When looking forward to the 2025 fantasy football season, the position that often brings the most intrigue to most fans is the Wide Receiver position. When we think about this position, I often break them down into archetypes. This week, let’s take a look at some of the guys who don’t offer a ton, but still have a space on fantasy football rosters.

What Defines  A “Cream of the Crop” WR?

The title here truly says it all. These are the guys you’re thinking of when you’re thinking of your WR1 for the 2025 fantasy football season. These are the elite guys who earn targets all over the field, earn a lot of those targets, and truly can set your season up for success. That said, there are still ways you can exploit value from these guys, as the market can often over- or undervalue certain players in this tier due to a variety of reasons. When the market overadjusts, we must attack.

 

 


 

Elite Wide Receivers for 2025

In my mind, there is a clear tier of six wide receivers that fall into that elite tier of wide receivers. These players are Justin Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, Malik Nabers, Puka Nacua, and Amon-Ra St. Brown. These players are prime examples of the elite level of WR play we want in our wide receiver one slot on our fantasy rosters, as they earn a ton of targets, and earn them at the aDOTs we look for. That said, there are still value tiers to exploit between these players.

Looking at FantasyPro’s consensus ADP thus far in 2025, the WRs are drafted as follows:

While each of these player go in the first round, we can exploit the value held by some of these late round WRs. When a player like ARSB, Puka, or Nabers falls even slightly past ADP, these become players that we can target in the 2nd round of the draft, that offer similar or greater upside to some of the WRs drafted ahead of them. These create unique team-building opportunities that allow us to potentially snag two elite WRs or build around one of these players while still being able to draft an elite RB.

 

 

 

Draft Strategy for Elite WRs and (potentially) Elite WR Targets

The Bread and Butter of the WR group, you really can’t go wrong with any of these players, but one of the biggest ways to set your team apart is by identifying the next “elite” WR. I’m not talking about the guys in the tier just below this one, such as A.J. Brown, but rather WRs who can truly take that jump to the overall WR1. A few such players are:

Ladd McConkey

My personal favorite wide receiver from his class, Ladd, proved a lot of people wrong by debuting with 15.1 PPR PPG, good for a WR16 finish. Ladd debuted with a 24.5% target share, with an aDOT of 10.0. He is a true slot WR, recording the 6th most snaps out of the slot, but had an all-around game that can truly allow a breakout to happen. While he had a few WR2 finishes in weeks 1 through 7, he truly broke out in week 8 with a 29.1 point performance, good for WR2 on the week. From this point forward, he was a top 12 WR and is likely to take another step this year in his 2nd season in the NFL.

Brian Thomas

Much like Ladd, BTJ had a breakout season as a rookie, recording 16.7 PPR PPG, good for WR11 overall. BTJ was a bit more boom or bust than Ladd and started a bit slower, but once he recorded his first WR1 finish in Week 4 against Houston, he was PPG WR8 the rest of the way. With Trevor Lawrence back healthy, a new offensive-minded head coach in Liam Coen, and quality options to help soften coverage, BTJ could be the next WR to truly take the jump into the elite tier. 

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

JSN was a bit of a non-factor as a rookie, but broke out last season with a 14.9 PPR PPG season, good for WR17 overall. He led all WRs in snaps out of the slot, was 6th in routes run, and while he didn’t offer the ceiling of BTJ or Ladd, he offered a much more consistent floor, with only 3 weeks where he finished outside the top 36 WRs. With a change at QB, the departure of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, and another year under his belt, JSN could sneak into that top tier of WRs.