Separating the boring late-round wide receivers from the high-upside sleepers worth targeting on Draft Day is an essential part of building a winning Fantasy roster in 2020. There's no shortage of players who can drop 10 Fantasy points per game — 61 managed it in 2019 — but that shouldn't be the goal. The goal should be to find the guys who are so good you can't even consider taking them out of your lineup.
A few are sure to emerge in 2020, so it's a matter of knowing where to look. You'll need to get acquainted with where the position stands heading into 2020 first, and then you'll want to look at early ADP for any trends. Then, go look at our tiered rankings to see where the best values might be.
Or we can just tell you where they are. These guys won't all hit, but it's pretty clear what kind of player you should be looking for based on the Fantasy Football Today team's picks, because you'll notice an obvious pattern here: There isn't a single receiver on here with more than three years of experience. Youth equals upside.
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But young guys aren't the only sleepers out there. Read below to see who Jamey Eisenberg, Dave Richard, Heath Cummings and Ben Gretch are targeting as their top sleepers, but here are a few vets with the potential to be great values on Draft Day, too.
- Jamison Crowder: It's hard to take much from the Jets 2019 season, seeing as Sam Darnold went down early with mono and surely dealt with the after effects of that for quite some time. But Crowder was expected to be a target hog, and when Darnold was at his best, Crowder was seeing a ton of looks — 14 in Week 1, and then nine per game over the final five. Crowder doesn't tend to do a ton with those targets, but the slot receiver always gets fed in Adam Gase's offense, and Crowder is probably a pretty high-floor starting wide receiver going outside of the first 10 rounds right now.
- Marvin Jones: Where Crowder is probably lacking in week-to-week upside, Jones brings it in bunches. He scored more than 10 PPR points just six times in 13 games last season, but averaged 23.0 points per game in those six. You'll never feel good about having to start Jones every week, but his downfield role playing with Matthew Stafford makes him a threat to go off for a huge week every time he takes the field, and that's a perfect guy to have as a bye week or injury replacement. Nothing will pick you up from your star being on a bye week like one of Jones multi-touchdown games.
Jamey Eisenberg's WR Sleepers
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Sims has been one of my favorite late-round receivers to target for a while, and it's nice to see others jumping on the bandwagon. I'm excited about Sims in 2020, especially in PPR, as he should be the No. 2 receiver for Washington behind Terry McLaurin. He closed 2019 on a tear with at least 15 PPR points in each of his final three games. Over that span, he had 16 catches for 190 yards and four touchdowns on 29 targets, and he should continue to build a solid rapport with Dwayne Haskins this year. Keep an eye on rookie Antonio Gandy-Golden as another sleeper to target, but Sims has the upside to be a quality No. 3 Fantasy receiver this season.
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It's likely that Aiyuk will continue to garner more attention as we get closer to the season if we find out that Deebo Samuel (foot) is going to miss games. Aiyuk could be the No. 1 receiver for the 49ers, and I can see myself moving him higher and higher as well. Samuel suffered a Jones fracture in June, and there's a chance he could remain on the PUP list once the season starts. Aiyuk will battle Jalen Hurd and Kendrick Bourne for targets, but Aiyuk has a much higher ceiling as a first-round pick in this year's NFL Draft. If Samuel misses multiple weeks in the season, Aiyuk could challenge to be the best rookie receiver in the Class of 2020. That's a stretch given that the 49ers aren't a pass-happy team, but Aiyuk could have a big opportunity depending on how long Samuel is out.
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Dave Richard's WR Sleepers
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Trusting rookie receivers without any offseason work is dangerous. Sticking with them in an abbreviated training camp is risky. But there's no one on the Eagles who is as explosive, young and fast as Reagor -- and this is a team that desperately needs reliable receiving help. Alshon Jeffery? Old, injured and inconsistent. DeSean Jackson? Kind of a sleeper, but 33 years old, coming off surgery and with one 800-yard season in his past five years. Reagor may not get as many targets as Zach Ertz in Philadelphia, but the double-move master from TCU will finally get quality throws from a strong-armed quarterback. It should lead to plenty of chances to put up numbers.
