I know a lot of people have drafts soon, so I wanted to make sure I got my WR tiers up. As I mentioned in my TE tiers piece, this is peak chaos season with season-long rankings, preseason projections/betting, podcasts, articles, and Week 1 model prep all overlapping. So I moved heaven and earth a bit to get this done in time.
But another reminder: these tiers are meant to be more of a high-level look at how I’m approaching the position, along with some strategy thoughts and specific players I think are important in each tier. When you’re actually on the clock, you should still be using my updated ranks in our season-long tools.
Those are updated daily and can be customized based on your league settings. This written piece is based on my ranks at the time I’m writing it, so think of it more as the “why” behind the ranks, not the exact draft board to follow pick by pick.
As always, I’m basing my commentary around a 12-team, 0.5 PPR, 4-point passing TD league that starts QB/RB/RB/WR/WR/WR/Flex/K/DEF.
I’m well aware no two leagues are exactly the same, and your format may have wrinkles that change the value of certain positions. 0 points for a reception? Derrick Henry becomes more valuable. Full PPR? Derrick Henry becomes less valuable. 6 points for a passing TD? Dak Prescott gets a boost, while Malik Willis takes a hit. Only start 2 WR? Getting multiple WRs early becomes less urgent. 10-team league? Onesie positions like QB/TE become a bit less valuable because the waiver wire is even deeper. 14+ teams? QB/TE become more valuable because the waiver wire gets thinner. Start 2QB? Well, QB becomes WAY more valuable.
Be sure to check out all the updates we made for the 2026-2027 NFL season to our Season-Long, Best Ball, and Survivor tools.
Having said that, let’s get to my WR tiers and strategy.
I personally think WR is the most important position to lock up your starters early, specifically in leagues that start 3 WRs. That doesn’t mean I’m not also attacking RB early, and I’ll get into some of those wrinkles below. But WR is usually the toughest position to find reliable in-season help from the waiver wire, which is why I tend to care so much about building a strong WR room.
I’ve also had a lot of people ask me to clarify who “my guys” are, and I’m not sure how much more I can possibly talk about Luther Burden, so naturally I added another 500+ words on him below.
The bigger point is that when I go into a draft, I’m not dead set on any specific position or player at every spot. That’s how you get yourself in trouble. You have to let your league, draft room, and draft slot dictate which players you even have access to and then choose from the small pool of players who make sense when you’re on the clock.
Use my overall ranks to help get through the first couple of rounds, and then from there it becomes more about positional need. That’s where the tiers can help show which players I’m projecting in each range and how I’m thinking through the position.
If I have time over the next week, I can try to put together a “perfect start to a draft” type piece, but those are usually an exercise in futility because nothing ever goes exactly as planned.
Wide Receiver Rankings & Tiers
Tier 1
- Ja’Marr Chase
- Puka Nacua
Both of these WRs are neck and neck when it comes to deciding who should be the 1st WR off the board, but with Puka becoming a concern due to his off-field antics, I would lean toward Chase to be safe.
Tier 2
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba
- Amon-Ra St. Brown
If you’ve read my Tiers pieces preseason and in-season over the years, you know how high I’ve been on JSN and his Amon-Ra-like ceiling potential. He was the WR I targeted the most last year, with him finally becoming the true alpha in the offense, entering his prime, and playing under OC Klint Kubiak. Sure enough, he became a league winner and is now in the same tier as Amon-Ra.
It cracks me up to see analysts looking for “this year’s JSN,” similar to last season with the “who is this year’s Bucky Irving?” discussion. If you recall, I was super high on him as well.
The honest answer is there really isn’t a WR who fits the reasons I was high on JSN last year. Luther Burden is the closest thing, but he’s still capped a bit by Rome Odunze/Colston Loveland. We really just need to appreciate how great it was to land JSN last year around the 3rd round and go from there.
Tier 3
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
