Who should be the No. 1 Fantasy wide receiver this season? And is that player even considered the best receiver in the NFL? It's a fascinating topic this year in Fantasy and reality, and hopefully, we'll give you some clarity to the biggest decision you might have to make in Round 1.
Welcome to the Elite Eight. These are the consensus top eight receivers in our CBS Sports rankings: CeeDee Lamb, Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase, Amon-Ra St. Brown, A.J. Brown, Garrett Wilson and Puka Nacua. You can make a strong argument that all of them should be selected in the first round this season -- they're that good.
But who should go first of those eight receivers? And do all of them have the chance to finish as the best eight receivers this season? There are certainly other contenders to the throne, including Marvin Harrison Jr., Chris Olave, Drake London, Jaylen Waddle, Michael Pittman Jr., Davante Adams, Mike Evans, Brandon Aiyuk, Nico Collins, Deebo Samuel and Cooper Kupp, among others.
We've identified these eight as the best of the bunch either based on what they have done or what they should be able to accomplish this season, which you can read about in-depth in this article. And based on the inexact science of a Twitter/X poll with more than 3,000 votes, the best Fantasy receiver this season should be Lamb (32.5 percent), followed by Hill (29.4 percent), Jefferson (24.2 percent) and Chase (13.9 percent). That happens to be our order as well.
However, as far as what the population on Twitter/X think about who is the best receiver in the NFL (non-Fantasy), the winner is Jefferson with an overwhelming 56.8 percent of the more than 3,000 votes. Hill was second (22.1 percent), Lamb was third (13.4 percent) and Chase was fourth (7.8 percent).
We'll break this into eight parts that you can find on CBSSports.com/FantasyFootball in the coming days. Today, we'll focus on Part 6 -- featuring A.J. Brown and his case to be the No. 1 wide receiver in Fantasy for 2024. Earlier, we made the case for Lamb as the 1.1 WR here.
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A.J. Brown, Eagles
- 2023 stats: 106 catches for 1,456 yards and seven touchdowns on 158 targets
- Stats that grab you: In two seasons in Philadelphia, Brown has 194 catches for 2,952 yards and 18 touchdowns on 303 targets. He has averaged at least 17.0 PPR points per game in each year. Only Hill (3,509) and Lamb (3,108) have more receiving yards than Brown in the past two seasons. ... Last season, Brown set an NFL record with six games in a row with at least 125 receiving yards from Weeks 3-8. Over that span, Brown had 49 catches for 831 yards and five touchdowns on 67 targets, and he scored at least 20.1 PPR points in five of those outings. When the streak ended, Brown was on pace for 127.5 catches, 1,982.6 yards and 10.6 touchdowns. ... Brown was No. 11 in targets per game last year at 9.3, and he should stay in that range or better. Kellen Moore, the new offensive coordinator in Philadelphia, gave Lamb 9.2 targets per game in Dallas in 2022, and Allen led the NFL at 11.5 targets per game in 2023 with Moore calling plays for the Chargers.
- Quote to note: "There's always a lesson. There's always something to learn from. I feel like you better learn something from it, or it's going to return. I'm always going to have that mentality to put in the work and grind and put my best foot forward, and attack each and every day moving forward. I can't worry about the past. I can't worry about yesterday. I'm here right now, and that's all I have today." -- Brown talking about last year to the Eagles media this offseason.
- The breakdown: Brown is excited to work with Moore this season, which makes sense given what he's done with Lamb and Allen over the past two years. Brown should get the chance for more layup routes, and hopefully that leads to better production, if that's even possible given his body of work during his tenure with the Eagles. We know Brown shares the field with talented players in DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, and the addition of Saquon Barkley is another stud who needs to get fed. Jalen Hurts is also among the best running quarterbacks, which likely caps Brown's ceiling, even slightly. Still, it's hard to find someone with a better track record than Brown, who scored at least 18.7 PPR points in 14 games over the past two years.