If you’ve been reading my articles this preseason, you know I am a big fan of waiting on wide receiver this year. There are just so many good values at the position throughout the draft.

Early this preseason I wrote an article on the zero WR strategy which is a good overview explaining my love for the late round receiver. In this piece I’ll look at some good valued receivers throughout the draft, not just at the very end.

Editor's note: Be sure to check out our Who To Draft Tool, a free player comparison tool which can help you make decisions on who to draft. Need to choose between a few players? Not sure who to pick next? Compare any two NFL players and see which is recommended for your drafts.

 

2015 Fantasy Football Draft Values & Sleepers

Jeremy Maclin, Chiefs - Fantasy Pros ADP WR24, My WR21

I can certainly understand why people are drafting Maclin as a low-end WR2. Alex Smith threw a grand total of zero touchdowns to wide receivers. That obviously means Maclin is destined for a big decline this year right? Not so fast! The super conservative pass attack that Alex Smith has run in Kansas City is partly on him for sure, but partly the result of a truly dreadful receiver corps. Jeremy Maclin is one piece of a big overhaul since Reid arrived. Smith himself wants the deep ball to be a bigger part of the offense.

One of the popular arguments against Maclin is that Alex Smith has never had a 1000 yard receiver. While this is true over a whole season, Alex Smith’s final sixteen games as a starter with the 49ers between 2011-12 reveal a different story. Michael Crabtree put up an 85-1049-7 line during that span. Crabtree was a really good player at this time but if you ask me, Maclin is even better and capable of more.

With a much improved set of receivers around him (Albert Wilson and Chris Conley, regardless of how well they play, are surely upgrades over the likes of Junior Hemingway, Jason Avant and Frankie Hammond) expect at least a somewhat less conservative Alex Smith this year. This has already manifested itself in the preseason where Maclin has two games with a touchdown despite limited playing time. Don’t let the previous Chiefs offensive woes scare you, Maclin will be a solid WR2.

 

Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals - Fantasy Pros ADP WR35, My WR23

Fitzgerald’s ADP is one I really don’t get. He definitely struggled with Drew Stanton and Ryan Lindley at quarterback last year, but there are very few receivers who wouldn’t have. With Carson Palmer around (aka a decent, not horrible QB) it was a totally different story. His per game numbers in six Palmer starts were five catches for 80 yards with two total touchdowns. That’s an extremely fantasy relevant player.

Could Palmer get hurt again? Sure, it’s possible. I’m not the type to assume an injury is going to happen though, so I’m looking at this situation as if Palmer will be there for at least the majority of games. Fitzgerald is the one of the very best receivers of the past decade. He had five top-5 WR finishes over a span of seven seasons. Even though age may have taken a small toll on his body, Fitzgerald still finished firmly in WR2 territory with 16 games of Palmer two years ago and would have done it again last year. Even at age 32 I feel very good about Fitz as long as he has a decent QB to throw him the ball.

 

Kendall Wright, Titans - Fantasy Pros ADP WR48, my WR35

Another player that should benefit from a QB upgrade. Wrigh was a very good player in 2013 when he put up a 94-1079-2 line with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jake Locker. Last year he did have Zach Mettenberger who wasn’t bad, but he also had 10 starts of Charlie Whitehurst and Jake Locker. Even then over just 14 games he put up a line of 57-715-6 which was good enough for WR36 in standard. That seems like his floor to me and yet his ADP is far below that.

If we look at just his numbers with Zach Mettenberger, Kendall Wright was on pace for over 1000 yards in a full 16-game season. So even last year he was still putting up similar yardage to his 2013 season when he had a capable QB. I really like Marcus Mariota and I think he’ll be capable of getting the ball to Wright a lot.

Mariota had his most work to date in the third preseason game and Wright was his favorite receiver. Wright had three catches for 60 yards, easily the most of any receiver that Mariota threw to. In fact Mariota threw for just 99 yards total in 11 pass attempts. If that chemistry carries into the regular season, we’re in for Wright’s best season yet. Either way I definitely stand by the belief that last year’s finish as WR36 would seem to be the floor. That means Wright is a very undervalued receiver that you shouldn’t be afraid to grab a little earlier than most would expect!

 

DeVante Parker, Dolphins - Fantasy Pros ADP WR52, My WR36

Parker has had some injuries which is the reason for his cheap value in redraft. He has missed all of the preseason so far following foot surgery, but he is still set to appear in the first regular season game or at least very soon after. Parker’s injury is not enough to stop me from drafting a guy that has all the necessary attributes to be a star.

If you look on his Player Profiler page you’ll find a lot to like. He’s got good size at 6’3” to go along with good 4.45 40 speed that puts him in the 86th percentile for height-adjusted Speed Score. He was also extremely productive in college when on the field in college. He put up an awesome 90th percentile college dominator rating at a major conference (ACC). In six games as a senior he averaged an incredible 140 yards per game, finishing under 100 yards just once. His production didn’t falter against the best teams either. His 214 yards against Florida State were his most while he also put up 120 yards in their bowl game against Georgia.

To me Parker looks like he could be a really special player right from the start. His best comp on Player Profiler is A.J. Green who is a similar size and speed and was very productive as a rookie. I also am a fan of the Dolphins offense this year and I like Ryan Tannehill’s chances to take another step forward. Even with a pretty good group of receivers (Jarvis Landry, Kenny Stills, Greg Jennings and Jordan Cameron) to compete with, I still think Parker could be the star. While everyone else is excited about Jarvis Landry, take advantage of that and draft Parker at an incredibly cheap price.

 

Rueben Randle, Giants - Fantasy Pros ADP WR79, My WR57

Alright, at WR57, I’m not exactly a huge fan of Randle but I apparently like him a lot more than most. Despite Odell Beckham Jr’s insane rookie season, Randle himself had a mini breakout as the Giants WR2 and had a respectable line of 71-938-3 which put him at WR35 on the season. I think the main reason a lot of people are avoiding Randle this year is that he was pretty hyped up last year (I recall one prominent expert having him in the top 50 overall).

Randle disappointed by appearing to have a lot of mental issues on the field with bad routes that led to interceptions and some bad dropped passes. Having burned many fantasy players last year, he is totally free this year. The reality is that Randles improved on his negative issues last year. Per Pro Football Focus he had a much better drop rate than 2013, fewer interceptions on targets to him and a better catch rate. This was all despite playing a much higher percentage of snaps and seeing almost 50 more targets. For some reason it seems like the fantasy community completely ignore Randle’s major problems in 2013, but then penalized him for those same issues in ‘14 despite some improvements.

Of course one of the big reasons for Randle’s cheap value is the return of Victor Cruz. Cruz is coming back from a very serious injury and we have to consider the possibility that he isn’t the same player he was pre-injury. There is also the idea that the WR3 in Ben McAdoo’s (Giants OC) offense may be a relevant player. Preston Parker was the WR3 for most of last season and managed to put up 400 yards and a couple touchdowns. Even with Randle’s faults he is a far better player than Parker.
With a full season of both OBJ and Cruz, we could see Manning’s passing yardage hit 4800+. That doesn’t seem far fetched when he threw for 4400 last year while missing a combined 14 games from his two best receivers. If that is the case that would mean even with another big season from OBJ and a decent season from Cruz we could still get some decent numbers from Rueben Randle as well. In deeper leagues Randle makes a lot of sense to take late in a good offense  that saw both of its top receivers miss several games last year.

 

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