Lineup Fantasy Football Show - NEW Top 24 WR Rankings & Tiers | 2026 Fantasy Football

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

Analysis on the Top-24 Fantasy Football WR Rankings & Tiers are here for 2026. Mitch and Mello break down every wide receiver into definitive tiers including true WR1s, high upside picks in your fantasy draft, screaming value in the middle rounds, and even household names you might want to fade this season. 0:00 - Fantasy Football Top 24 WR Rankings & Tiers 0:38 - Ja'Marr Chase 1:38 - Puka Nacua 2:54 - Jaxon Smith-Njigba 4:37 - Amon-Ra St. Brown 5:53 - Justin Jefferson 7:49 - CeeDee Lamb 9:40 - A.J. Brown 11:16 - Drake London 12:56 - Nico Collins 14:30 - George Pickens 16:37 - Rashee Rice 18:34 - Devonta Smith 21:32 - Ladd McConkey 23:28 - Tetairoa McMillan 26:51 - Emeka Egbuka 29:06 - Malik Nabers 31:27 - Chris Olave 33:27 - Zay Flowers 35:24 - Garrett Wilson 36:56 - Tee Higgins 38:20 - Mike Evans 39:55 - Terry McLaurin 41:25 - Carnell Tate 43:42 - Luther Burden III Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are ranking and tiering the top 24 fantasy football wide receivers for 2026. We're breaking down the biggest names, plus a few that your league mates are severely undervaluing. Let's go. Welcome into the live fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And Mello Training Camp is officially here, which means I think it's time for us to do our first true redraft rankings of the summer. So without further ado, I'm going to let you get into the number one wide receiver for fantasy

football in 2026. Yeah, no surprises here. Don't think we have to spend that much time on it. It's Jamar Chase. Yeah, you have an elite talent, an elite passer at quarterback, an elite fantasy environment, elite volume. I'm saying the word elite so much, it doesn't even sound like a real word anymore. But really, what else can you ask for with Jamar Chase? He has the safest floor of any fantasy receiver just as high of a ceiling as any fantasy receiver. We saw that ceiling just a couple of years ago when he went absolutely nuclear in 2024. He's got to be the first receiver off the board. Yeah, like he said, Triple Crown winner back in 2024.

He averaged 21 and a half fantasy points per game last year in PPR with Joe Burrow when healthy. And even with Burrow down, he's playing with Flacco and whatever on earth you want to call that Jake Browning experience. Still finishes the wide receiver four overall and wide receiver three in points per game. I feel like it's a no-brainer. This is a guy that's just always open mellow. You plan that. You plan that. I had to wear my Jamar chase shirt for this one.

But let's get into our second guy. This is another guy that, I mean, if you leave your draft with him, you're going to be really happy. And that's Puka Nakua. Picking Puka Nakua is not going to bite you in the ass. He might bite you in the shoulder. But this is last year's wide receiver one, still attached to Matthew Stafford. All of the talk from last season, and rightfully so, was the emergence of JSN. But Puka scored a full 1.7 points per game more than JSN.

He's got no coordinator change like JSN who lose. loses Clint Kubiak, and you should slot right back into the same role that made him the wide receiver 6, the wide receiver 3, and then the wide receiver 1 in points per game throughout his young career. How can you not love Pooka Nakua? How can you not be romantic about Puka Nakua? How can you not be romantic about Puka Nakua? I know I mentioned Jammar's got to be the first receiver off the board.

Puka, to me, is the only guy I'll accept an argument even over Jammar because Puka himself is also an elite receiver. He also has an elite passer. I just have them a hair lower. I'm not too concerned with the off-the-field stuff. You mentioned the bitten shoulder type of antics. That doesn't really scare me, but it is in the back of my mind. And it also just isn't fun on Sundays when he visits the blue medical tent so frequently you would think he has relatives living there.

That's not a good feeling. But I still love Pukunakuas so much. He is so good, and he still should be the second receiver off the board. Some people have our next guy here at three as their number two, though, and that is Jackson Smith and Jigba of the Seattle Seahawks. Mitch, they don't call just anyone the Amarled City route artist. He earned that nickname. And last year he proved he's in the upper echelon of NFL receivers.

He luckily still has his guy and Sam Darnold slinging him the ball. Sam Darnold helped JSN lead the league in Target Chair last year at over 35%, which is just absolutely ridiculous. I think I'm a tiny bit more worried about the departure of Clinton Kubiak than most people are, but not worried enough to move them outside of my top three. Yeah, you've infected me with that worry about Clint Kubiak, if I'm being honest. I actually want to ask you here, because I'm curious. I don't have a ton to add, but do you think there's a tier break here after JSN,

or do you think we include the next guy? It's like a soft tier. It's like taking a step down the stairs as opposed to a cliff, but I'd say a small tier break, maybe. I think that's fair. And when you're dealing with the S tier guys, I think the S tier is so above and beyond everyone else that if you're even having any hesitation, they got to drop down. But like you said, huge point about Clint Kubiak leaving Seattle to go to Las Vegas. We've made it a

point on our show to always point out not to discount these coordinator changes. Like, the system can be very, very important fantasy production. But Jackson Smith and Jigba last year, second in fantasy points per game, led the NFL in Target share, third in reception, second in and totally PA, second in yards per outrun. We prefer Puka by a hair, but like JASN was a tiny step behind him all season and I think he's more than deserving of the number three spot. Death point. All right, let's get into our first guy of the A tier here. It's so close.

