Fantasy Football Week 1 Wide Receiver Preview: Waiver adds, starts, sits, stashes, and more

The 2024 wide receiver class has a chance to alter the Fantasy Football landscape, and it could start as early as Week 1. In our consensus PPR rankings for this week, Marvin Harrison sits at WR9, Malik Nabers is at WR22, and four more rookies crack our consensus top 48. Two more, Rome Odunze and Adonai Mitchell, are in one analyst's top 48, but not the consensus. This is not normal.

There doesn't appear to be much intrigue with Harrison, everyone expects him to be great immediately. Dave is there with Nabers as well, ranking him 13th this week, ahead of Deebo Samuel, Davante Adams, and many others. With the rest of the rookies, we have a lot to learn, and it's one of the things we'll be watching closely.

The show starts on Thursday night with Xavier Worthy facing the Ravens. I expected a slow start for Worthy, but with Marquise Brown sidelined there's suddenly plenty of opportunity behind Rashee Rice and Travis Kelce. Worthy showed the ability to get behind the defense in the preseason and could produce a good Fantasy day in just one play. Brian Thomas Jr. could do the same thing on Sunday against the Dolphins. 

Both Keon Coleman and Ladd McConkey have a chance to be their team's number one wide receiver this season, and if either does that they'll quickly jump into the conversation for WR3 in this class in 2024. The guy who was actually WR3 on Draft Day, Rome Odunze, has to overcome D.J. Moore and Keenan Allen standing in his way for targets. 

One thing we would like for you to do with all of these rookies is be patient. Time and time again we have seen rookies struggle early in the season only to be league winners in the second half. It happened last year with Rashee Rice, it happened two years ago with Christian Watson, and it happened three years ago with Amon-Ra St. Brown. You do not want to be the guy who dropped a Round 1 rookie after a slow month. 

You always find all of my projections over at Sportsline. 

Here is the rest of the Week 1 WR Preview:

Week 1 WR Preview

The following players are not being projected to play Week 1 at this time. Here's what it means:

Marquise Brown WR KC Kansas City • #5 Age: 27 • Experience: 6 yrs. Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy will be the top two wide receivers for the Chiefs in Week 1.

Josh Downs WR IND Indianapolis • #1 Age: 23 • Experience: 2 yrs. Michael Pittman is the clear number one wide receiver but Downs' absence gives Adonai Mitchell a chance to contribute early.

• 8.5 -- Rashee Rice averaged 8.5 targets per game after the Chiefs bye last year. Expect him to pick up where he left off.
• 7 -- Aaron Rodgers will be the seventh QB to attempt a pass to Garrett Wilson. The first six were: Joe Flacco, Zach Wilson, Mike White, Chris Streveler, Tim Boyle, and Trevor Siemian.
• 6.5 -- Davante Adams' 6.5 yards per target in 2023 was his lowest mark since 2015.
• 8.9 -- Keenan Allen has averaged at least 8.9 targets per game in each of his last seven seasons. The Bears' target share will be a fascinating watch.
• 5 -- The Jets only allowed five receiving touchdowns to wide receivers all season last year.
• .277 -- Michael Pittman's .277 TPRR trailed only Tyreek Hill, Adams, CeeDee Lamb, Allen, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Puka Nacua last year.
• 7.2 -- Khalil Shakir was the only wide receiver besides Deebo Samuel and Rashee Rice to average more than seven yards after catch per reception in 2023.
• 3.11 -- Nico Collins was the only wide receiver besides Tyreek Hill to average more than 3.1 yards per route run.

Matchups that matter

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Mike Evans WR TB Tampa Bay • #13 Age: 31 • Experience: 11 year Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs WAS TB -3 O/U 43.5 OPP VS WR 20th PROJ PTS 16.2 WR RNK 7th 2023 Stats REC 79 TAR 136 REYDS 1255 TD 13 FPTS/G 16.6

Amari Cooper WR CLE Cleveland • #2 Age: 30 • Experience: 10 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs DAL CLE -2.5 O/U 41.5 OPP VS WR 31st PROJ PTS 13.1 WR RNK 30th 2023 Stats REC 72 TAR 128 REYDS 1250 TD 5 FPTS/G 15.1

Brandon Aiyuk WR SF San Francisco • #11 Age: 26 • Experience: 5 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs NYJ SF -4 O/U 43 OPP VS WR 9th PROJ PTS 11.5 WR RNK 23rd 2023 Stats REC 75 TAR 105 REYDS 1342 TD 7 FPTS/G 15.6

Week 1 Adds (WR Preview)

Rashid Shaheed WR NO New Orleans • #22 Age: 26 • Experience: 3 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs CAR NO -4 O/U 41.5 OPP VS WR 27th WR RNK 48th ROSTERED 45% 2023 Stats REC 46 TAR 75 REYDS 719 TD 5 FPTS/G 10 Shaheed played five full games without Michael Thomas last year. He averaged six targets per game and topped 15 PPR Fantasy points in two of them. He should be the clear WR2 for New Orleans this season and is close to a must-start wide receiver in leagues that reward Fantasy points for kick return yardage.

