Week 3 Rankings (2018): Top 50 Wide Receivers

by Will Overton

It’s Week 3 and it will be the last week for quite some time that we’ll see 16 games on the schedule. The injuries are starting to pile up and the questionable tags are everywhere, but we’ll do our best to navigate that minefield and breakdown our best guess at who is playing and how they rank in our Top 50 Wide Receivers for the week:

1. Michael Thomas – New Orleans Saints at Atlanta
2. Julio Jones – Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans
3. Antonio Brown – Pittsburgh Steelers at Tampa Bay
4. DeAndre Hopkins – Houston Texans vs. NY Giants
5. Odell Beckham Jr. – New York Giants at Houston
6. Tyreek Hill – Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco
7. Stefon Diggs – Minnesota Vikings vs. Buffalo
8. Adam Thielen – Minnesota Vikings vs. Buffalo
9. A.J. Green – Cincinnati Bengals at Carolina
10. Davante Adams – Green Bay Packers at Washington
11. Mike Evans – Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Pittsburgh
12. JuJu Smith Schuster – Pittsburgh Steelers at Tampa Bay
13. Keenan Allen – Los Angeles Chargers at LA Rams
14. Jarvis Landry – Cleveland Browns vs. NY Jets
15. T.Y. Hilton – Indianapolis Colts at Philadelphia
16. Emmanuel Sanders – Denver Broncos at Baltimore
17. Brandin Cooks – Los Angeles Rams vs. LA Chargers
18. Allen Robinson – Chicago Bears at Arizona
19. Demaryius Thomas – Denver Broncos at Baltimore
20. Amari Cooper – Oakland Raiders at Miami
21. Larry Fitzgerald – Arizona Cardinals vs. Chicago
22. Golden Tate – Detroit Lions vs. New England
23. Chris Hogan – New England Patriots at Detroit
24. Nelson Agholor – Philadelphia Eagles vs. Indianapolis
25. Kenny Stills – Miami Dolphins vs. Oakland
26. Quincy Enunwa – New York Jets at Cleveland
27. Keelan Cole – Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Tennessee
28. Desean Jackson – Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Pittsburgh
29. Marvin Jones Jr – Detroit Lions vs. New England
30. Kenny Golladay – Detroit Lions vs. New England
31. Devin Funchess – Carolina Panthers vs. Cincinnati
32. Corey Davis – Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville
33. Robert Woods – Los Angeles Rams vs. LA Chargers
34. Sammy Watkins – Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco
35. Randall Cobb – Green Bay Packers at Washington
36. Will Fuller – Houston Texans vs. NY Giants
37. John Brown – Baltimore Ravens vs. Denver
38. Cooper Kupp – Los Angeles Rams vs. LA Chargers
39. Tyler Lockett – Seattle Seahawks vs. Dallas
40. Michael Crabtree – Baltimore Ravens vs. Denver
41. Chris Godwin – Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Pittsburgh
42. Brandon Marshall – Seattle Seahawks vs. Dallas
43. Marquise Goodwin – San Francisco 49ers at Kansas City
44. Dede Westbrook – Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Tennessee
45. Pierre Garcon – San Francisco 49ers at Kansas City
46. Mike Williams – Los Angeles Chargers at LA Rams
47. Tyler Boyd – Cincinnati Bengals at Carolina
48. Robby Anderson – New York Jets at Cleveland
49. Phillip Dorsett – New England Patriots at Detroit
50. Jamison Crowder – Washington Redskins at Green Bay

Thoughts:

• Just to clarify, the fact that Antonio Brown isn’t number one on this list has nothing to do with his skipping practice on Monday or arguing with his offensive coordinator last Sunday. If anything I think what’s going on in Pittsburgh is going to only inspire him to come out and put on a show. He’s not number one this week because Michael Thomas has been other worldly so far (28 catches and 3 TD in 2 games) and I expect a big time shootout showdown between he and Julio Jones.
• With Josh Gordon leaving the Browns the fears about target shares for Jarvis Landry have subsided even further. So far Landry has been the go to guy for Tyrod Taylor, getting 22 targets in two games, and there shouldn’t be many games in which he doesn’t hit double digits in targets. We saw a similar type receiver in Kenny Stills expose the Jets secondary last week and I think Landry can do with a big game on Thursday in primetime.
• In the first two weeks of the season we’ve seen two extremes from Amari Cooper. In Week 1 he caught just one ball and then in Week 2 he came out and caught 10 against a fairly good defense. Cooper is unpredictable and it’s hard to count on him, which keeps him in the back end of the WR2 conversation. What I do think is true is that the Raiders are going to keep trying to ride Derek Carr and attack through the air where Cooper is the clear cut, no doubt number one target.
• After week one I was still skeptical on Quincy Enunwa, chalking up his big Week 1 to Darius Slay seeming to have shut down Robby Anderson. Then Week 2 came along and nothing changed. It seems as though Sam Darnold really has locked in on Enunwa as his favored target and that’s a big deal with a rookie QB. If Darnold feels comfortable looking to Enunwa he’s going to keep going back there over and over.
• What has happened with the Tampa Bay football team is nothing short of mind bending. Ryan Fitzpatrick is bringing the magic and DeSean Jackson is running deep routes down the field like it’s 2013 again. There is no way Fitzpatrick is going to keep dropping 400 yard games and Jackson isn’t going to keep averaging 30 yards per catch. The magic is going to run out, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen this week. The Steelers defense has been bad, really bad, and in primetime I think we could see the Bucs keep the good vibes rolling.
• I’m not overly excited to play anyone from the Tennessee Titans receiving corps right now, but the one guy I am willing to entertain is Corey Davis. We don’t know who is going to be the quarterback this week, but we know that whoever it is Davis is their guy. Through two games he has 20 targets, which accounts for a little over a third of the team’s total targets. I don’t trust the situation, but you can’t ignore the volume and while he hasn’t been able to show it as we’d like I do believe Davis has top level talent at the position.
• I am tempering my expectations with Marquise Goodwin this week, partly because we still don’t know if he’ll even play and he’s missed the first two games of the season. That said, if you are looking for a high upside play in your league, or in a DFS game, he might be your guy. The Chiefs offense has been dynamic but their defense has not been, and as quick as the Chiefs are scoring the 49ers are going to get a lot of chances on offense and they’re probably going to need to throw a lot to keep up. I’m probably too risk adverse to use him in season long formats, but in daily games he’s a potentially nice flier.

Make sure to check out all of our Week 3 rankings: