2021 Fantasy Football WR Rankings

Hayden Winks
Underdog Sports
5 min readJun 3, 2021

Our top five: Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Stefon Diggs, DeAndre Hopkins, and Calvin Ridley.

Before Josh Norris and I release our Top 250 Fantasy Football Rankings next week, we need to take a positional approach so we can better understand where the strengths and weaknesses of each position are ahead of the 2021 season.

We have the players organized in tiers below, and they are designed specifically for Underdog Fantasy’s scoring and payout structures. That means we are prioritizing: upside over floor, players “Better in Best Ball”, and players that can be fit in stacks.

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Tier 1: Elite WR1s

These receivers could finish as the WR1 overall, and it wouldn’t be a surprise. They’re the alphas on their team and have a quarterback capable of consistently getting them the ball. Anywhere near the Round 1/2 turn is reasonable, as long as you think Aaron Rodgers is returning to Green Bay. I appear more bullish on that happening than others. We’ll see…

Tier 2: Potential Low-End WR1s

These receivers are capable of getting into that first tier if everything breaks their way, and they come with a respectable floor because we know all are fantastic players.

Tier 3: Stable WR2s & WR3s

This tier is mostly filled with high floor receivers in good passing offenses, but they get there in different ways. Woods, Godwin, and Kupp are consistent week to week, while Lockett has historically been boom-bust week to week. In best ball, we simply don’t care about those floor weeks.

Tier 4: Boom-Bust WR3s

This tier is filled with rookie contract players, receivers coming off injuries, or receivers in new situations. They are far more volatile than the previous tier, but all are capable of climbing into the WR2 mix. This is where stacking these receivers with quarterbacks becomes more and more important.

Tier 5: “Bro, He’s Better In Best Ball”

You can read about “Bro, He’s Better in Best Ball” here. The tl;dr is that we should be drafting players who win downfield and in the red zone instead of drafting low-aDOT receivers in best ball when the two receivers are projected for a similar amount of points. These downfield threats are going to have more top-36 weeks than slot types. A lot of these volatile receivers are listed above.

Tier 6: Worthwhile Dart Throws

These receivers have low expectations because of their depth chart or near-line-of-scrimmage usage, but there are avenues to them entering into the flex conversation. I like finding rookies late in drafts because many are scared of their uncertainty, while I enjoy the chaos. The exception to this statement right now is Jamison Crowder, who is being priced as if he’s staying in New York as the №3 or №4 option. A trade or release would likely move his ADP upwards, particularly if he lands with the Titans or another receiver-needy team. Josh and I are trying to be ahead of the market on that scenario playing out.

Tier 7: Alright, It’s Getting Bad Out Here

Some of the spiked-week players in this tier are Breshad Perriman, Tre’Quan Smith, Tyrell Williams, John Brown, D’Wayne Eskridge, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. You guys can have the rest of this list.

Tier 8: Last Round Stacking Options

I need to peer pressure Josh Norris into moving Dyami Brown higher and Adam Humphries (3–24–0 per game) lower. The name to watch here is Marquez Callaway, who I project to get training camp hype as the Saints’ potential №2 or №3 receiver. He has the downfield profile of a classic best ball receiver.