Best ball draft targets: Wide receivers

With the NFL season on the horizon, that means fantasy football is right around the corner. One of the emerging fantasy football formats is best ball. The most common form of fantasy football is redraft which means you are drafting a new team each season. You then tinker and set your lineup each week, you can add and drop players and you can pursue trades.

When it comes to best ball, though, it is all about the draft. In best ball leagues, you will draft your team and then the platform you play on will automatically give you the best lineup possible on a week-to-week basis. You don’t have to do anything with your team after the draft so you are able to reach on players that may not be as prominent because they could go off a few weeks and you won’t have to lament leaving them on your bench!

Here are five wide receivers with upside that you should target in your best ball drafts.

Marquise Brown, Arizona Cardinals

New team, who dis? Brown reunites with his college quarterback Kyler Murray. When they played together in the 2018 season, Brown finished with 75 receptions for 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns. Yes, that was four years ago, but their rapport should be able to pick up where it left off. Teammate DeAndre Hopkins will miss the first six games of the year, but Brown’s value isn’t affected. With Hopkins around that takes the pressure off Brown, but he will still have a great output and a high target share throughout the season.

Brandin Cooks, Houston Texans

Cooks continues to fly under the radar no matter what team he plays on. This is a scenario where someone is going to have to catch passes in Houston and Cooks is talented enough to make the draft pick worth it. I think that he is perfect for best ball because you never have to decide if you think that the current week is when he will go off or not. You can just sit back and benefit from the inevitable handful of weeks that he is going to finish as a top-five wide receiver in fantasy.

JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kansas City Chiefs

Smith-Schuster is on a prove-it deal with the Chiefs and is coming off an injury. He is not going to come close to replacing the production of Tyreek Hill, who is now with the Miami Dolphins. Smith-Schuster is going to have a significant upgrade at quarterback and is motivated. Patrick Mahomes has helped nobody receivers look average. When he gets to pair up with the above-average Smith-Schuster, it will equate to fantasy relevance.

Robert Woods, Tennessee Titans

Woods is being forgotten about since he is coming off an ACL tear that ended his 2021 season with the future Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. Woods is progressing in his recovery and is expected to be good to go for the 2022 season. The Titans made a huge trade in the 2022 NFL Draft sending AJ Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles. They used their returning first-round pick on wide receiver Treylon Burks. He will team with Woods as the primary receiving threats for Tennessee this year and Woods will show he still has something left in the tank even coming off a big injury.

Allen Lazard, Green Bay Packers

Back in the vain of “someone is going to have catch passes in this offense” Lazard has entered the chat. Green Bay made a big move this offense by sending former star wide receiver Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders. They also didn’t re-sign Marquez Valdes-Scantling leaving future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers with Lazard, Randall Cobb, rookie Christian Watson and rookie Romeo Doubs as his primary wide receivers. Someone is going to be fantasy-relevant and Lazard is my pick due to the mix of rapport with Rodgers and current talent level.