It's razor thin. At number four, we have the guy who's going to finish as the wire receiver three in 2026. That is Amin Rae St. Brown. And Mello, how do I know that? Because he's finished as the wide receiver three in three straight seasons. We know exactly what Amin Ra's role is going to be. And I think because of that, people kind of view him as a dude without a ceiling.

when I don't know what else you call consistently finishing in the top three receivers other than a high ceiling. So for me with Amin Ra, don't confuse consistency with boring. If he's on the board after those top three guys, I grab him every single time, especially in best ball this summer when I see Amman Ra in the middle of the first round. It's like the easiest click in the world. Amin Ra lives in the ceiling. He lives in the attic, if you will. Yes.

He's like a reverse Harry Potter. He's, I mean, we have. having that four here. That is still very high, but you're right. He's outperformed at each of the last three years. So from that one, it's not that high. And barring injuries, I just don't see any scenario that Sun God isn't a top five fantasy receiver in 2026. So it feels like such a good bet. I actually have him at five personally. We have him four at four in our consensus. I feel like both a jerk and a dumbass at the same time for not having him at. I probably am both. I probably need to accept that. Maybe go to therapy for it. But I just can't quit on

the guy we have at five here in our consensus rankings, and that is Justin Jefferson. I am pushing all my chips to the center of the table that JJ will be so back in 2026. When I say JJ, I mean Justin Jefferson. Not J.J. McCarthy. Do not confuse that at all in on J.J. McCarthy. You can throw out that Chernoble-esque McCarthy experiment from last year. And if you do that, Justin Jefferson had been a top five fantasy receiver in points per game four years in a row now. Kyler has supported elite number one past catchers in the past. And just half decent quarterback plays all Jefferson needs.

We've seen it with like freaking Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs and limited sample sizes. J.J. McCarthy is just far worse than half decent. Kyler will get the job done. And I think Justin Jefferson's all the way back. Yeah, we've talked about this how it's not a Kyler Murray conversation. It's a J.J. McCarthy conversation because Justin Jefferson, I want to say he was still going for like seven receptions for 90, yards a game last year with Carson Wentz. So J.J. McCarthy, it's addition by subtraction here in Minnesota. And I know you're our resident Justin Jefferson enthusiast, but like I want it on the

record. I'm also above consensus. You don't have to go all that far back to remember that he was the wide receiver one overall in points per game for 2022, wire receiver five in 20203, wire receiver four in 2024. 2025 was a blip on the radar, a disaster weird situation. I love what you said Chernobyl-esque with J.J. McCarthy. So he's now the wide receiver. receiver six off the board according to most consensus ADP rankings. And I think we're just asking you to trust Kyler Murray a little bit more than JJ McCarthy. And we've seen Kyler do it with, I'm sorry, D'Andre Hopkins, who I think is less talented than Justin Jefferson is now.

And, you know, I trust KOC and his coaching staff to make sure they're going to keep their superstar happy and have a bounce back year for Justin Jefferson. Feed it to me, Mitch. I need it in my veins. Let's drop to number six. This is the guy that most people have as their consensus number five. and that is Sedarian Lamb, wide receiver 1 for the Dallas Cowboys.

Another guy who had a wide receiver 1 overall finish not that long ago back in 2023. He is, I think you would agree, a very tough guy to rank. I don't think he's getting disrespected in the fantasy community because we've still got him as the consensus wire receiver 5,

but I think he's kind of gotten disrespected in NFL discourse just because of the George Pickens breakout. But to me, he is still the clear wide receiver 1 here and should he remain healthy, I think he's a lock to finish as a, wide receiver one. My issue with Pickens more so is that it limits the ceiling. And I think that there's not the potential there to have an overall wide receiver one finish out of CD Lamb anymore,

but I think he's a very safe bet to get enough volume to slot in as a mid to higher end wide receiver one. Yeah, I don't have too much to add there. I think I agree with every single thing you just said. He is tough because he's still relatively young. He has that wide receiver one overall finish like you mentioned, but he just probably won't get back there. It is Pickens. that's really put the damper on things, especially because Pinkins probably was better than Lamb, even when they were both on the field last year. But Lamb wasn't really healthy even when he was on the field.

So as long as he can stay healthy, it's hard for me to imagine CD not leading this team, which is, by the way, a very explosive offense to begin with. I think he'll lead this team in most statistical categories. There's an argument to be made here as well about the fact that Dallas is financially committed to CD Lamb for the future, and they're not necessarily financially committed yet to Georgia. I think there has to be an element of that involved that they're going to try to keep him happy.

Oh, definitely. He's there for the long run, especially after a down year. You don't want him to become the next deeper receiver. You're going to get your boy at the ball when you're paying him that kind of money. And he's good enough to warrant it. Speaking of diva receivers coming in here at 7 is A.J. Brown. I think some people are overthinking this match. We have a tiny bit higher than consensus. But he's a guy who has finished as a wide receiver one four times in his career. His worst finish of his career through seven years was wide receiver 32 in an injury riddled season that he didn't even play a ton. Now he has a young debatably elite quarterback who undebatably is an extraordinary elite deep ball passer, which is exactly what AJ Brown does so well from the outside

of the field. We trust the quarterback. We trust the play caller and Josh Daniels. We should trust Brown and the resume that he has. This just seems like such a slam dunk to me. I agree. I also, I don't think it's debatable. I think Drake May is in a league QV, but, you know, whatever you feel, let us know in the comments. Last season, disaster in the streets of Philadelphia, a cataclysmic offense that caused AJ Brown to go from calmly reading self-help books on the sideline to assassinating the positivity rabbit in the locker room. And through all of that mellow, he finishes as the wide receiver. 11 in fantasy football. He's clearly still got it. PFF's 12th highest grade receiver last season.

Now you pair him with Drake May, who again, I believe is elite, led the NFL in total EPA, completion percentage, and finished second among starting quarterbacks in ADOT. Anything lower than this spot is just too low for AJ Brown to me. I'm glad we're on the same page. We're higher than consensus, but it's warranted. Absolutely. On to number eight, a guy that we actually recently addressed, but let's dive in a little bit deeper. Let's talk some Drake London. I think this is a great spot to revisit our conversation about Tua and Pennix that we had on Monday. And if you missed Monday's episode, our clear takeaway is that we're watching this training camp battle to see who's going to get the starting job.

Because you've illustrated this so clearly with so many statistics that Michael Pennix would be such a massive bump for Drake London, who finished as the eighth highest in fantasy points per game among wide receivers last season. But I'm going to let you add a little bit more color to why Pennix starting is so important for Drake London's production and why Tua would probably bump him down a little bit. bit in our rankings. Thank you. I appreciate you giving me this opportunity. I think I might write my dissertation someday on Drake London stats with Michael Pennex. I got a couple familiar ones for you, a couple new ones even. But London has averaged 21.48 fantasy points per game in 13 games with Pennix over the last two years. To put in perspective how good that is, that would have been good enough for the wide receiver two overall last year and the wide receiver two overall in 2024.

That is how elite the numbers are with Drake London playing with Michael Penix. Not necessarily the most pro-Pennix guy in general. He has his own shortcomings, but he is undisputably great for Drake London and fantasy. So if Pennix can somehow be the starter of the full season, eight might be too low for Drake London. But if it's checked down Tua who refuses to push the ball down the field very often, eight might be too high for Drake London. Yeah, this is a big-time, ambiguous quarterback situation keeping a wide receiver's price down.

Yeah, that is some... Oh, 100%. It's so much of it is dependent on the quarterback. This next guy here at 9, we feel at least more confident in who the quarterback will be, not necessarily how good he'll be, but that is Nico Collins with the Houston Texans. He's been just so consistently reliable for four years now when he's been on the field. He just feels like such a safe bet to give you fringe wide receiver numbers. Picking him is just like comfort food to me.

You just know you're getting something good. You know you're getting something reliable. to play a little bit of devil's advocate against ourselves, though, since we both individually have him at nine, and then obviously nine here in the consensus as well. But last year was the best finish of his career at wide receiver eight overall. So it's fair to ask yourself, are we drafting him at his ceiling,

especially if we see Jaden Higgins and some of these other young receivers start to eat into the target share more, get more involved? I'm not projecting that, but it's something I'm starting to ask myself with Nico. I was actually going to say, and I love Nico Collins, like so much and you know that. But I do have the fear that just because of the nature of this offense and how good the defense is, like, I kind of struggle to see a world where Nico like

blows his ADP out of the water. Like he feels like one of the more low ceiling guys in this range. And so to me, this is like a guy you draft. And like you said, I love comfort food. You lock him in as a mid to low end wide receiver one. You feel good about it. And there's nothing wrong with it. But like you said, the emergence of Jaden Higgins that were so excited about a low pass rate in Houston. It's just, it's tough to project him finishing much higher than like a wide receiver seven or wide receiver eight, especially with the fact that we always get one weird guy sneaking into that top like six or seven in fantasy football. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. On to number 10. We already talked about his teammate, but let's talk about the Y receiver four on the season last year,

and that was George Pickens. I think we as a podcast, as a show, have been a little critical of George Pickens' long-term value. But I don't think that matters for 2026, because he's still in this explosive Cowboys offense with Dak Prescott, the helm, and this defense that forced Dak to attempt 600 passes last season. And I know the defense is better, but like this passing game is still going to be firing. And George Pickens was, as everyone knows, elite last season, third in receiving yards in the NFL, both of the 2.3-4 yards per outrun. He should be a guy that you feel great about having as a Y receiver 1 on your roster. The only thing here is, it'll be interesting to see what his finish looks like if we do

get a healthy CD. But I think it's a similar situation where there's going to be enough volume for him. It's just that the other guy in this offense is limiting the ceiling. Yeah, he's tough similar to CD because they're on the same team. I feel a lot better, even though the situation in Dallas is a little bit murky and ambiguous, I feel a lot better he wasn't traded because that was my big fear early off season. I think he is ultimately best off. in Dallas. I still think he'll be very good.

If CD stays healthy, like you said, though, I think he'll probably reclaim the true wide receiver one role in this offense. Maybe it's fair to be a little worried that this defense could be a little bit better than it was last year, and they maybe don't throw the ball quite as much as they did last year. So all of that kind of brings pickings down for me. But with that said, he was so good last year.

