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The 2022 NFL regular season gets started on Thursday, September 8. If you haven’t held your fantasy draft yet, that is your deadline to get it done. The preseason has come, and there is no other game action between now and the start of the season. Rosters are being finalized, but we have a solid idea of who will have a good chance of fantasy success. With that in mind, here are tips, risers and fallers for wide receivers in standard fantasy football leagues this year.
The lack of additional points per reception in standard formats hurts wide receivers. That doesn’t mean that you should punt the position. Even in a first round likely dominated by running backs, there will still be some wideouts with first round value. Cooper Kupp was the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year last season and hasn’t shown many signs of slowing down.
Justin Jefferson took big strides last season and is now being drafted as the WR2 overall. If Ja’Marr Chase takes the typical step forward seen in second-year wide receivers, the league could be in for a world of hurt this year. I still think that Davante Adams will have a great year even on a new team with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Michael Pittman Jr. has experienced a meteoric rise since last year. Even with running back Jonathan Taylor leading the league last year and a new quarterback in Matt Ryan, he is being drafted as the WR12 in the third round of 12-team leagues. Amon-Ra St. Brown and Gabriel Davis are two young receivers that are being taken as the WR21 and 22 in standard leagues that have high expectations in their offense this year.
Do you have faith in Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith? If you said yes, then you can get insane value in DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. annual top-15 fantasy wide receivers, Metcalf has dropped to WR19 while Lockett plummeted to WR41. These are guys I am avoiding this year, and the only way I will draft them is if everyone else avoids them more. Russell Gage had hype in the preseason as the third receiving option for Tom Brady. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers then went out and signed Julio Jones, and Gage’s role in the offense went back to mediocrity. Feel free to still draft him, but do it with lowered expectations.