2020 Wide Receiver Sleepers

Chris Lollis

Clearwater, FL

April 10, 2020

The top 30 fantasy WR’s from last season featured several new faces that could have been considered sleepers at this time last year including DeVante Parker, Michael Gallup, D.J. Chark, A.J. Brown, and Terry Mclaurin.

We will almost certainly have another batch of new names at the top of the position group again this season, but before we share our picks, let us know which of these guys you think stands out as a 2020 sleeper.

Our Favorite Sleeper WR’s

Highlights from the article we wrote this time last year included Chris Godwin, Allen Robinson, Courtland Sutton, and Terry McLaurin. We had all four guys ranked considerably higher than their expert consensus ranking and ADP.

While we do feel better about our tight end sleepers than this group heading into the 2020 season, we were able to put together a group of guys we believe in. Here are five wide receivers that have to be considered sleepers at the moment given how far off their expert consensus rankings are.

Cooper Kupp

WR   |   LA Rams   |   Current Pos. Rank: 16
I realize it is tough to call Cooper Kupp a sleeper, but he is 10 spots too low at WR 16! That is a full round-plus difference in terms of ADP.

Kupp was 10 months removed from an ACL injury when last season started. On top of that, Goff and the offense clearly took a step backward. Kupp still finished the season as WR 4!

Now 20+ months removed from the ACL injury, with Brandin Cooks no longer taking snaps and targets, with an offensive line that will be dramatically improved in 2020, Kupp is about to have the best year of his career.

The thing you have to love about Kupp as a fantasy owner is that he is a rare PPR-machine that dominates in the red zone. Kupp has been Goff’s go-to target in the red zone for three years now, and last year he caught 13 of 18 red-zone targets for 6 touchdowns.

I’m not thinking twice about grabbing him in the middle of round 2, and he is still a great value in that range.

T.Y. Hilton

WR   |   Indianapolis Colts   |   Current Pos. Rank: 28
Imagine having T.Y. Hilton ranked lower than he finished last season? In fact, if this ranking were to hold up, it would be the first time in Hilton’s career (a career that has seen him spend two seasons with Jacoby Brissett, one with Matt Hasselbeck, and another half-season with Scott Tolzien and Brian Hoyer) that Hilton would finish outside of WR2 range.

PFF graded Brissett out as a 58 last season in one of his better years, in his worst career year Rivers received a grade of 74 last season. Brissett to Rivers is a massive upgrade for Hilton, and I think he could return to the consistent WR1 type of numbers we saw him put up with Andrew Luck.

While the addition of Pittman on the outside may take a few targets, it is important to remember that all but one of Hilton’s 2019 targets came out of the slot. The slot is also a position Rivers loved to target with Keenan Allen in LA. It seems more likely that Hilton sees a bump up in targets but bump down in red-zone targets in 2020.

We have a hard time not projecting Hilton as a high-end WR2 when even conservatively projecting his numbers in this offense this season.

Emmanuel Sanders

WR   |   New Orleans Saints   |   Current Pos. Rank: 43
Like Kupp, Emmanuel Sanders’ 2019 season was vastly underrated because of how quickly he overcame a devastating injury to even take the field. Sanders (at the age of 31) tore his achilles in December of 2018, and not only returned for 2019, but played in 20 games!

Moving from the disaster that was Denver’s offense for the past six seasons to now playing alongside Drew Brees and Michael Thomas in Sean Payton’s offense… we have no idea what sort of numbers Sanders can put up in New Orleans.

Emmanuel Sanders finished 2019 as WR 33 despite playing a limited role in extremely limited passing attacks. Do we really think he moves to New Orleans, another year removed from the achilles injury, and drops 10 spots lower? Not happening. We have him currently at WR 28, which means you should be targeting him in rounds 7 – 8 right now.

Anthony Miller

WR   |   Chicago Bears   |   Current Pos. Rank: 45
I feel like I have written this 50 times in the past week, but Anthony Miller is going to explode in 2020. While year 2 wasn’t nearly the jump we saw from guys like Michael Gallup, it’s worth noting his jump from 33/423 to 52/656 went counter to Trubisky’s production falling off of a cliff.

Insert Nick Foles, Bill Lazor, and John DeFillipo and I think the offense as a whole will take a huge leap forward in 2020. The offensive line still needs work, but with Miller taking 90% of his snaps from the slot, a bad line almost works to his advantage.