He's unquestionably just electric, such an incredible player, that putting him at 10 feels like a pretty fair compromise, all things considered. He's like the Devod A-chan of White. receivers where he's a guy I have so many concerns about, but if you click that button on draft day because you just want to watch him on Sundays, I literally could not blame you at all. No, he's fun to watch. And they're always on prime time, which like shouldn't factor into who you

draft, but it kind of makes you want to draft him. You get to watch him in front time. You're talking to your drunk uncle Jim at Thanksgiving because you know the cowboys are going to be on. You're like, sorry, got him on my fantasy team. I don't know. I kind of want to talk to drunk uncle gym. That sounds like a pretty good time. Well, Mitch, I'm going to keep the boxing gloves. away, but we're going to be talking about Rishi Rice here coming in at 11, who I know we have some differences on. We've hashed it out. I'll try to be to play nice here, even though you have him at 13, like the hater you are, where I personally have him at 10. I'm actually holding him down a little bit as I anxiously wait to confirm that there will be no suspension, which I don't think there will be, but I'm still kind of waiting. And also, I want to make sure the chiefs don't bring in anyone else, because if they bring in a Stefan Diggs or even like a Dibo Samuel, that definitely does hurt Rishu Rice's value.

But if none of those things happen, I'll probably move them up to my wide receiver six or seven overall, which I think will be much higher than consensus. But I think it's fair given he was the wide receiver four over the stretch that he played last year. He was the wide receiver two over the stretch that he played in 2024. It's just the injuries and then the suspension that have limited or halted him from having the big season long finish. That looks really great on a piece of paper. But on a per game basis, we've seen it so consistently from Rishi Rice in this offense. Yeah, I, okay, as our resident Rishi Rice hater, I will say that my concerns are very much long term. Similar to the pick and situation, honestly, this is actually like very much mirroring it where I'm not so sure about their dynasty value.

But in redraft, I'm actually pretty in on this price. We just grabbed him in our big money best ball league that we do every year in the Dalmatian. And to me, if Rishie is healthy, if Mahomes is healthy, he should crush at this price. He averaged 18.8 fancy points per game last season. and they were both out there. And as the 11th wide receiver off the board, I would gladly take it. I think long term, we'll see what the chiefs do,

but I don't have an issue paying this price here in 2026. That's music to my ears, Mitch. All right, let's jump into number 12. I feel like we've talked a lot about guys that don't quite have a ceiling, but they have a safe floor, blah, blah, blah. Let's talk about a guy that genuinely has an extremely high wide receiver one ceiling

because of how much has changed with their situation. And that is Devontas Smith. A lot of JSN comps out there right now for our 12th receiver off the board are actually last one of the wide receiver one range. In games without AJ Brown in the last two seasons, this is where a lot of these kind of conversations are starting. Tomazza Smith averaged seven receptions for 80 yards with a 35.1% target share.

Last year, with AJ Brown there, he was eighth among all wide receivers and totally PA. But if you bring it back to the JSN comparison, which kind of makes sense, you look at J.S.N. When D.K. left Seattle and we see this big emergence. Now you've got Devonta and A.J. Brown leaves Philadelphia. Do we see something similar? When DeVontas Smith had the opportunity to line up out wide last season, he had a 2.95 yards per route run, tied for third best behind Pooka Nakua, and you guessed it, Jackson Smith and Jigba. So to me, I think the comps are fair. I think there's a world where this Philadelphia offense doesn't bounce back in the wake of Kevin Patul leaving.

But we're two guys that are very high on Jalen Hurts. We're very high on this offense bouncing back. And I have always been someone who's extremely high on the talent of Devontas Smith, former Heisman, former Boletnikov winner. Like, this guy's got the pedigree to be a true wide receiver one. This is one of those bets that I'm really love taking a swing on right now, around the 12th receiver off the board. I don't mind it.

I like DeBontas Smith a lot. I think you're a little bit more excited than me. but I am still very excited. I think he's worth right around where we have him ranked. I love all the statistical evidence you have for just how productive he's been and how talented he is, but it really just boils down to like the simple sentence that DeVantas Smith is good. And he's good. And that shouldn't be a question.

No A.J. Brown in town. It really does make the sky the limit. I think if I'm like sort of hedging against myself and I have any worries, it's just that this Eagles team has been very close to deadlock. and pass attempts each of the last two years. So if that's going to continue to be the case, you bring in Mackay Lemon, who is not as good as AJ Brown, or at least won't be his rookie year,

and we'll play a very different role in the offense. But if he is good enough to take a big enough slice of this already small pie, that is the Philadelphia passing attack, then maybe Smith doesn't really have the ceiling we think he does. But if this offense does bounce back and he still is leaving this team and target share by a wide margin, which he very well could and maybe should, the ceiling is super high and honestly even the floor he's not gonna barring injury he's not gonna fall out of like wider zero two territory

no i yeah i think the volume will be there to give him a pretty safe floor and i just think he's got phenomenal ceiling and i'll let you introduce the next guy but i kind of hate that these guys are going relatively similar in our rankings but at least they're a little far apart in ADP so i can try to snag both when i'm feeling a little frisky i know but honestly we have a stretch of guys coming up here that are all going super close and i I love them all and I think we're a little higher than consensus. But next it is Ladd-McConkie, who, like you said, one of our favorites here at the lineup. We love Ladd-McConkey. We love the upside.

We are way above consensus on Ladd-McConkey, way above. And I will not apologize for it. No. Because I want this versatile number one receiver and a Justin Herbert and a Mike McDaniel offense with a healthy offensive line that should be very good when healthy. All of the ingredients are there for success. And if these wonderful ingredients are cooking up anything in particular, it is a delightful dip, Mitch, because McConkey is going a whole round plus later than he was last year, despite this much-improved situation,

and despite the same talent that he had last year, I'm super hot and bothered by L.Colke right now. Yeah, I think people are forgetting about when the situation was actually good in L.A. two years ago for him, and he finishes the Y Receiver 12, and that's how everyone got burned last year because he obviously shot up in his sophomore season. We look at this year and so much has changed. You bring in Mike Big Daniel as the offensive coordinator. We've seen him prop up guys to Y Receiver 1 finishes, 2 finishes, 3 finishes. You look at, you know, Jalen Waddle, Tyree Kill, Debo Samuel. You also bring back Rishon Slater and Joe Alt, both all pro tackles that went down with injuries last year,

and led to Justin Herbert taking a career-high amount of sacks and a career-high scramble rate because of it. And then you take out Keenan Allen, who was also playing such a similar role to Lab McConkey, and you vacate 122 targets. So I understand if you got burned last year by Lad, but that's how you get these incredible scenarios where people are so scared off of last year's production, but so much has changed here in the background that I think he is such a smash hit

and a guy that genuinely has a wide receiver one overall ceiling. I need it. I want it so bad. Feed me the Ladd full-on breakout this year. All right, on to number 14. We just talked about a guy who disappointed in his sophomore season. Hopefully this guy doesn't do the same. Let's talk about Temeck, Teteroa McMillan. He is someone who's really interesting to me. I think this one might break into a little bit longer of a conversation. I don't know if you've seen the same discourse as I have on

Twitter and people souring on him and not very excited for him this season. And I wonder if it's because of the Ladd-McConkies and the Brian Thomas's last year that disappointed people. And so I get the concerns. He was 23rd in fantasy points for game last season. He only had three games with 15 plus points, only one with 20 plus points. Granted, it was a 33 point outburst, but for me, this is a guy who as a rookie had a thousand yards and seven touchdowns. He was sixth in the entire NFL and totally PA among wide receivers. But what excites me most is the deep playability. Per player profiler, he ranked 10th in explosive plays, fourth in air yard share, fourth in deep target share, and he was ninth in the entire NFL in first read targets. He feels like a ticking

time bomb in fantasy football in the best way possible that the breakout could come. This year, next year, and he's just going to explode on the scene. I'm projecting it, honestly. I think I'm much more bullish on him than most. And I've actually been seeing him fall in a lot of rankings. That's what I'm saying, yeah. A lot of these ADPs, I remember talking about him with you back in March saying, I like T-Mack where he's being ranked now, but he won't be there in July and August, and I'll probably not be super in.

I was right, he's not there, but he's gone the opposite direction of what I thought, which is really like music to my ears and I love seeing it and it's strange because this is normally the time of year we start pumping up these year two receivers way too high in cost to the point where it's ridiculous I think he might be right like last year the Brian Thomas is and the lad McConkey's and like even like the Marvin Harrison Jr's not really pulling it together in year two maybe a scared people away but if McMillan stays put where he is now I think he's an incredible value he's a guy who has top five draft capital you talked about some of those underlying metrics. There's a laundry list of them that we could do a whole episode on if we wanted to for

just how impressive he was as a rookie. He has the makings of the next elite receiver in the NFL, and I think he is absolutely worth a shot in 2026. I think it's funny. We talk about it with player production a lot that when we're ranking these guys, we're so reactive to just what happened the year before. But we also do it when it comes to trends in fantasy. Like if we're burned by sophomore receivers, then we don't rank them as highly the next year. Or you look at like, even just last year still, zero RB was such a popular strategy and now it's by the wayside. And if you don't have a running back in your first two rounds, you're screwed. And so sometimes it's good to, not to, you know, not to always zig when everyone's

zagging, but at least check the market a little bit and make sure we're not overcorrecting in any direction. That is honestly, maybe the best fantasy advice we've ever given on this show. not trying to be hyperbolic or just, you know, trying to hype you up here. But that is so true. People are sheep. I'm guilty of it. I can be sheepish.

I'll follow the pack. I am Sean the sheep. It's, I mean, I think we all are a little bit deep inside. But we have to remember, like, sometimes people do overreact to whatever happened the previous year, whether it's about a player or a trend or a strategy. And sometimes you just kind of got to fade that a little bit and trust your priors to a certain extent. With that said, this next player is another great example of that. We're going into year two for this guy, and it's a mecca, a buca, a guy we absolutely love on this shell. This whole range of guys were super bullish on compared to most, I think.

He didn't have the most complete list of excellent underlying metrics like I talked about with TMAC, but he was hurt for a large part of the year, and Baker was definitely very hurt for a large part of last year. So that obviously hurt the production of Abuka as well. he now goes into year two in a phenomenal situation a pass heavy offense we compared devontasmith to jason i see shades of jason and i just cannot shake them i just keep seeing it even when i try to talk myself out of it at his current cost he's entirely worthy upside to me you wake up in a cold sweat seeing shades of jsn thinking about a mecca abuka um i'll be honest i think you can flip him in timac and i wouldn't fault you here like I put them so similarly, similarly in my rankings. I don't know if you saw the news that came out of Netflix's quarterback show, but Baker Mayfield was dealing with a sprained MCL and PCL from week two on last season.