Adonai Mitchell WR IND Indianapolis • #10 Age: 21 • Experience: Rookie Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs HOU HOU -2.5 O/U 49 OPP VS WR 16th WR RNK NR ROSTERED 38% 2023 Stats REC 0 TAR 0 REYDS 0 TD 0 FPTS/G 0 Mitchell is going to see an expanded role in Week 1 due to Josh Downs' injury and there's a chance he holds on to that role for the rest of the season. His size makes him an excellent red zone target and the Colts have been experimenting with playing him as a big slot in three-receiver sets. He's a fine flex in full PPR leagues where you start three receivers and a flex.

Darnell Mooney WR ATL Atlanta • #1 Age: 26 • Experience: 5 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs PIT ATL -3 O/U 42 OPP VS WR 25th WR RNK NR ROSTERED 36% 2023 Stats REC 31 TAR 61 REYDS 414 TD 1 FPTS/G 5.3 These are the best circumstances of Mooney's career. He has Kirk Cousins at QB and he has Drake London, Bijan Robinson, and Kyle Pitts to draw attention. He won't be a consistent option, be he'll have spike week potential every week, which is exactly what you should want from a WR4 or second flex.

Stashes (WR Preview)

Demario Douglas WR NE New England • #3 Age: 23 • Experience: 2 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP @ CIN CIN -8.5 O/U 40.5 OPP VS WR 11th WR RNK NR ROSTERED 26% 2023 Stats REC 49 TAR 79 REYDS 561 TD 0 FPTS/G 7.7 I don't really want to start a Patriots wide receiver until they make the switch to Drake Maye, but they have three solid stash candidates. The first is Demario Douglas, who is the favorite to lead the team in targets, receptions, and receiving yards. Douglas earned seven targets per game after Kendrick Bourne went down last year and Bourne is starting the year on the PUP. I'm also looking to stash Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker.

Greg Dortch WR ARI Arizona • #4 Age: 26 • Experience: 4 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP @ BUF BUF -6 O/U 48 OPP VS WR 10th WR RNK NR ROSTERED 6% 2023 Stats REC 24 TAR 41 REYDS 280 TD 2 FPTS/G 4 I fully expect the Cardinals targets to be heavily concentrated between Marvin Harrison and Trey McBride. But I also don't want to ignore the steady drum beat out of Arizona that Greg Dortch is going to do special things. Stash him on your bench Week 1, if he doesn't see at least six targets you can drop him for the top Week 2 add.

Josh Downs WR IND Indianapolis • #1 Age: 23 • Experience: 2 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs HOU HOU -2.5 O/U 49 OPP VS WR 22nd WR RNK NR ROSTERED 24% 2023 Stats REC 68 TAR 98 REYDS 771 TD 2 FPTS/G 9.2 We're not expecting Downs to play Week 1 because of a high ankle sprain, but before the injury there was some talk that he was Anthony Richardson's top target.

Top DFS Play

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Tyreek Hill WR MIA Miami • #10 Age: 30 • Experience: 9 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs JAC MIA -3 O/U 49 OPP VS WR 3rd PROJ PTS 20.4 WR RNK 1st 2023 Stats REC 119 TAR 171 REYDS 1799 TD 13 FPTS/G 23.6 There are always plenty of bargains in Week 1 because the prices are set so early. With that in mind, I'm playing both Bijan Robinson and Tyreek Hill in cash games. Robinson has a three-point projection edge over any other running back in FanDuel projections and Hill has that much over every receiver not named CeeDee Lamb.

Contrarian DFS Play

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Mike Evans WR TB Tampa Bay • #13 Age: 31 • Experience: 11 year Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs WAS TB -3 O/U 43.5 OPP VS WR 30th PROJ PTS 16.2 WR RNK 7th 2023 Stats REC 79 TAR 136 REYDS 1255 TD 13 FPTS/G 16.6 Evans price (seventh-highest WR on FanDuel) may scare some people away, but I'm not sure anyone has more upside in Week 1. The Commanders gave up the most Fantasy points to WR1s last year and Evans is known for his spike weeks. Last year he scored 26.1 FD points in Week 2, and topped 20 four other times. I like stacking him with Baker Mayfield and using him as the bring-back with Jayden Daniels.

My full set of Week 1 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 1. Projected stats for all starting wide receivers are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.