2025 Fantasy Football: Wide Reciver Rankings for Standard, Half-PPR, and Full-PPR

Last week, I supplied my running back rankings for 2025 fantasy football leagues. This week, it is time to provide some wide receiver rankings. As with the running backs, you will see rankings for Standard, Half-PPR, and PPR scoring. It should come as no surprise that wide receivers get the most significant boost in leagues with PPR components. But to illustrate the point further, let’s look at some recent history.

Over the past five NFL seasons, there have been 191 instances of a player catching at least 68 passes (four per game over 17 NFL games) in a season. Of those, 148 (77.5 percent) have come courtesy of the wide receiver position. If you bump that threshold up to five PPR points per game (85 catches), the number increases to 80.7 percent. The impact on fantasy football scoring cannot and should not be discounted. Last year, 25 non-quarterbacks scored at least 170 total fantasy points in Standard formats. Six wide receivers (24 percent) reached that mark. In Half-PPR formats, 53 players hit that mark, including 25 wideouts (47 percent). In full PPR leagues, wide receivers accounted for 53 percent (40 of 76) of 170-plus point seasons.

Wide Receiver Draft Strategy

As I mentioned in last week’s article, I believe many fantasy managers become too attached to a specific strategy before the draft. The best trait a drafter can possess is the ability to adapt to what is happening in real time. But I do believe there are some basic tenets you should keep in mind when it comes to drafting wide receivers. A lot of it depends on the format in which you play. Most leagues require you to start three wide receivers as opposed to two running backs, one quarterback, and one tight end. That means the depth at wide receiver on your roster can become very important, especially in PPR formats.

In conjunction with that, there is generally a narrower range of outcomes. Last week, I said that if Christian McCaffrey gets hurt, Isaac Guerendo’s fantasy value will most likely rise from a top-60 running back into the top-20. We usually do not see such a shift when it comes to wideouts. Andrei Iosivas is a nice player, but he’s not suddenly going to become a must-start if Ja’Marr Chase gets hurt. Having said that, there are weekly edges that fantasy managers can exploit better with wide receivers than players at other positions. Matchups versus specific cornerbacks or general defensive schemes can favor certain wideouts over others in a given week.

For example, per Pro Football Focus, Jordan Addison had 10 catches on 19 targets and averaged 1.09 yards per route run versus man coverage last year. When facing zone coverage, he caught 41 of 54 targets and averaged 2.05 YPRR. And per Hashtag Football, he caught 88.9 percent of red zone targets last season. If Addison is playing against a team that deploys zone coverage at a high rate, he should get a boost in that week. The same could be said if he plays a defense with a strong red-zone run defense. I have Addison as a borderline WR3 in 12-team leagues in my wide receiver rankings. But his ranking from week to week may depend on the defensive scheme he is going up against in that game.

Because of their ability to exploit specific schemes, wide receivers can be solid weekly Flex options, particularly in PPR formats. Last year, there were an average of 39.4 wide receivers per week who scored 10 or more PPR points. Running backs averaged 27.2 such weeks. In leagues where you start two running backs and three wide receivers, that is a near equal distribution among potential weekly Flex options. If you are in a Standard league, it is much more likely that a running back will inhabit your Flex spot.

Touchdowns Versus Targets

I believe that volume will always be king in fantasy football. If you could magically guarantee that my wide receivers will get X number of targets in a game, I will take my chances that they will score Y number of fantasy points. However, we all know it does not always work out that way. Garrett Wilson earned 54 targets over the final eight weeks of the regular season last year. Marvin Mims earned 33 total targets over the same period. But Mims was the overall WR17 during that span in Standard formats (WR26 in PPR) on the strength of six touchdown catches. Meanwhile, Wilson was the overall WR38 in Standard and WR34 in PPR formats during that stretch. Still, I have Wilson ahead of Mims in my wide receiver rankings based on expected volume.

The bottom can drop out quickly when you are chasing touchdowns. Rashod Bateman and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine were tied for ninth in the NFL with nine touchdown receptions each last year. However, it got a bit ugly when either player was unable to find the end zone. Bateman failed to finish as a top-36 fantasy wide receiver in any game in which he did not score last season. Westbrook-Ikhine never finished inside the top 50 in a game where he did not score. On the flip side, Jakobi Meyers and Jerry Jeudy scored eight total touchdowns on 274 targets in 2024. But both Jeudy and Meyers finished as top-36 weekly fantasy wideouts 10 times, a feat Bateman and Westbrook-Ikhine each achieved seven times. Thus, I rank Meyers and Jeudy significantly higher than either Bateman or Westbrook-Ikhine. Give me targets over touchdowns, at least regarding history.

2025 Wide Receiver Rankings

For more great fantasy football rankings and analysis, make sure to check out the 2025 FantraxHQ Fantasy Football Draft Kit!