Top 125 fantasy football standard wide receiver rankings for 2025

You’ve decided that receptions shouldn’t give fantasy players fantasy points for their fake teams. I hear you. That means we’re looking for touchdowns and yardage. Touchdowns are tough to predict unless the receiver is seeing 150 targets and they are going to get ample work in the red zone. And those players are no-brainer picks early in drafts.

One way to look for good standard receivers is to take the No. 2 receiver on a strong passing offense that moves the ball well. You’re still getting early picks, but they aren’t first and second rounders. Players like Tee Higgins, George Pickens, Darnell Mooney and Jameson Williams come to mind (and I write about them below). Then, you can look at receivers who specialize as deep threats, like Rashod Bateman, Alec Pierce, Rashid Shaheed, Adonai Mitchell, and so forth. You often aren’t going to get much consistency there, so you need to make sure you don’t skip over a PPR, short yardage receiver because they don’t fit the standard receiver ethos, man. But, we do want receivers who can score touchdowns. A player who can win jump balls and fight for position. Big dudes usually.

Williams still has Amon-Ra St. Brown ahead of him in the target department, but Williams has the ability to put up huge gains on any play. He led all receivers (with 50 receptions or more) in yards per reception and there’s no reason to believe he won’t be right back up there in the YPR rankings this season.

Mooney had a bit of a breakout last season and averaged 15.5 yards per reception in Atlanta. He will get a full season of Michael Penix Jr. throwing him the ball this year, which is an upgrade on Kirk Cousins, especially considering Cousins’ lack of arm strength for the deep ball.

Bateman was Lamar Jackson’t deep receiver last season and he put up nine touchdowns on just 72 targets and 45 receptions. We can’t expect that kind of TD to target ratio this season, but we also can’t discount the possibility. The Ravens offense should be just as good this year as last, and Bateman is actually good.

Pickens has been plagued by his inability to stay focused on the task at hand and poor quarterback play. Now that he’s in Dallas behind one of the best receivers in the league, it at least appears he is ready to be a team player for a while. And in Dallas, he should see more work than in Pittsburgh despite being their No. 1 receiver. He will be the deep ball receiver on a team that will throw a ton and has a top receiver taking away coverage.