And obviously we've talked about how Abuka dealt with the hamstring injury from week six on. And prior to that, he was the wide receiver three through five weeks. And I feel like everyone's like, oh, he just fell off. And meanwhile, there's a direct injury report moment that you can look at exactly when the wheels kind of fell off the Abuka hype train. So I'm trusting the talent here. If both these guys stay healthy, I think we see a full-on breakout from Abuka. I also think you see an incredible value in Baker Mayfield right now who's going too late in drafts. And one thing I'll say about him versus T-Mack, I think T-Mack's floor is a hell of a lot safer than Abuka's,

but I think abu-k's ceiling is significantly higher than T-Mak. And I think that if you're really swinging for the fences here with this pick and you're looking at the two of them on your draft board, I would be taking Abuka to swing for the fences. It hurts me to not agree with here because I love Abuka so much. I'm probably taking T-MAC, but honestly, I don't think that's an outrageous take at all. Abuka has incredible upside in 2026. We can disagree on one thing. Let's move on to, we've said a few guys have been tough to rank.

This is by far the toughest guy to rank right now, I think, in all of fantasy football. And that is Malik Neighbors. This ranking is based entirely on the fact that the buzz is telling us we won't see neighbors until week five. We just got a report that he'll probably be at camp, but no confirmation at all about how he looks or whether we'll see him for week one. So if we end up getting the news that he's going to be playing week one, I'm probably moving him directly into my top 10. But let's take a look at the 2024 stats on how good Malik Neighbors was as a rookie and try to project it into what we could see if he gets out on the field this season. He was number one in Target Share in 2024 at 34.91%, which is outrageous. It's the second best in the past four years behind only JSN this past season.

He was the wide receiver two through two short weeks with Russell Wilson last season before that ACL and meniscus tear. And so for me, it's like, imagine what he could do with Jackson Dart in this offense with a full season and like them building the whole thing around him. And so I hope he comes back healthy. I hope that we're wrong about this ranking. and by the time we talk about him in late August, we can be shooting him up to the wide receiver eight or nine, but for now we've got to hold him here because we don't know how many weeks

you're actually going to get out of Malik neighbors. Yeah, I don't have too much to add. I think you covered that very, very well. Eight or nine is probably accurate. We might even have him at like six or seven. If there were truly zero injury risk, and ACL never happened, like he might be a French top five guy for us.

It's just tough that he'll probably open the air on the pup. drafting him is basically just a measurement of how cocky you are. Because if you trust yourself to hit on your late picks enough to scrape together a couple wins early on in the year and your home league with your high school or college buddies, then take the shot because the long-term investment's going to be worth it. But if you're worried that you're going to have to do whatever like degenerate punishment, you and your friends have cooked up in your home league, maybe you fade him because taking a guy that high that isn't going to be playing is a really tough way to start your year.

Yeah, you're punting at least four weeks on that pick, like, at least, maybe more. And who knows if he's up to speed when he gets out there? It's just a, it's an icky situation to be spending a top pick on right now. Yeah, and that's why he's the toughest guy to rank. The next guy we have here, though, easier to rank in that he's somehow healthy, although he's struggled with it throughout his career, but harder for some other reasons. And that's Chris Olavé, who we're actually lower on, than consensus. We have him here as the water receiver.

17. He was a wide receiver 6 last year, which makes our ranking seem mightily disrespectful. The problem is he was sixth in targets as well, which almost inevitably will go down with the addition of Jordan Tyson via the draft. Olave has also only had one top 15 finish his entire career, which was obviously last year. In his defense, a lot of that's been entry induced and not necessarily the fact that he's been bad. But it's still just tough to bet on a guy who's only done at once. He was so dependent on volume. And with all that said, he's honestly someone I could see myself moving down even more as we get closer to the offseason. But curious on your thoughts as well, Mitch. Yeah, here's where I'm at with Alave. And you know I'm an Alave

truther, but what I will admit is so much of what he did last season was based on the volume that he got. And like you mentioned, his price is being suppressed right now by Jordan Tyson. They take him with the eighth overall pick. And I think where we have him ranked here is appropriate when you factor that in. Plus, not to mention, you kind of alluded to it, the concussion issues and the health concerns that kept his price down last year. And I don't think we can just discount and pretend that was never an issue because he didn't have a concussion last season. Like, that's still a thing. I actually do think there's room here for Chris Oliva to become a value. And we just discussed this earlier this week about guys we expect to fly up draft boards during training camp, rookies

specifically. And we didn't mention Jordan Tyson, but you know, George, Gordon Tyson's going to be putting up highlight plays during training camp and people are going to be moving them up the board. And when you get one teammate in the same position room flying up a draft board, the other guy is going to fall. And maybe we end up seeing Chris Alave fall into a value. But I think I kind of have him priced in that way at this ranking. And so I think we've got Chris Alave at the right spot at 17. Yep. I think that's probably fair.

On to number 18, Zayflowers. I think Zayflowers is a value. I think he'll definitely pay off on this price and I don't think he's going to pay off on much more than it. He had 118 targets last season. You get a healthy Lamar Jackson back. Zay should crush in this offense. I think he should be great.

It's just they don't pass enough in this Baltimore offense for it to be like a truly like league winning play. And so he just doesn't have the same upside as some of the previous guys we talked about. But I think you pick Zay Flowers and you're probably getting like the wide receiver 14 for a wide receiver 18 price tag, which is great. Yeah, from that lens, I think we have them too low because I feel really good he'll finish

as the top 18 receivers well. I just don't know how much better than that he'll be, which is I think I'm probably even a little bit more bearish on him than you, but I still do like him because the floor seems so safe. He'll get a huge slice of the Ravens passing volume, but like you said, they don't pass a ton. And then as soon as they get in the red zone, it's Derek Henry, Lamar Jackson with his legs or Mark Andrews. So that definitely heard Zayflowers. He's just a little bit capped in what his ceiling is.

