The 2024 NFL Draft wide reciever class was touted as one of the best in years. After season one, it’s possible that it was among the best of the century. Despite the 2024 class’ success as rookies, 2nd year breakouts are often the norm for the position.
In this article I’m ranking the 2024 class wide receievers for 2025 fantasy football. While we’ve already seen good performances out of many from the top of the class, there’s also a lot of potential for some big break outs this year among this group.
1. Malik Nabers
I’m not straying from consensus on this one. Malik Nabers is currently the most valuable receiver from the 2024 class. Nabers finished as the WR7 in 2024 despite missing 2 games and having Daniel Jones as his quarterback.
I don’t see Russell Wilson being much of an improvement, but Nabers is one of those receivers that is QB-proof for fantasy. He managed 3 separate games of 115+ yards and finished only 1 game below 50 yards receiving. He’s the most talented playmaker on the Giants by an enormous margin and will be targeted accordingly.
There’s also an upside scenario with Nabers where Wilson struggles early on and the team gives Jameis Winston a shot. No one is confusing Winston for Peyton Manning, but there’s no mediocre quarterback out there that’s as fantasy friendly as Winston. With Winston under center Nabers could see his targets skyrocket and find more scoring chances as the team needs to dig themselves out of a hole from Winston’s weekly pick-6.
All of this is already priced in for Nabers though, as he’s currently being drafted as the WR5 over on Underdog Fantasy.
2. Ladd McConkey
Despite going as the WR11 currently, I still believe Ladd McConkey is being underrated. McConkey finished the season with 80+ yards in 7 of 8 games including a playoff performance in which he posted 197 yards receiving.
In my article about why you should target the Chargers for 2025 fantasy football I highlighted how the Chargers were actually a very balanced team between running and throwing the ball after their Week 5 bye. Justin Herbert suffered a training camp foot injury that had him limited into the early portion of the season, but after his full recovery the team saw a much more heavy passing volume than expected.
Too many fantasy managers are worried about the Chargers’ passing game because they think this will be a run-heavy team. While I don’t think you’ll see the Chargers lead the league in passing attempts, I do think that we’ll see an efficient, balanced offense like we did last year, which gives plenty of scoring chances. At the center of that offense is Ladd McConkey, like we saw when it mattered most in the playoffs.
3. Marvin Harrison Jr
This is the cheapest you’re going to be able to buy Marvin Harrison Jr for over the next 5+ years. I’m not going to pretend like Harrison didn’t disappoint relative to initial expectations, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t still have a very promising rookie year that showed his ability to be a top wide receiver in the league for years to come.
As a rookie Harrison caught 8 touchdowns. That’s an incredible figure for a rookie. There were some bumps along the way though, from looking a little overwhelmed early in the season, to some fairly flavourless playcalling for the young receiver early, and some examples of Harrison and his quarterback Kyler Murray being on separate pages.
All of those concerns can be addressed. You don’t need to wait for a new quarterback or playcaller. Harrison, Murray, and Drew Petzing will all have plenty of information to work with heading into year two.
Harrison worked through the early season jitters and showed the great body control and catch radius that had him labelled a generational talent. Petzing used Harrison better as the season progressed and put him in more situations to show those skills on back shoulder and sideline breaking routes. The big problem over the 2nd half of the season is that as Harrison’s route tree became more suited to his skills, him and Murray weren’t on the same page.
Heading into year two, Harrison is still far and away the most talented wide receiver on the team. Harrison isn’t the twitchy breakaway receiver that someone like Nabers is. His advantage comes on timing routes, boxing out defenders, and make tough catches. That means he needs time to develop a rapport with his quarterback, and could lead to a huge year 2 breakout.
4. Brian Thomas Jr
Brian Thomas Jr had an exceptional 2024 season, and if I wrote this article back in March, he’d likely be in consideration for the top spot. But here we are following the 2025 NFL Draft, and there are reasonable questions about whether Thomas will be the top receiver on his team this season. That’s how good Travis Hunter is.
Head coach Liam Coen stated after the draft that Hunter will primarily play wide receiver. As an offensive head coach it’s not surprising that this unique talent will primarily be deployed on the offensive side of the ball. And Hunter is a unique talent. He was clearly the best receiver in college football despite not practicing full time as a receiver throughout college.
