Overvalued and Undervalued Fantasy Football Wide Receivers

Based on ESPN Fantasy’s Average Draft Position, we’ll be looking at the top 3 wide receivers who are undervalued and overvalued based on their position against other players of the same position.

Overvalued Wide Receivers: 

DJ Chark (ADP: WR38) – This list could easily feature two Jacksonville wide receivers, but we limited it to just one with Chark getting the worse end of the deal. Shenault Jr. is 2 spots ahead of Chark in ESPN drafts, but should really be a little bit more than that and even then, both should be lower than where they are. Neither wide receivers will even finish as the #1 wide receiver on their team, that honor will go to offseason signee Marvin Jones. 

Jerry Jeudy (ADP: WR33) – With Drew Lock given the boot, we anticipated Denver would bring in a better quarterback than Teddy Bridgewater to lead the charge. Bridgewater steps in for one of the worst offenses in the NFL. Jeudy had a subpar rookie season with Lock and matters only got worse as Denver failed to acquire future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers in the trade that was as close to happening as can be according to the Broncos. 

Michael Thomas (ADP: WR31) – It hurts us to put someone as great as Michael Thomas on this list but he needs to be on here. Michael Thomas is expected to miss 10-12 weeks of the 2021 season and is still drafted as the 31st receiver off the board. Thomas finished last season barely making the top 100 receivers in fantasy and is expected to miss just as much time this season. We think Thomas will be good when he is available and help the Saints offense get over Drew Brees announcement to retire. Thomas is only worth a middle round pick if your league has injured reserve spots to place him on to save him for the playoffs when he will be a top receiver. 

Undervalued Wide Receivers:

Russell Gage (ADP: WR62) -Arguably one of the best bargain players in all of fantasy football this year. With Julio Jones out of the picture, Gage is the #2 wide receiver on a pass heavy offense in Atlanta with Calvin Ridley as the #1 option. Gage finished 2020 as wide receiver #40 when he was the #3 option for half of the season. With Jones in Tennessee and the only other significant addition to the passing offense being Kyle Pitts which we think will have a great season but not as productive as Julio right away. This is what makes it difficult for us to understand how someone who finished as 40th last season can drop over 20 spots in the rankings while taking on a bigger role in the offense. We see Gage as a steal this season in fantasy and recommend getting him when you can. 

Corey Davis (ADP: WR48) – Another player who had a higher ranking in 2020 and now has a bigger role in their offense has slid in Corey Davis. Different from Gage, Davis is joining a new team where he will be the presumed #1, but Tannehill and Wilson are at significantly different levels. Davis will need to be a leader for the Jets and we know he’ll handle his new role with pride. We expect Davis to have similar numbers as last season which would put him significantly higher than how far he slipped in the average draft position. 

Tyler Boyd (ADP: WR37) – The Cincinnati Bengals drafted Ja’Marr Chase and have young speedster Tee Higgins in the mix along with Boyd. The Bengals are slowly becoming one of the better offenses, but need an offensive line to take them to the next level. With opting for Chase, this will hurt Boyd’s chances to become even higher on this list, but even with going for Chase, Boyd still has a good case for him. AJ Green is in Arizona, Burrow is back from a season-ending injury and Bernard is in Tampa Bay. Without Burrow, Boyd’s stats saw a significant drop off along with everyone else on the Bengals offense. With Joey B back, we expect Boyd to be the leader in receiving yards and targets this season, but with Chase and Higgins continuing to develop, we don’t expect Boyd to remain atop the Bengals depth chart after this season.