He was, to his credit, the wide receiver seven overall last year. So we were not being generous enough to him. That, however, was largely on the back of a week 18 explosion in a game that from a fantasy perspective didn't matter in all because most leagues at least wrap up in week 17. For real life, it mattered though. So we, I mean, we have to give him his flowers for it. No pun intended, genuinely. He still was very good. Like, it still counts for something on the stat sheet.

I just think wide receiver seven overall is probably his ceiling, and I'd be pretty surprised if he hit it, but it'd also be surprised if he fell lower than, like, the wide receiver 20. I mean, yeah, if he finished Yersiever 7 again, you would be ecstatic with this Yereceiver 18 price tag. Oh, you would blow the ADP out of the water. Yeah. Here's a guy I feel much worse about in terms of the floor match.

That's Garrett Wilson, the New York Jets. I probably would have had him at like 11 or 12 or so if it weren't for what the Jets did to him and the draft to the Marlon Brando, look how they massacred my boy meme. That's how I feel about Garrett Wilson after the draft. Now all of a sudden you have Gino Smith at quarterback on an offense that has half-competent past catchers outside of Garrett Wilson,

which is something we really haven't seen. Garrett Wilson, because of that, has thrived off target share. We talked about it with Chris Olive, who was sixth last year, Garrett Wilson was second in the NFL at 34.3%, which is just an astronomically ridiculous target share. Yeah. And I just don't think the Jets are good enough to support Garrett Wilson as an elite fantasy receiver without that type of target chair. So that's why I'm kind of low on Garrett and maybe still even falling. But he's such an incredible talent.

Like, how do you keep him outside of the top 20? I think you covered it. Exactly. I just, he's so talented and I love watching him and it kills me. But I just cannot in good conscience rank him any higher than this. You go out and you spend first-round draft capital on Sadiq and Cooper. And you bring in Gino Smith, who I guess is an upgrade over Justin Fields, but he's not revving me up. And I think a lot of people have Garrett Wilson ranked higher than us.

And I think you're going to be very disappointed when, like you said, like, without that big of a piece of the pie, he's just not going to be able to pay off on ADP. Those damn New York Jets. Those damn Jets. They ruin everything. On to number 20, let's talk about T. Higgins. Mello, a wise man once told me that T. Higgins has not outperformed his ADP since 2021 when he was the wide receiver 22, and yet he still gets ranked in the top 15 almost every year. That man was you. In fact, he's only been a top 15 wide receiver one time in his career last season when he was literally the widerseer 15.

And so I get it. He's uber talented. He's attached to Joe Burrow. But in my mind, this is Jemar Chase. his team. This is Jamar Chase's passing volume. And we're yet to see the proof that there's enough of that volume to sustain a high-end fantasy finish from T. And so we have him lower than consensus. And if anything, he's probably going to keep moving down as we get closer in August. Yeah, I feel honored to be the wise man here. And I'm still feeling wise for having him a little

bit lower than consensus. I don't think he's like the most ridiculous pick you can make because he is so freaking talented and he does have Joe Burrow. But it's like you said, this is Jamar Chase's team. seen it year over year. T. Higgins can have these huge spike weeks and it can be very good, but his ceiling is just super limited without being the number one receiver on this team. So that makes it tough to draft him at ADP, but all the other variables are there, aside from the fact that he is a number two. So he's still going to be a really good wide receiver too, I think. Yeah. All right. Next here, let's get into the unction territory, Mitch. At 21, we have Mike Evans. I know you love Mike Evans.

I know you're a big Mike Evans guy. I think we're bigger or higher than him, higher on him than consensus. I just can't get over the fact that we have a Hall of Fame receiver here who was going to be the number one receiver in a Cowell Shanahan and Brock Purdy offense. That just seems like too obvious that he's going to be good. And if you don't think he still has it, okay.

Well, guess what? Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch do. And they showed that in the form of U.S. currency. this offseason. So there's a lot to be excited about for Mike Evans in 2026. Money talks and we're listening. I'm giddy. I'm always giddy to talk about Mike Evans. He's attached to one of my favorite sneaky QBs in fantasy, Brock Purdy, who was second in points per game last year among quarterbacks, averaged 32 points per game throughout the fantasy playoffs. Outside of the injury riddled 2025 last year, I know we all have the disappointment

taste in our mouth, but in the previous 11 years, Mike Evans had five wide receiver one finishes and 11, which for those counting at home, is all of those seasons in the top 24, never finishing below the wide receiver 22. And so I think a wide receiver 21 price is like maybe too low. Like this is a guy that when I say T. Higgins could fall. I think Mike Evans could keep rising above him. And the comp for this is so unbelievably easy. He is 2026's Devante Adams from last year.

If he gets that many touchdowns, some of my best bow amps are going to be loving that. Lordy. on to number 22, a man who is no stranger to touchdowns. Terry McLaurin of the Washington Commanders, and I think he is just yet another victim of the public sleeping on the commander's bounceback. I think it's very easy to forget back in 2024. Terry came within 0.1 points of Jackson Smith & Jigma as the wide receiver 7 on the season. Now you get a healthy Jaden Daniels back.

People forget. I think everyone wants to say that Jaden did so much of his work on the ground. he was absolutely slicing up defenses through the air and his favorite target to do it with Terry McLaurin. I think Terry is going to end up being a value. I agree. I like where he's going. I think he is a value there. He kind of reminds me Mike Eb is a little bit,

this veteran ex-receiver, who's the number one option on what should be a good offense. And that's what we are at least projecting here that they're similarly productive in 2024, or in 2026 as they were in 2024, which, by the way, that year, Scary Terry was the wide receiver 7 overall. I'm not saying he'll reach those heights again.