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When Sims got a chance to play late last season, he didn't disappoint. He scored in each of his final three and had a minimum of 15 PPR points per game. Those outings should be a springboard to more playing time, particularly in a Washington offense that needs speed and playmakers. The only real additions Washington made in its receiving corps was rookie Antonio Gandy-Golden and journeyman Dontrelle Inman. It's not enough to push Sims out of meaningful playing time, potentially as the team's slot receiver.
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Heath Cummings's WR Sleepers
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The Giants may have too many mouths to feed, but all the evidence we have suggests Sterling Shepard should be their first receiver drafted. And he should be drafted at least two rounds earlier than he currently is. Shepard earned close to a 25% target share when he was healthy in 2019 and was over 8 yards per target in both 2017 and 2018. If he can combine those two numbers, he's got a shot at being a low-end No. 2 receiver. At the very least he should be a solid No. 3 if he stays healthy.
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All those things we believe the Packers did wrong this offseason worked out pretty well for Allen Lazard. They did almost nothing to help out Aaron Rodgers, and the one guy they did sign (Devin Funchess) just opted out. Lazard will have to beat out Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Equanimeous St. Brown for the No. 2 role, but he has an edge after the rapport he built with Rodgers in the second half of 2019. Expect Lazard to be a solid No. 3 receiver with top-30 upside.
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Ben Gretch's WR Sleepers
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Kirk is an afterthought in 2020 drafts in large part thanks to the arrival of DeAndre Hopkins, but that's a mistake. Kirk was a strong prospect coming into the NFL, who broke out as a true freshman in college and added substantial return stats throughout his three collegiate seasons, something that's helpful in predicting future wide receiver success. As a young rookie, he posted an impressive 1.72 yards per route run, but then last year that fell to 1.41 YPRR while he battled an ankle injury. Interestingly, his targets per route run actually rose in Year 2, and it was the less stable part of the YPRR equation, his yards per target, that fell off from 8.7 as a rookie to 6.6 last year. That's because Kirk was wildly efficient on deep balls as a rookie, then below average down the field in 2019. Through two seasons of data, he looks slightly above average as a downfield weapon, so it's not like he's definitively shown us he can't succeed in that area. Still only 23 until November, Kirk might actually benefit from the addition of Hopkins in an offense that pace stats suggest should run more plays and add pass attempts in Kyler Murray's second season. Kirk is a fantastic value in drafts, too, as he can consistently be found after almost every other high-profile second- or third-year breakout candidate is off the board. Take advantage.
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Shenault is a late receiver target in most leagues, and will probably go undrafted in many casual leagues. And that makes him a huge value after 13 wide receivers were taken in the top-60 picks of the 2020 NFL Draft and concerns about a limited offseason impacting rookies have kept drafters off the class. You simply don't see a receiver with a fantastic collegiate production record whose team invested the 42nd overall pick to add him to a soft positional depth chart go this late most years. Jacksonville looks headed for a season where they'll have all the incentive in the world to see what they have in young players, and Dede Westbrook will turn 27 this November in the final year of his rookie contract, while Chris Conley will be 28 in October and is also a free agent after the season. Neither veteran has posted an 800-yard season in the NFL. Meanwhile, Shenault is a versatile bulldozer of a wide receiver who added goal-line work in college out of the wildcat formation but was also a more impressive downfield receiver than he gets credit for. His profile is something of a cross between Deebo Samuel and A.J. Brown with a little Taysom Hill sprinkled in, and he's a perfect complement for No. 1 receiver D.J. Chark. Assuming Shenault's versatility gets him on the field, it wouldn't be surprising to see him lead the rookie wide receiver class in 2020 Fantasy points.
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