Rest-of-Season WR & TE Rankings

By: Mike Johnson (@mjohnson86)

We are just under halfway through the regular season for most fantasy leagues and a lot has changed in the first six weeks. Each league is different and has its own settings, standings, and nuance so evaluating where you are at and where you are going is important at this point. Some teams near the top of standings may be open to making some moves to take on an injured player or one whose offense is struggling right now that could help you when it matters most in the playoffs. Some teams near the bottom may be in desperation mode and can’t wait for players to get healthy or their team’s offense to figure things out, and they need to make moves now to keep any playoff hopes alive. 

Those in the middle have options to hold course or make a move. There are only two teams on bye in Week 7 and two on bye in Week 9, with NO BYES in Week 8. So we are heading into a short stretch where not as many teams should be stressed with short-handed bye-week-related situations as we saw in Week 5 and Week 6.

With all of that in mind, here are my updated “rest-of-season” rankings for you to use when evaluating your teams. It is more of an art than a science doing this in the middle of the season, as you have to weigh what we’ve seen with possible regression to preseason expectations (some players have already played their best football, while others have already played their worst). Obviously these are fluid, and even injury news throughout this week will change things, but this should give you a rough idea of where players should currently be valued, in my opinion. 

WR

Tier 1 ::

The true alphas. These players are heavily targeted and are the engines of their offenses. Tyreek needs Tua to come back sooner than later, but if/when that happens, he has an argument for the top overall spot.

1. Ja’Marr Chase

2. CeeDee Lamb

3. Chris Godwin

4. Justin Jefferson

5. A.J. Brown

6. Tyreek Hill

7. Malik Nabers

Tier 2 ::

This group has a lower weekly floor than the first group but is capable of monster performances that can win a given week for you. Some of these players have injury questions (Kupp, Nico, Puka), while others have questions around their offensive environments and/or a lot of target competition. 

8. Drake London

9. Cooper Kupp

10. DK Metcalf

11. Deebo Samuel

12. Mike Evans

13. DJ Moore

14. Amon-Ra St. Brown

15. Nico Collins

16. Brian Thomas Jr.

17. Garrett Wilson

18. Jayden Reed

19. Zay Flowers

20. Davante Adams

21. DeVonta Smith

22. Tee Higgins

23. Terry McLaurin

24. Stefon Diggs

25. Brandon Aiyuk

26. Marvin Harrison Jr.

27. Diontae Johnson

28. Tank Dell

29. Jaylen Waddle

30. Chris Olave

31. Puka Nacua

Tier 3 ::

This is the tier where you will have to play the matchups, byes, and injuries. Some weeks these will be players you don’t want in your lineup and others they will be in great spots and close to “must-start” territory. 

32. Amari Cooper

33. Jameson Williams

34. Jaxon Smith-Njigba

35. Rome Odunze

36. Darnell Mooney

37. Khalil Shakir

38. Xavier Worthy

39. George Pickens

40. Jordan Addison

41. JuJu Smith-Schuster

42. Michael Pittman

43. Jerry Jeudy

44. Keenan Allen

45. Christian Watson

46. Romeo Doubs

47. Josh Downs

48. Christian Kirk

49. Courtland Sutton

50. Tyler Lockett

51. Calvin Ridley

52. DeAndre Hopkins

Tier 4 ::

In case of emergency, break glass.

53. Ladd McConkey

54. Tre Tucker

55. Xavier Legette

56. Jalen Tolbert

57. Jakobi Meyers

58. DeMario Douglas

59. Michael Wilson

60. Jordan Whittington

TE

Tier 1 ::

These tight ends have separated themselves from the rest with their consistency, workloads, and weekly ceilings. Kelce has yet to have a huge game, but with the Chiefs’ WR situation, he likely has some “week-winning” performances on the horizon:

1. Brock Bowers

2. George Kittle

3. Trey McBride

4. Travis Kelce

Tier 2 ::

This group of tight ends are talented players and important parts of their team’s passing games. They are not at the level of the Tier 1 TE’s, but it is also unlikely you would bench any of them for a tight end from a lower tier. Hockenson’s immediate status is in question as he returns from an ACL injury and Goedert is dealing with a new hamstring injury, but both can be near the top of the position when healthy:

5. Jake Ferguson

6. Sam LaPorta

7. Evan Engram

8. T.J. Hockenson

9. Dallas Goedert

10. Dalton Kincaid

11. Kyle Pitts

12. Tucker Kraft

13. David Njoku

Tier 3 ::

These are tight ends who are likely to have big weeks at some point but will also have some weeks where they totally disappear. All of these tight ends are in very productive offenses, except Henry and Freiermuth, who should see a relatively high and consistent target share due to the receiving corps of their respective teams:

14. Cole Kmet

15. Dalton Schultz

16. Isaiah Likely

17. Mark Andrews

18. Hunter Henry

19. Tyler Conklin

20. Cade Otton

21. Pat Freiermuth

Tier 4 ::

The “Best of the Rest:”

22. Colby Parkinson

23. Juwan Johnson

24. Taysom Hill

25. Noah Fant

26. Jonnu Smith

27. Mike Gesicki

28. Ja’Tavion Sanders

29. Chig Okonkwo

30. Dawson Knox

Join us Friday for Week 7 Start/Sit Questions!