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Today we're looking at the fantasy football wide receiver depth charts for the AFC West and AFC North. The regular season is right around the corner and each team's depth chart is mostly complete! Before diving into the fantasy season, RotoBaller has you covered with some wide receiver depth chart recaps for each team, including some useful bits of analysis for players you want to keep on your radar.
Please note that the charts below are based on individual team depth charts and come from RotoWire's projected starting units. The charts project the real-life pecking order expected to be used by head coaches at the respective franchises, not where RotoWire projects those players to finish in fantasy leagues.
Here are the current preseason depth charts at wide receiver from AFC West & AFC North teams.
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Fantasy Football Depth Chart Takeaways: AFC West
New weapons, old Mahomes: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Kansas City Chiefs
Tyreek Hill got traded, and all of a sudden everybody forgot about the Chiefs. Say what!? Fantasy GMs never learn I guess. Not you, though! See, Tyreek Hill is a legit, unique, bona fide top-tier NFL wide receiver. That's true, and so is the fact that Kansas City was never going to find a one-for-one replacement for him entering 2022.
That said, the Chiefs bolstered and revamped their offense entirely at the pass-catching positions barring the presence of TE Travis Kelce. Other than that, they'll be debuting MVS, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and rookie Skyy Moore, while retaining Josh Gordon and Mecole Hardman.
Of all of those wide receivers, MVS looks like the better bet. I'm a sucker for JuJu and I'd give my world for him, but at this current ADP of 71th-overall (with a projection, via PFF, of WR49 with 180 PPR points), he's just too rich for my blood.
MVS, on the other hand, projects to more FP over the 2022 season (197), is currently getting drafted at an average ADP of 145th (!), and projects to finish in the WR3 cohort with upside for more if he plays above his projection's efficiency levels (103 targets but only 57 receptions, 991 yards, seven TDs). Nobody in the division has a higher potential ROI (ADV vs. projected finish) than MVS other than...
Alternative value-play: K.J. Hamler, Denver Broncos
K.J. Hamler! That's who! Starting at the finish, Hamler's basically an ROI-wonder with his hyper-depressed ADP of 340+ (undrafted in all leagues, basically) and top-80 projection. I know, I know, 112 PPR points (as PFF sees him scoring in 2022) are not going to win you the league, but that's more than a reasonable last-round option with upside for more if QB Russell Wilson and he develop the proper rapport. All of the eyes (and draft targets) will be on Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, and Tim Patrick. All of them except Patrick is currently getting overpaid for in fantasy drafts. If one falls down, Hamler will be next-in-line to get targets in bunches. Gotta gamble on the chance, in my opinion.
Fantasy Football Depth Chart Takeaways: AFC North
Someone's gotta catch it: Rashod Bateman, Baltimore Ravens
One single team has two wideouts projected for a WR1 finish in this division: Cincinnati's Chase and Higgins. No other team with the exception of Baltimore (by a hair) has even one in the top-24 realm. Bateman, the Ravens' new WR1, projects 213+ PPR points and exactly a low-end top-24 finish next year in PFF's latest run of projections. Amari Cooper is the next best option but is already down at WR30. Now, let me doubt Bateman's projection at least a bit. And I'm not talking about the need to downgrade it, but the other way around.
After Baltimore traded WR1 Marquise Brown to Arizona, it was crystal-clear that 1) Mark Andrews will keep getting his good 135+ targets and that 2) someone is going to need to step up to cover for Hollywood's exit and the 145 (!!!) targets he's vacating. So yeah, looking at Baltimore's depth chart, I think the answer to the second point is clear: Rashod Bateman.
The sophomore had a middling debut season averaging 8.6 FPPG but that happened on a very limited campaign in which he played just 12 games (four of them labeled as "starts") but still got 67 targets of which he caught 46 for 515 yards and one touchdown. Prorate that to a 17-game, full-WR1 usage, and PFF sees a 213+ PPR player and a WR24 finish... for a current ADP of just 79th overall.
Alternative value-play: Tyler Boyd, Cincinnati Bengals
As I said in the first paragraph, both Chase and Higgins are projected to 300 and 250 PPR points, respectively, and WR1/top-10 finishes by extension. That's fantastic! The problem, though, is that their ADPs are at around the sixth and 30th-overall picks right now compared to Boyd's 126th average draft position.
The difference in the outcomes is obvious as the former two have a floor of 250 PPR points compared to Boyd's projection of 187, but the ROI is incredibly high all things considered. Only Devin Duvernay and Donovan Peoples-Jones have higher potential Return On Investment values than Boyd, but the two of them project to fewer than 180 PPR points and fewer than 100 targets next season.
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