% catchable throw rate [6th-worst]
42.9% pressure to sack [4th-worst]@FantasyPtsData https://t.co/Wa7rfo1xu9

— Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) September 9, 2025

Ward struggled massively in his professional debut. Though there was a lot of positive reporting, because he genuinely did make a few impressive plays and throws, he massively struggled with accuracy. He was the worst in the NFL in Week 1 in highly-accurate throw rate, a statistic that measures... highly accurate throws.

He also completed nearly 10 percent less than expectation of his pass attempts. Expected completion percentage is based on the depth of the throw. And he had a very low average net yards per attempt rate and catchable throw rate. He also killed a lot of his team's offensive drives by taking unnecessary sacks.

Gifted a chance for a field goal, Cam Ward retreats 12 yards and takes a horrific sack.

Ward, Williams, Sanders… all trying to be Mahomes, but the terrible pocket presence and game awareness needs to be fixed. pic.twitter.com/msI4Efk8of

— Dynasty Zoltan (@DynastyZoltanFF) September 7, 2025

Maybe you really want to believe ESPN's weird spin that everything was the fault of his receivers and that his paltry 12 completions on 28 attempts for a miserly 112 passing yards was actually a good thing, and that his ball placement and constant throwing of fastballs like an angry baseball pitcher are actually good things.

That passing production is miserable for the fantasy values of his receivers, and he has a massive amount of work to put into his game to make things better. That's unlikely to come quickly. To make matters worse, the Titans, with their poor pass-protecting offensive line, will face the fearsome Los Angeles Rams pass-rush in Week 2.

The Rams played the Houston Texans in Week 1. C.J. Stroud, Houston's starting quarterback, was pressured on a ridiculous 52.9 percent of his dropbacks in Week 1, which ranked second in the NFL, only behind Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts, who hung on to the ball for 20 percent longer. Ward might take even more sacks this week, and the pressure will make things very hard for him and his WRs. Ridley should be benched.

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