We’re two games into Week 1, and I’m ready to start calling to the masses to bring me your tired, your poor, your wearyāetc. The fantasy football community has dealt with enough injury frustration, injury-reporting sketchiness, injury volume, and general personnel/roster mess-abouts that it already feels like setting a lineup is a vaudevillian event. Circus type stuff out there, right now, guys. A silly kind of bad.
So no pageantry this week, and even less so as we go throughout the season. It’s Friday, and Five Lists of Five is back like baggy jeans, man.
Soundbite-length blurbs with advanced analysis on my favorite plays of the week. We begin now with my Top five must-start wide receivers for fantasy football Week 1. Here are my other offerings for the week:
- Top five must-start RBs for fantasy football Week 1
- Top five FLEX plays for fantasy football Week 1
- Top five fantasy football players to stash ahead of NFL Week 1
- Top five fantasy defenses to start for NFL Week 1
Fantasy football Week 1: Top five wide receivers to start
Chris Olave, New Orleans Saints (vs. Detroit Lions)
Detroit very well may keep New Orleans throwing well into the afternoon, and I’m perfectly happy to let Chris Olave vacuum that volume. He caught 100 passes on 156 targets last season, with 30 of those receptions coming on third down. Tyler Shough already knows where to look when moving the sticks needs a sure bet. Hard to overstate how valuable that synergy is as the Saints carry themselves into a road opener against an offense that can score in a hurry.
The Shough/Olave connection improved considerably after Week 10, when Olave averaged 9.9 targets and 86 receiving yards per game(!). Kellen Moore committed to more underneath work in Olave’s route tree. Those shorter completions let Olave stay involved while the longer routes developed and distracted the top level of the secondary. And the Lions’ secondary is already/still decimated by injuries at the safety position.
CB D.J. Reed can still make an outside release difficult for Olave. I wouldn’t describe every route as a cakewalk, and Juwan Johnson will still command attention from Shough over the middle. But with Jordyn Tyson sidelined, New Orleans has precious little reason to ration its best receiver’s opportunities. Moving Olave around should help Moore keep finding him. DeVaughn Vele is a fine sleeper.
I liked Olave at his third-round price, and I’d start him with top-eight expectations Sunday. His 29% season-long target share in 2025 is absolutely elite by every measure, and exactly the sort of number you look to scale across and improve upon season-to-season. I like seven catches as a median, and there’s room for considerably moreāincluding paydirtāshould Detroit bludgeon New Orleans’ defense early.
Garrett Wilson, New York Jets (vs. Tennessee Titans)
The Jets have asked Garrett Wilson to overcome enough lousy quarterback play for one career. I’m happy to give him another go with Geno Smith, whose arrival should put more of those sharp breaks to use. Wilson cleared 1,000 yards in each of his first three seasons, with hefty, ascending reception counts each year (83, 95, 101). Last year’s knee injury blew up the full ascension, and all my GW5 jetfighter dreams in 2025.
Smith should make throwing the ball a more regular part of the afternoon. Over the past three seasons, he dropped back on 64% of his offensive plays, compared with 54.5% for Justin Fields. Different offenses contributed to those numbers, of course. Still, I’d welcome more post-snap time for GW5 to get through his route and find the ball coming. As opposed to, of course, watching another useless scramble develop behind him.
Robert Saleh has seen those routes before, having coached Wilson with the Jets, and Tennessee added Alontae Taylor and Cor’Dale Flott to help its coverage. I expect a better defense than the one that gave receivers so much last year. Wilson will have to work for his catches. He usually does. I’ve got him around WR13 for the opener, comfortably ahead of his WR20 draft price. Breece Hall can keep the defense occupied underneath; Wilson is the receiver I’d trust Smith to find beyond it. Even if the Jets spend Sunday grinding out first downs instead of touchdowns, I expect Wilson to have a significant hand in keeping them moving.
DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles (vs. Washington Commanders)
I’ve wanted Philadelphia to make more of Sim Reaper for years, and A.J. Brown being in New England (get well soon, AJB!) finally gives the Eagles an opening. Smith caught 77 passes for 1,008 yards last season while stuck in a 1A/1B-but-mostly-1A role with Brown still in the building. There was always, we knew, an awfully-excellent and oft-decorated receiver standing opposite Brown all along.