He is a little bit older. He probably won't score 13 touchdowns again like he did that year. But he's going so much later than that in drafts that if you're projecting this offense to bounce right back, how can you not be excited about Terry McLaren? Absolutely. Melo, let's get into the next guy that we are violently above consensus on. Yeah, people are going to be.

I'm higher than consensus. You're like mega above consensus. I'm like Snoop Dog higher than consensus. It's concerned. Like I might need to like call a doctor or something for you. If you've been higher than consensus for four or more hours, call a doctor. In this case, we are for the rookie Carnell Tate. And Mitch, I want to start this discussion with a little public service announcement for our listeners.

I'm an aggressive one. I might yell it. I don't want to hurt your ears. I won't yell it. But I want you to imagine me yelling because it's that important. Do not panic trade Carnell Tate if he has a slow start. Rookie wide receivers break out in a major way down the stretch. pretty much every single year.

Last year was weirdly, probably the outlier where it didn't really happen. But basically every year you see one or two rookie receivers win leagues down the stretch, the back half of the year. That could be Carnell Tate. So if you draft them, don't panic trade him if it's a slow start. He had super high draft capital in the real life NFL draft. He has a clear path to targets. And for what it's worth, Brian Daibel, the OC of this offense,

we've seen him build his offenses around number one receivers before and feed them elite target chair. We saw it with Stefan Diggs and Buffalo. We saw it with Malik neighbors in New York. So I'm getting pretty amped up here for Carnell Tate. Thank you for your service on that PSA. The more you know. This might be my favorite Tate since the guy who makes the bomb-ass gluten-free cookies.

But you're hitting everything on the head here. This guy is an absolute stud. He has insane draft capital number four over all of the Tennessee Titans. Currently the wide receiver 29 off the board. Mello, I would be shocked, flabbergasted, bewildered, dare I say, Humberflubed. In fact, if his price does not rise at least five spots in August on the Y receiver rankings, maybe more. He is one of the biggest screaming values that is the most obvious candidate to fly up draft boards in August among rookies. And so, like you said, do not panic if it's a bad start.

Do not trade him. However, if there is a slow start and there's another manager in your league that's starting to sweat with Carnell Tate, he is going to be one of my favorite trade targets after week three or four. that's probably the better advice. Trade for him after the month of September if it is a slow start because I'll be trying to do the same. By the way, Humberflubed, I'm going to start using that unironically very frequently. All right, let's jump to number 24. If you've somehow stuck around with us for like 40 minutes here, thank you so much for enjoying the content. Please hit that subscribe button if you want to catch all of our rankings and a bunch of random other shit that we're

going to do throughout the summer. But let's talk about a guy that we have been nothing but complimentary of Mello, and that is Luther Borden the third. I'm going to be candid here. I have not been a Luther Burdon guy. This is a guy who finished outside of the top 24 receivers in all but two games last season and finished as the Y receiver 48. But I have to admit, the upside is clear. Lots of positive coach speak out of Ben Johnson. He's been saying to, quote, buy stock in Luther Burdon. And Burden did post the third highest yards per outrun among any receiver who played 50 or more snaps last season, so basically any receiver with a pulse. And of course, we're dealing with the bizarre

Roma dunzee foot saga that continues to linger. And so I do think as much as I'm not as high as other people on burden, it would be malpracticed not to have them inside of our top 24. Look at us. That's sign of thought. Over Adunze, even, it is the foot, though. Like, I actually just recently changed my rankings. I had Adunzee a few spots higher than Burden. Now I think I had burden one spot higher than Adunzei. The foot stuff is just really scaring me. We had someone in our comments recently, I think, compare Burden to Hash Browns or something like that when we did our fast food episode because it's, it's like they might be very good, but I'll never know because it's so expensive. And that's so perfect. It's kind of like Panera Mac and cheese for me. I love that

shit, but I never buy it because it's just too damn expensive. And that's what I feel about burden. I love the talent. I love the underlying metrics as rookie year. The cost is just a little bit out of control. But I don't blame people because a pick on him is a a bet on upside that he'll be the number one receiver in this Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson offense, which has incredible ceiling, just has a really low floor too. And I know we're talking about burden, but pretty much everything I just said applies to a Dune's 8 as well, aside from the fact that he is going cheaper in drafts. But I think the word malpractice, like you said, is probably a good way to describe it to keep him outside of the top 24 with just how hot and bothered the

entire fantasy community is by him right now. I think Luther Burden is the perfect Panera mac and cheese, because when it's hot, it's amazing. But every time, there seems to be a bunch of cold spots throughout, and that feels like what you're going to get throughout the 2026 season if you draft Luther Burton. All right, well, join us next time when we do a whole 30 minutes on why Luther Burton is Benar Mac and Cheese. While we're eating a chicken pot pie,

those are our top 24 receivers for the 26 fantasy football season. If you enjoyed the episode, please let us know down below. We love reading your comments and we respond to every single one. If you have someone that didn't make the list, that should be, please let us know, and let us know your favorite wide receiver one right now for fantasy football. But Mello, before we get out of here, do we miss anything? Nothing for me except thank you for sticking with us this long if you did. Really appreciate it.

All right, we'll catch you guys next episode.