Last year, Flowers topped 1,200 receiving yards on 86 catches, but scored just six total TDs—an outlier since every other receiver who cleared 1,200 yards scored at least eight. Despite that TD shortfall, he still finished as the WR7 overall, backed by elite consistency: a top-5 target share, a top-12 air yard share, and the 4th-best yards per route run mark in the league behind only Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Amon-Ra St. Brown, per the staff at FantasyPros. If he sees positive TD regression, he could elevate into that elite tier of fantasy WR1s.

If Egbuka produces for 17 games as he did for the first nine games of his rookie season last year, he’ll have 1,278 receiving yards and 11 TDs, per The Athletic’s Dan Pompei. The primary reason he hit a rookie wall was that he had to fill in as the X receiver for an injured Mike Evans, rather than playing the Z role he did early on. Reports out of camp this year suggest rookie Ted Hurst is taking on that X role following Evans’ departure to San Fran, allowing Egbuka to play Z, where he’s most effective. With that news in mind, we could see a season full of those early-2025 spike weeks from Egbuka.

Burden’s stock certainly took a hit with his recent groin injury, but he’s still THE breakout player of 2026. Burden ranked 3rd among NFL WRs in yards per route run (2.69) as a rookie, trailing only Puka and JSN (YPRR stats vary from source to source, which explains the discrepancy between this stat and the previous one for Flowers—regardless, just know that both guys are good, lol). He was especially effective out of 12 personnel (1 RB/2 TEs/2 WRs), generating 6.51 YPRR, the highest mark by any WR in any personnel grouping with at least 40 routes run, per PFF’s Nathan Jahnke. Chicago should lean more heavily into 12 personnel in 2026 following the departure of D.J. Moore and the addition of 3rd-round rookie TE Sam Roush. Plus, when you watch Burden on the field, the guy just moves different. And HC Ben Johnson sees it too:

Watson is coming off career-highs in receptions per game (3.5), receiving YPG (61.1), and fantasy PPG (13.2, WR17) after missing the first seven games to recover from an ACL injury. Green Bay let Romeo Doubs walk and traded Dontayvion Wicks, setting the table for Watson to easily clear his career-best 68% route share and 22.9 routes per game he set last season, which ranked 58th and 65th at the position, respectively, per the staff at Fantasy Points. Watson averages an elite 17.5 fantasy PPG across 13 career games where he has above a 75% route share, and that’s a threshold he could easily achieve often in 2026.

If you took his production from the final nine regular-season games plus the Wild Card Round and projected it over a full season, you'd be looking at 82 catches for 1,270 yards and nine TDs. That would have made him the WR7 in 2025, per NFL.com’s Matt Okada. He’s reportedly continuing that domination in training camp and is seeing his stock start to skyrocket. Some still prefer Brian Thomas Jr., but not me (more on BTJ later).

Olave thrived off volume last year, but wasn’t very efficient. Among WRs with at least 100 receptions, he finished:

Olave will open the season as New Orleans’ WR1, but 1st-round receiver Jordyn Tyson is showing out in training camp and will offer much more target competition than anyone did last year.

Don’t hate the player, hate the ADP. The problem with T-Mac is his environment—according to RotoViz’s pace app, in Dave Canales’s two years as Carolina’s head coach, the Panthers are tied for 24th in situation-neutral pass rate (53%) and dead last in plays per 60 minutes (60), while also being 29th in pass rate over expectation (-4.0% PROE) in 2025. This resulted in the Offensive Rookie of the Year being the WR21 in fantasy PPG and the WR20 in expected fantasy PPG. As long as Bryce Young remains under center, it’s hard to see a much higher ceiling than that. Plus, it’s concerning that he was outperformed by Jalen Coker down the stretch…

The 4th-overall draft capital is carrying way too much weight here. If he was the unquestioned WR1, that’d be one thing, but Tennessee has a crowded WR room. Wan’Dale Robinson is expected to dominate targets in the slot, and then Calvin Ridley, Chimere Dike, and Elic Ayomanor are all expected to mix in on the outside. Plus, Cam Ward doesn’t appear ready to support a high-powered passing game—he ranked 35th in catchable throw rate (69.1%), 36th in expected points added per dropback (-.17), and 37th in yards per attempt (5.87) among 38 QBs with 200+ dropbacks, per the staff at Fantasy Points. Tennessee’s offense was so bad last season that he attempted just 19 end-zone passes in 17 games. I’ll pass.

