In fantasy football, there is no position with greater depth than wide receiver. This is why running backs are often the first players off the board, with many players preaching waiting until later rounds to draft your wide receivers as the best strategy. While simply drafting late-round wide receivers is not necessarily a winning formula, if you are able to find receivers in later rounds that outperform their average draft position and combine them with top-tier running backs drafted in early rounds, your team will be hard to beat.
In this article, I will be highlighting three wide receivers that I believe you can confidently start week in and week out that are being taken in mid to late rounds and will allow you to stock up on premiere players at other positions in the early rounds!
Fantasy football’s best values at wide receiver in 2022: Jaylen Waddle, Miami Dolphins
- Perfect fit for Tua
- Strong fantasy history for second-year WRs
- Will lose targets to Hill, but overall offense improves
- Offensive-minded head coach in Mike McDaniel
In 2021, Jaylen Waddle finished as the WR13 in PPR scoring, collecting 1,015 yards on 104 receptions. While this was a fantastic rookie season, it is important to understand that this is not the ceiling for Waddle. In 2022, he is now being drafted as the WR16 on average. The only explanation for this drop is the arrival of Tyreek Hill. However, I think this addition actually does more good than bad, and am optimistic for the outlook of the Dolphins’ passing game this year.
First and foremost, Waddle is a fantastic fit for this Dolphins offense. We all know Tua Tagovailoa has been heavily criticized for his weak arm, but fortunately for him Waddle gets most of his yards after the catch…or at least he did in college. Last year, a poor offensive scheme failed to get Waddle the ball in space, and his yards after catch suffered because of it. With the arrival of Mike McDaniel from the San Francisco 49ers, we will likely see a similar style of offense that allowed pass catchers like Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk to produce massive yards after the catch.
With all this being said, it is criminal that Waddle is being drafted below where he finished last year, and while a dropoff in targets may be expected, I predict an increase in yardage and touchdowns en route to a top ten wide receiver finish.
Brandon Aiyuk could be the leading receiver on a top-five offense in 2022.
- Unknown in Trey Lance, Aiyuk could be the number one target
- Suffered last season from off-the-field issues
- Fits Shanahan’s scheme perfectly
While Jaylen Waddle is one of my favorite values in all of fantasy, he will still cost you a fourth or fifth-round pick. On the other hand, Brandon Aiyuk is currently going in the eighth or ninth rounds of fantasy drafts. In my previous article, I made the case for Trey Lance this season, and a lot of the reasons are the same for Aiyuk, as I believe he will be a key part of why Lance will find success.
Last year, Aiyuk spent much of the early part of the season in the doghouse, as Kyle Shanahan did not like how he was behaving in practice. With those issues a thing of the past, Aiyuk has a genuine chance to be the WR1 team on one of the stronger offenses in the NFL. We have seen how much damage Aiyuk can do after the catch dating back to college, and I trust an offensive genius like Kyle Shanahan to scheme up some plays to get Aiyuk the ball in space.
Additionally, with Deebo Samuel and George Kittle both having an injury history, Aiyuk should be a safe weekly play with top 15 upside if either were to go down for an extended period of time.
Lamar and Bateman could form a connection that gives him WR2 upside.
- Should be Ravens WR1
- Showed flashes in 2021, but injuries derailed Ravens’ offense
- Pairs better with Lamar than Marquise Brown did
Rashod Bateman is currently going off the board at WR38, which is a drastic mispricing. While there is a simple argument to be made that Bateman will likely be the WR1 on this Ravens offense, making him almost certainly fantasy relevant, it is also true that this Ravens team under Lamar Jackson has struggled to support any type of fantasy relevance at the wide receiver position, especially with the emergence of Mark Andrews. However, Bateman showed some signs last year that lead me to believe he could break this trend.
Marquise Brown managed two relatively successful seasons with Lamar Jackson despite struggling with drops and deep ball production. In his limited playtime, Bateman has looked to have much more reliable hands and should be able to haul in some of the catches that Brown did not. Brown topped 1,000 yards last year, and with that many vacated yards to go around, Bateman could easily find himself in the WR2 conversation at year’s end.
With that being said, these are three receivers that I am targeting in almost all of my fantasy football drafts. If faced with the decision between an early-round running back or wide receiver, the fact that I can get players like these when the running back well has run dry almost always leads to me selecting a running back.