PPR wide receiver rankings for 2020 fantasy football (9/4 update)

September 3 update: As we close in on our drafts, I’m not as confident in “my guys” as I usually am, but I do have them and gave them a little nudge in this update. Here are a few of the wide receivers I’ve been grabbing in drafts:

Chris Godwin — There hasn’t been much noise out of him in camp, but he doesn’t need to make any. He showed his ability last season and Tom Brady isn’t going to be as accurate on the deep ball to Mike Evans at age 43.

Adam Thielen/Davante Adams — These two receivers have extremely similar circumstances as the de facto top target without much competition around them. 150 to 175 targets is a given if they stay healthy.

T.Y. Hilton — Hilton’s injury history is concerning, but I’m buying this Colts team with Rivers at the helm and Hilton’s ADP is out of whack with his ability.

Marquise Brown — It appears that the Ravens No. 1 wide receiver took his health and conditioning quite seriously in the off season. Injuries hurt his rookie year, but he’s in a great spot to shine this season and at an ADP I can get behind.

Sterling Shepard — A healthy Shepard is easily the Giants No. 1 receiver but his ADP isn’t even in the realm of a good No. 1 receiver right now.

Jamison Crowder — The Jets aren’t going to be that good, but Crowder is healthy and should lead the team in targets while being cheap in drafts.

DeSean Jackson — Without Jalen Reagor and Alshon Jeffery the first couple games, Jackson should get off to a good start and if he somehow stays healthy, he’s going to have some blow up games on the cheap.

August 28th update: With just two weeks until the season opener between the Chiefs and Texans, your fantasy football drafts are closing in fast. So far, knocking on wood while crossing my fingers, no prominent wide receivers have gone down with season-ending injuries in training camp. That will likely change, as it always seems to happen, but we haven’t had to make any drastic changes in the rankings.

There are injuries though and they will impact rankings, especially as we get closer to Week 1. Some of the more prominent players have been Tyrell Williams, Mike Williams, A.J. Green, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel. Thankfully, the majority of these injuries shouldn’t linger too far into the season, if at all.

Jalen Reagor, Jerry Jeudy, Chase Claypool, Joe Reed, Keelan Cole, Parris Campbell, Van Jefferson, and Auden Tate have been too good in training camp not to give them a slight bump.

Check out our printable drafting tiers!

The NFL season is just about set to get underway. This year, we have no preseason games and media coverage will be limited due to Covid-19. It’s going to be tougher to evaluate camp battles, but it’s never been that easy either. That makes fantasy football draft preparations a little different than in recent seasons.

Below you will find our fantasy football wide receiver PPR rankings. Training camp is meaningful and what we learn over the next 20-plus days will help us rank these players more accurately. But, the bulk of evaluation has been done already. At this point rankings will move based on injuries, camp battles, and even hype.

Tier 1

Michael Thomas probably should get his own tier, as he’s unstoppable, but Davante Adams is set up for a ton of work as the only consistent target in the Packers offense. Thomas should see fewer targets with Emmanuel Sanders added in New Orleans, but he will still be one of the top targeted receivers in the league on a strong offense. I could see grabbing Adams as the first wide receiver off the board, but I lean toward Thomas being safer.

Tier 2

Your usual suspects are in Tier 2 with Tyreek Hill, DeAndre Hopkins, Julio Jones, Adam Thielen, and Chris Godwin, all bunched up behind Thomas and Adams. All of these receivers can make a run at the No. 1 spot as long as they and their quarterbacks can stay healthy.

Tier 3

Tier 3 is extremely stout this season, giving us a good chance to grab running backs early and still grab good receivers like Kenny Golladay, Allen Robinson, Mike Evans, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Amari Cooper, Odell Beckham Jr., D.J. Moore, Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, and T.Y. Hilton. Sure, I’d love to have Adams, Thomas, Hill and their ilk, but I also don’t want to miss out on a high-upside three down running back. It all depends on how a draft is playing out, but grabbing a running back early doesn’t preclude you from getting stout wide receivers on your team.

Tier 4

DeVante Parker, Tyler Lockett, Marquise Brown, D.K. Metcalf, and Keenan Allen start up Tier 4, but there isn’t a big jump down from Tier 3. We could probably push these two tiers into one huge tier, as they all have similar upside.