We'll let the NFL analysts decide if Jefferson is the best receiver. Here, we want to make sure you get the right order of Fantasy receivers, and we like Lamb at No. 1. He was a monster to close the 2023 season, averaging 28.5 PPR points per game in his final 10 outings, and we're hopeful he can pick up where last season left off.
But Lamb has a lot of work to do to hold off Hill (three years of more than 20 PPR points per game in his past four seasons), Jefferson (two years in a row with at least 20.2 PPR points per game) and Chase (two years in a row of at least 20.1 PPR points per game whenever Joe Burrow is healthy).
It would not be a surprise to see Lamb, Hill, Jefferson and Chase all be selected in the top five picks, along with Christian McCaffrey, who should be the consensus No. 1 overall selection. After that, you can expect St. Brown to be the next receiver drafted, and he just averaged 20.7 PPR points per game in 2023.
Brown will likely be the No. 6 receiver off the board in Round 1, and he's averaged at least 17.0 PPR points per game in two years with the Eagles. And Brown might be the last receiver drafted in Round 1 in most leagues, but Wilson and Nacua are also worthy of being first-round selections.
While Wilson has yet to establish himself as an elite Fantasy option, that should happen in 2024 with the healthy return of Aaron Rodgers (Achilles). And Nacua will hopefully build off his record-breaking rookie campaign in 2023 when he helped many Fantasy managers win a championship as the best waiver-wire addition in most leagues.
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 4 -- featuring Ja'Marr Chase and his case to be the No. 1 wide receiver in Fantasy for 2024.
Ja'Marr Chase, Bengals
- 2023 stats: 100 catches for 1,216 yards and seven touchdowns on 145 targets
- Stats that grab you: Through five games last season, Chase was on pace for 150 receptions, 1,618 yards and 10 touchdowns. He was averaging 8.8 catches and 95.2 yards per game over that span. ... Chase played nine games with Joe Burrow (wrist) healthy, and Chase was averaging 20.1 PPR points per game with Burrow under center. Chase finished the season averaging 16.4 PPR points per game, which was the lowest mark of his three-year career. ... In Week 5 last year at Arizona, Chase caught 15 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns on 19 targets. There have been 39 times in NFL history where a player has caught at least 15 passes in a game, and three of them happened last season with Chase, Puka Nacua (Week 2 vs. San Francisco with 15 catches for 147 yards on 20 targets) and Keenan Allen (Week 3 at Minnesota with 18 catches for 215 yards on 20 targets).
- Quote to note: "He's got an explosive body type. I've often said this before, he's built in some ways like a running back with his lower body strength. He rarely goes down on first contact. That play strength shows up on routes down the field on typically like go routes where guys get bodied out of bounds because they're looking for the ball. Fearless across the middle. He has really strong hands. He doesn't body catch, he goes and attacks the ball. Typically with a contested catch, he's going to rip the ball away from the DB. And you can move him around everywhere. You can put a bunch of things on his plate, and he retains it all. When you have guys that you can move around like that it makes life really easy as a play-caller. Almost what impresses me as much as anything about Ja'Marr is he's super competitive, but if he hasn't got a touch in a while he's not over there screaming at me on the sideline. It's all positive. Not every Pro Bowl type receiver is like that, and I respect that about Ja'Marr." -- Bengals coach Zac Taylor to CBS Sports about Chase at the NFL owners meeting.
- The breakdown: How you feel about Chase likely comes down to how confident you are in Burrow staying healthy. In 12 games together in 2022, Chase averaged 20.2 PPR points per game, and he was at 20.1 PPR points per game with Burrow last year. That's elite production, and hopefully both can play 17 games in 2024. Tee Higgins should be ready to go in Week 1 after signing his franchise tag in June, giving Chase a solid running mate and competition for targets. But Chase has averaged 9.0 targets per game in his career and just had a career-best 145 targets in 2023 despite Burrow missing the final seven games of the season. When Chase and Burrow are together, Chase is among the best receivers in the NFL.