People have been chasing BTJ’s talent since he went off with Mac Jones at QB in 2024. But over 24 games with Trevor Lawrence in 2024 and 2025, he averages:

Plus, reports suggest Thomas will remain in the “sacrificial X” role he had in 2025. During Parker Washington’s breakout last season (Weeks 9-18), BTJ ran a go route on 30.5% of his snaps (3rd-highest rate of go routes in the league among all WRs), per @KyleM_FF. He’ll have some spike weeks when he hits those big plays, but don’t rely on him to be a consistent fantasy asset week in and week out.

Michael Pittman Jr. is gone and Pierce signed a huge deal in the offseason to be Indy’s WR1. Unfortunately, his recovery from offseason ankle surgery hasn’t been smooth and his timeline to return to the field remains unknown. Even if he’s available Week 1, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be able to capitalize on this new role without any training camp reps. He was already risky, given his previous high-aDOT/deep threat profile, and now with the health concerns, too… I’m out.

The main reason some experts are low on Olave is because of this guy. Tyson joins a Saints offense that led the NFL in no-huddle rate last year (22.7%), while their 2.2 plays per minute also paced the league, per Fantasy Life’s Adam Pfeifer. New Orleans also used shift-motion 63% of the time (5th-most), which should allow for plenty of free releases for the explosive rookie. We’ll have to keep an eye on his recent hamstring injury, as health was the biggest knock on him coming out of college, but up until then he was dominating in camp.

In 2025, despite leading the team in targets per route run (0.24) and 1st downs per route run (0.101), Downs had just a 62.8% route participation rate while running 80.6% of his routes from the slot. It was the same story in 2024, despite Downs again leading the way in TPRR (0.30) and 1D/RR (0.114), per RotoBaller’s Adam Koffler. He's an elite target earner; he just needs more reps on the outside to maximize his value. That could very well happen in 2026, with Michael Pittman Jr. being traded to Pittsburgh and Alec Pierce continuing to nurse an ankle injury. In fact, HC Shane Steichen came out and said he wants to get Downs the ball more and will get him some reps on the outside. He’s a steal at his current ADP.

Among 15 rookie WRs with at least 30 targets last season, Higgins ranked:

He also finished 2nd on the Texans in red-zone targets (20) and end-zone targets (nine), trailing only Nico Collins. Higgins has reportedly had a strong camp, and Collins even went so far as to say he’s going to be the “face of this franchise one year.”

Stribling’s stock has been rising since Ricky Pearsall’s season-ending PCL news and the electric substation taking out pretty much all of San Francisco’s starters. While it seemed like a reach when the Niners took him 33rd overall, reports out of camp have been nothing but glowing for the rookie—beat writer Grant Cohn called him "The best wide receiver on the team. Full stop." Given his well-built frame (6’2”, 207 lbs) and elite speed (4.36 40-yard dash), Stribling is destined to be a Brock Purdy favorite.

Shaheed has quietly been one of the NFL's most efficient receivers—among 102 active WRs with 100+ career catches, he ranks 12th in yards per catch (14.7) and 13th in yards per target (9.3), and before suffering a season-ending injury in 2024, Shaheed ranked 24th among WRs in PPR PPG, per Draft Sharks’ Jared Smola. The Seahawks gave up 4th- and 5th-round picks to acquire him last year. Then, in March, they signed him to a three-year, $51 million extension. Shaheed wasn’t able to fully acclimate to the new offensive environment, but given a full offseason, we could see him make a jump as Seattle’s clear WR2.

Bucs WR Jalen McMillan

Broncos WR Pat Bryant

Chargers WR Tre’ Harris

Browns WR Denzel Boston

Ravens WR Ja’Kobi Lane

Giants WR Malachi Fields

Chiefs WR Cyrus Allen

Dolphins WR Caleb Douglas