I’m not saying Thomas won’t still be a great receiver, but for fantasy, the target volume is not going to be what it was last season. He also likely won’t see the same amount of Red Zone touchdowns as a year ago. Thomas was third in the NFL in Red Zone touchdown receptions last year. Hunter enters the NFL with by far the strongest hands in his class, and will likely have some of the strongest hands right away in the whole NFL. He’s exactly the type of receiver you want to target in the Red Zone.
My biggest concern of all is that Trevor Lawrence simply hasn’t shown he can lead a high powered passing offense. Lawrence hasn’t thrown for more than 25 touchdowns in a season, and Thomas’ best stretch of the season came with Lawrence out of the lineup. Now that targets are going to be distrubted even more, I don’t see the same upside with Thomas as I do the three receivers ahead of him.
5. Rome Odunze
I’m not in on the Bears at their current fantasy cost this season. I’ve highlighted how the Packers are a better target for fantasy options given their signifcantly lower ADPs. Rome Odunze may be the one exception.
It initally seemed that Odunze was going to receive the same Ben Johnson bump that the other weapons in Chicago did. He was pushing as his as a low end WR2 in ADP, but has since fallen to WR34 following the draft. At that ADP I think he’s now underrated.
Outside of Caleb Williams, I don’t think anyone struggled more due to the dysfunction of the Bears’ coaching staff last year than Odunze. There seemed to be no plan on how to deploy him and how he could complement the other weapons around him.
While I don’t have as much optimism for the Bears’ offense as many others do, I think Odunze will be in line to be the most valuable fantasy option amoung the Chicago pass catchers this year. He’s a perfect complement to the speed of DJ Moore, and should receive a healthy diet of targets over the middle of the field and in the Red Zone. He's being valued as the clear WR2 on the team, when I believe the WR1 role is more of a toss up.
6. Xavier Worthy
The fact that Xavier Worthy can be placed sixth on this list shows how insanely talented this class was. I don’t have anything against Worthy. He was one of my favourite prospects in last year’s class and I think he has plenty of room to continue to grow in the NFL.
This may sound crazy, but I don’t think his situation on a Chiefs’ offense is great for his fanatasy output. The high flying Chiefs of a few years back are no longer. The new identity in Kansas City is stifling defense and just enough offensive firepower to get through the regular season. That involves very few high scoring games which significantly caps the upside for their weapons.
Much of Worthy’s push up ADP boards comes from the belief that Rashee Rice will see a lengthy suspension. I don’t see that suspension being more than 4 games, and with Rice coming off a signficant knee injury, those few weeks to continue ramping up to game speed may not be entirely unhelpful.
Once Rice is back the Chiefs could feature a plethora of offensive weapons with Travis Kelce and Hollywood Brown still around. A lack of high scoring performances and lots of mouths to feed means a lot of Worthy owners will be dissapointed, even if he is a special talent.
7. Ricky Pearsall
Ricky Pearsall faced a unique challenge early in his career as the rookie receiver was shot in an incident ahead of the 2024 season. That obviously set back his development early in his career.
Once Pearsall did have time to get comfortable in a complicated offensive scheme, he managed to finish the season strong with 14 catches for 210 yards and 2 touchdowns across his final two games.
Pearsall will have plenty of opportunities to earn targets early in the season with Brandon Aiyuk unlikely to be ready for the start of the season and Deebo Samuel out of San Francisco. Juan Jennings and Demarcus Robinson are unlikely to be signifcant imediments to Pearsall earning a high target share early in the season.
With his current ADP of WR41, Pearsall may be one of the best values in this list for 2025 fantasy football.
8. Xavier Legette
People seem to forget that Xavier Legette was supposed to be a project wide receiver prospect. Despite being an older prospect, Legette’s unique path to the NFL didn’t see him break out in college until his 5th season.
While many expected Legette to be an X receiver due to his size, his athleticism with great breakaway speed makes him a great fit in Z receiver role. With Tet McMillan joining the team, Legette will be given the opportunity to move into that more appropriate role.
There’s no guarantee Legette is able to develop into a great starting wide receiver in the NFL, but he shouldn’t be penalized for a lackluster rookie season when he was never supposed to perform out of the gate. He’s still a first round pick with an elite size-speed combo and an opportunity.
At an ADP of WR65 I’ll be happy to add Legette to many of my teams this season.