2024 Lessons Learned: Your 2025 Wide Receiver Strategy

RELATED: See lessons learned at all other positions:
Quarterbacks | Running Backs | Wide Receivers | Tight Ends

In this week's roundtable series, I asked our Footballguys staff to discuss their fantasy New Year's resolutions for each position and their overall takeaways for approaching drafting in 2025.

Yesterday, we talked about the running back position. In today's article, we share insights on the wide receiver position.

Lessons Learned at the Wide Receiver Position

Underwhelming Year for Wide Receivers

Jason Wood: After years of fantasy leagues trending toward prioritizing receivers above all else, 2024 was a year where that strategy likely let you down. Most of the top receivers failed to deliver on their preseason ADPs due to a combination of underperformance and missed games. It was the missed games that proved most damaging; in many ways, the receiver position felt more like the running back position this year.

If you examine the top 24 receivers on a per-game basis, very few played a full slate of games. Chris Godwin was WR2 on a per-game basis but only played seven games. Tee Higgins was WR3 but missed six games. Other notable names—Puka Nacua (11 games), Malik Nabers (14), Nico Collins (11), Mike Evans (13), Davante Adams (13), A.J. Brown (13), Rashee Rice (4), DeVonta Smith (13), Stefon Diggs (8), Jordan Addison (14), Cooper Kupp (12), and Adam Thielen (9)—all missed significant time.

My New Year's resolution is to buy the dip. Next year's ADP will almost certainly skew toward running backs, thanks to their resurgence in 2024. This presents a prime opportunity to target two elite receivers within the first three rounds—a strategy that will almost certainly be a plus-EV decision.

Will Grant: Wide Receiver was the let-down position of 2024 in many cases.  Top picks like Tyreek Hill, Puka Nacua, Davante Adams, and Chris Olave did not perform well enough to justify the high draft picks it took to get them. While CeeDee Lamb finished eighth in fantasy scoring, I doubt many fantasy owners were happy spending their 1st round draft picks to get him.  As Jason pointed out, a big part of this was due to injury, either to the receiver or the quarterback throwing it at them.

But other top choices played out as expected. Ja'Marr Chase's holdout didn't stop him from dominating the field, scoring almost 100 more fantasy points than #2 wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. Justin Jefferson and Drake London also had top-five finishes, and rookies Brian Thomas Jr., Malik Nabers, and Ladd McConkey provided excellent value in their first year.

My New Year's resolution is to be open to taking a wide receiver or two in the top three rounds but be mindful of their situations. Jaxon Smith-Njigba finished in the top 10 because of an injury to DK Metcalf.  Jerry Jeudy was okay at the start of the season but came on when Amari Cooper was traded to Buffalo. Courtland Sutton provided considerable value with Bo Nix under center, and Jameson Williams finally emerged as a solid wide receiver for the Lions.  For the 2025 season, wide receiver will be the position I sprinkle in here or there and look for the value as it comes to me rather than go big in the early rounds.

Andy Hicks: This year, we saw Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase return to the elite level, Amon-Ra St. Brown and CeeDee Lamb remained there, while Brian Thomas Jr., Malik Nabers, Drake London, Terry McLaurin, Garrett Wilson, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba reached that level for the first time. That means, as Jason explained, a lot of expected success for wide receivers failed to materialize. Injury, age, and other circumstances saw a lot of disappointment.

Age we can account for. Davante Adams, Mike Evans, and even Keenan Allen were expected to regress, and all did so to varying degrees. Not so Tyreek Hill, Deebo Samuel Sr., Puka Nacua, and A.J. Brown. The rookie hype for Marvin Harrison Jr. was unfulfilled.

What can we take away from all this? The margin between fantasy success and underachievement is slim. Several receivers outside the top 30 had close to 1000-yard seasons or exceeded six touchdowns. We aren't after roster fillers to win our leagues. We are looking for the next elite fantasy receiver. This comes from young and ascending receivers, with the odd player like McLaurin surprising us. Players such as Brian Thomas Jr., Ladd McConkey, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba were all drafted outside the top 40 receivers in most leagues. Get one or even two of these types of guys to add to your earlier options, and you have a significant advantage to win your league.

Injuries Played a Big Part

Tipp Major: In 2024 wide receivers seemed to be a bit inconsistent, at least it felt like it.  Quarterbacks are spreading the ball around more, and running backs are catching more passes these days, thus taking away from various wide receivers on their team.  The biggest issue I noticed is that over 11 fantasy-relevant WRs ended up on season-ending IR in 2024.   Many teams we counted on to have good WR play were extremely disappointing, like the Dolphins.  Last year's draft gave us rising superstars like Brian Thomas Jr., and a few, such as Malik Nabers and Ladd McConkey, gave us something to look forward to in 2025.  

Jeff Blaylock: I resolve not to panic despite the patchwork of bench players and waiver-wire replacements I tapped to replace injured wide receivers in my lineups. Of the 45 wide receivers who averaged at least 50 receiving yards per game, just 16 played all 17 games. Only three out of 11 receivers averaging at least 75 yards per game played every game. Despite the injuries to top players, wide receivers represented over half of the 25-plus fantasy point performances this season using point-per-reception (PPR) scoring. I'm still prioritizing wide receivers, especially in PPR leagues where I must start at least three. I might be less bullish in leagues with other scoring systems or fewer required wide receiver starters.