Happy Monday Fantasy Guru fam! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and found some time to relax. It’s the start of the week and we are back on the grind.
When drafting your fantasy football teams, there are multiple ways you can go about it, and it is all dependent on your style of play. I recently wrote an article about roster construction and if you have not read it yet, you can check it out here. The two positions I place most emphasis on are the running backs and wide receivers. Being that in most leagues now a days fantasy owners have to start at least three wide outs, I wanted to share with you how to go about building a wide receiver corps. It may appear very simple and with not much science behind it, but there is strategy in building a solid receiving corps. This consists of a combination of top end receivers, with wide outs that have decent floors, and players at this position with plenty of upside. If you execute this on draft day, you could really set yourself apart from the rest of the league.
In my introduction podcast with Jeff Mans, I mentioned that I have been taking the zero running back approach in my drafts for many years now, even before it became a trend. In doing so, I tried multiple ways to create my receiving corps and discovered the best way to build one. At least it’s what has worked for me. This is the way I would construct my wide receiver corps in a PPR format league.
STUD WIDE RECEIVERS
Of course every receiver corps should have at least one top end wide out. This is why I have said in previous articles that I try to get at least one wide out with one of my first three picks. Typically when I am on the back end of a draft, I take a receiver with my first pick. I have done multiple industry mock drafts already and some best balls. So far, I have been on the tail end of most of these drafts, and have landed Julio Jones quite often. To me he is a staple to any wide receiver corps, as he is an elite player that offers consistent production, one of the safest floors, and an immense ceiling. There will be few times throughout the season that he will let fantasy owners down. Focusing on targeting a receiver of this caliber to start off your receiving corps is a great way to start.
Granted, if you are at the front end of a draft and you take a running back with your first pick, you may not get a Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins, or Davante Adams. However, there are still top end wide outs that will land to you in the second or even third round. For instance, A.J. Green is generally being drafted somewhere in the third round and he is a fine way to start out your receiving corps because he too offers plenty of upside, consistent production, and a nice floor.
Getting one of these types of wide outs is a good way to begin building your corps, but if you can land two, that is even better. I generally try to get at least two stud wide outs on my roster if the draft permits. Being that in most of my leagues I am starting no less than three receivers, having two strong ones really makes me feel good about the foundation of this position.
HIGH FLOOR WIDE RECEIVERS
I have written about slot receivers and how effective they have been in recent years. If you have not read it I suggest you do, it can be helpful when building your wide receiver corps. In addition to a top end wide out, I like to target receivers with high floors. Generally these compose of slot receivers that see a decent amount of volume. Examples of this are Cooper Kupp, Julian Edelman, Jarvis Landry, Golden Tate, Robert Woods, Larry Fitzgerald, and Sterling Shepard.
Pairing up a receiver with a high floor like the players I just listed and a high end receiver like the ones I mentioned above, give your team a good balance of consistent production and plenty of upside. You see for the most part, all of these slot receivers that see a consistent amount of targets tend to produce solid numbers each week. Even if they are not getting you 100+ yards every week or finding the pay dirt often, the five catch for 60 yard game will give you 11 fantasy points in PPR formats and one could definitely live with that as a fantasy owner.
In fact, I like drafting as much of these receivers on my rosters as possible, which is why players like Mohamed Sanu, Cooper Kupp, Sterling Shepard, Randall Cobb, and Golden Tate have often found their way on to my rosters in past years. These are not the sexiest names or the best wide outs by any means, but these are receivers that quietly produce decent numbers most weeks and in most instances will not give you a goose egg. For instance, Sanu has averaged 11 fantasy points per game each of the last two seasons. That is not eye-popping in any way, but getting that type of production from a bench receiver that is used as a bye week fill-in or to take the place of an injured player, is not bad at all if you ask me.
HIGH UPSIDE WIDE RECEIVERS
The last type of receiver that I target to complete my stable are the high upside receivers with questionable floors. These are generally not consistent weekly producers, but do have enormous performances several times throughout the fantasy football season. Examples of this type of wide out are DeSean Jackson, Marvin Jones, Corey Davis, Calvin Ridley, Will Fuller, Robby Anderson, and Sammy Watkins.
Despite the lack of consistency, these receiver offer plenty of upside and having them on your roster can certainly pay off in a big way as your third wide out or flex option, especially when they erupt. That said, I try to limit my exposure to these receivers in regular PPR formats because it becomes a guessing game as to when they will have the big game. This is why I rather have this group of wide outs in bestball leagues instead of redraft.
Of this group, I would feel best about Watkins and Davis because I strongly feel they both could go from high upside and volatile receivers, to consistent producers this upcoming season. That said, I am still treating them as high upside wide outs.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Having a combination of high end, high floor, and high upside wide outs is the best way to go about building a wide receiver corps. With that said, in redraft leagues I prefer pairing up top end wide outs with high floor receivers to limit the volatility on your roster and reduce your risk, without compromising your upside. I do not mind sprinkling in a couple of the high upside with low floor pass catchers, but limit my exposure to them because it is generally difficult to predict when the good game will occur. Therefore on draft day, selecting a couple of high end wide outs and pairing them up with these high volume ones that offer stable floors is the way I go about my receiver corps. This approach has been a successful one for me over the years and it has won me multiple fantasy leagues. Hopefully it can help you compete in your league and possibly win as well.
As always, feel free to reach out to me on the Twitter machine @Armando_Marsal or in our chat room.