One interesting note with Miller is his red-zone efficiency. He caught 7 of 11 red-zone targets for 5 touchdowns his rookie season, and despite awful QB play, caught 5 of 9 red-zone targets for 2 touchdowns last year.

Miller finished 2019 as WR 58, but I think he makes the biggest jump out of any player this season and finishes 2020 as a top 30 fantasy receiver. Update: Miller was a beast in week one, and is underpriced again on DraftKings for week two.

Jalen Reagor

WR   |   Philadelphia Eagles   |   Current Pos. Rank: 60
We called Reagor to Philly over a month ago. Doug Pederson and Howie Roseman do an unbelievable job of finding value with their first pick, which is generally picked 20 or later. Andre Dillard, their 2019 pick, was my favorite player in last season’s class. In 2018 they used their first pick (second round) on Dallas Goedert. This year they clearly honed in on Jalen Reagor and it is going to be a home run.

Not only did the Eagles benefit from a deep WR draft class that almost ensured Reagor would fall to them, but they benefited from a ‘bad’ combine performance from Reagor who has been a 4.2 guy his entire life but ran 4.47 at the combine. He would later run a 4.2 at his personal pro day and tested off the charts in terms of vertical jump, broad jump, short shuttle, and three-cone.

Reagor’s tape speaks for itself. He can run the complete route tree with the speed to beat you deep (PFF’s top-rated deep threat in 2020 class) and power to work around the line of scrimmage. He was widely regarded as one of the best WR’s in the country despite getting zero help from the QB position at TCU:

In our opinion, Reagor steps into the #1 WR role in Philly on day one, giving the position the shot of energy it has so desperately needed for years now. Let’s remember Wentz played the second half of 2019 with a broken Alshon Jeffery, Greg Ward, and whoever was healthy out of Mack Hollins, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, and Deontay Burnett.

Reagor is a massive upgrade and is going to get peppered with targets on one of the better offenses in the NFL.

Josh Reynolds

WR   |   LA Rams   |   Current Pos. Rank: 81
It was around this time last season that we cautioned everyone about the potential issues the Rams could face on the offensive line. They allowed both Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan to leave last offseason, replacing them with a ton of youth and inexperience. Couple that with a litany of injuries to the group in 2019 and the entire offense suffered.

McVay has now had this young group for another year and we think it will show on the field. This will result in more time for Goff, and a ton of opportunities for Josh Reynolds who is arguably one of the more underrated deep threats in the NFL today.

As McVay stated in the days following the Brandin Cooks trade: “We would not have made the move on Brandin Cooks had it not been for the confidence we have in Josh Reynolds.”

In fact, many Rams beat reporters have already stated the team felt Reynolds provided even more juice as a deep threat than Cooks. Clearly, the team is excited to have him on the field. Reynolds saw a snap count of 95% in the two games Cooks missed in 2019.

Reynolds caught 9 passes for 177 yards (just under 20 YPC) and a touchdown while Cooks was out. We expect him to thrive as the Rams WR3 in 2020, and it’s worth pointing out the Rams play more 11 personnel than any team in the NFL.

Reynolds expert consensus ranking has climbed just 5 spots in the three weeks since the Cooks trade. He is criminally undervalued at 81 and is nearly 50 spots lower than our current rankings. That being said, he could plummet if Van Jefferson continues to impress and eats into his snaps.

Current List of WR’s Opting Out of 2020 NFL Season

The COVID-19 pandemic is clearly going to have a massive impact on this fantasy season. It already has seemingly ended the CFB season before it could already begin. NFL players seem to be opting out on a daily basis, which is clearly going to have a massive impact on 2020 fantasy drafts.

In fact, COVID may end up being one of the most important factors in determining what wide receivers are the biggest fantasy sleepers for 2020. Below is an updated list of WR’s to opt-out of the 2020 season to date.

Current WR Depth Chart for All 32 NFL Teams

If you look at our list of WR sleepers from last season (Chris Godwin, DeVante Parker, Michael Gallup, D.J. Chark, A.J. Brown, and Terry Mclaurin) they were players that either had a WR leave resulting in a ton of targets open up on their team or benefited from a coaching/scheme change.

By simply reviewing the current 5-deep depth chart for each team, you can identify spots where a player may see a ton of targets simply by default. This was certainly the case for Terry McLaurin and Chris Godwin last season.

Chris Lollis

Clearwater, FL