Check out Smith’s averages in the games without Brown so far in his career: nine targets and 89 receiving yards per game, up from seven and 64 when Brown lined up alongside him. It’s only five games, but still. Two extra targets would be a substantial improvement for a receiver who already knows how to shake a corner and blow by a safety. Smith will do a lot of the work on his own this seasonāyou just watch.
Washington is already without Trey Amos, and Mike Sainristil figures to draw some of Smith’s outside alignments. Sainristil will have to respect Smith’s devastating inside break; Slim can make that hesitation costly when he snaps back toward the boundary for an out route. I’d expect new and much-ballyhooed coordinator Sean Mannion to keep him moving before the snap, too. Hurts should get plenty of presnap looks at how Washington intends to cover him.
I’d start Smith as a WR1 here, without a doubt. Dallas Goedert and Makai Lemon will get theirs, and Hurts and Saquon Barkley run up the score by falling over the goal line. I’m betting Smith will pile up the receptions first. Nine targets against this secondary would give him ample opportunity to do it.
Tetairoa McMillan, Carolina Panthers (vs. Chicago Bears)
Carolina wants Tetairoa McMillan working inside more often, and Chicago arrives with a decimated secondary, including no Kyler Gordon, to handle opposing slot alignments. HC Dave Canales will be eager to test that matchup Sunday with his second-year stud out of Arizona. McMillan already established himself as a massive target as a rookie (70 catches, 1,014 yards, seven TDs). Scheming him open for Bryce Young to sling him a few easier completions strikes me as a sensible next step, and they might be in position to upset the Bears on Sunday by establishing McMillan in the slot.
An enormous amount of Carolina’s passing game went through him downfield: 43.3% of the team’s air yards, second highest in the league. McMillan ranked 13th in expected fantasy points per game but finished 21st in actual production. Young left some good opportunities unfinished, and an offense this dependent on one receiver should be finding him a few less demanding catches.
Moving McMillan into the slot gives Young a chance to do that. McMillan was more productive per route inside than outside last year (2.12 yards versus 1.90), and projected slot corner Cam Lewis allowed a 70.9% completion rate with Buffalo. Canales will most certainly test Lewis early, often, relentlesslāyou name it. Let McMillan release into space, cross the linebackers’ faces, and give Young that big target he loves so much before the pass rush makes him erratic.
Jaylon Johnson remains a much less inviting opponent outside, so Carolina needs to follow through on moving McMillan. Jalen Coker will getāhopefully and most gloriouslyāwork there, too. I have McMillan around WR16 Sunday, three places ahead of his WR19 draft price.
Parker Washington, Jacksonville Jaguars (vs. Cleveland Browns)
I love Parker Washington’s shot to lead Jacksonville’s receivers in production Sunday, and the production profiles of Brian Thomas Jr. and Jakobi Meyers have’t talked me out of it. Last year’s shared-field snaps should have us all hyped. With all three receivers out there, Washington earned a 35% target share and averaged 3.14 yards per route. Thomas checked in at 18% and 1.38; Meyers at 22% and 1.20. Washington was getting the ball with both alternatives available to Trevor Lawrence.
The sample size for the above numbers amounts to just 159 snaps across six games, which isn’t a lot. It’s still, however, enough to get my attention. And the attention of the entire fantasy community this offseason! Washington might be the trendiest wide receiver in 2026 draft kits.
Washington’s broader production is encouraging, too. From Week 7 onward, Washington ranked WR18 in PPR scoring while commanding 21% of Jacksonville’s targets. His WR29 draft price still asked for quite a bit of skepticism about work he’d already earned.
Cleveland should see plenty of him inside on Sunday. Washington lined up in the slot on 64% of snaps with BTJ and Meyers on the field, and this will afford him a way to avoid some of Denzel Ward’s outside coverage. CB Myles Harden has considerably less experience in the middle. I like Washington working underneath Thomas’ deeper routes, where Lawrence can find him before the coverage catches on. Washington’s great in space and after the catch.
Meyers will take his share, and a comfortable lead could persuade Jacksonville to keep running. I still want Washington in my WR3 spot. Lawrence has shown whom he’s willing to feed with everybody out there, and Washington keeps separating and himself open.
