The Most Underrated WR in Fantasy Football for 2021 is…

I asked the GoingFor2 team, “Who is the most underrated fantasy wide receiver for 2021.” Their answers might surprise…

Amari Cooper (DAL)

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Jared Good @TheYetiExpress 

Some will say that the keys are being passed to Lamb, but before Dak Prescott’s injury Amari Cooper was arguably a WR1. He was averaging almost 13 targets per game and a near 100 yards per game. Amari Cooper has an ADP in the 4th round .

DeVonta Smith (PHI)

Rob Lorge @RobFFAddict

Okay, y’all are going to have to help me understand this? After watching so many rookie wide receivers dominate last season, how is it that Devonta Smith, the first wide receiver to win the Heisman since 1991 is currently being drafted as the WR33? The Crimson Tide receiver is usually coming off the board right around the 6th and 7th round turn, which seems like stealing considering the upside he has. We’ll get to Jalen Hurts in a second, but let’s focus on the former Heisman winner. Devonta Smith enters the league with a 96th-percentile dominator rating, which is outstanding. And it’s easy to see why.

His junior and senior season totals amount to 185 catches for 3,112 yards and 37 touchdowns. That means every fifth catch he reeled in, he scored a touchdown on. Think about that. This kid was balling in the SEC the past two seasons to the extent that he literally scored every fifth catch he made. Talk about his weight, talk about his size, I don’t care because he can flat-out play. The one thing fantasy managers should always want to bet on is talent and the former Heisman trophy winner (I’m just going to keep saying it) has talent in abundance. Now, fantasy managers are writing Smith off or sleeping on him a bit because of Jalen Hurts.

They want to talk about his accuracy woes over the course of four games (an incredibly small sample size) and ignore the fact that the Eagles’ offense was broken, which is fine because that means more Devonta Smith to go around for the rest of us. But make no mistake, the Eagles’ offense was broken. It was a disaster. Reading too much into what happened in 2020, especially over just four games is a mistake. Here’s what we do know. The Eagles are going to be bad in 2021. Vegas currently has them ticketed for 6.5 wins and we know Vegas does not like losing money. In Hurts’ three games he started and finished, he threw 113 passes, which yes, it’s a small sample size, but that’s a pace of over 600 pass attempts.

While we can reasonably expect the offense to be better, fantasy managers can also expect Hurts to have to throw the ball a ton because their below-average defense will force them to. Who would benefit from such a high number of pass attempts? Devonta Smith, the former Heisman winning receiver is going to be peppered with targets. He is going to immediately walk into the No. 1 role in the passing game and has a clear path to 120 targets as a rookie. That kind of volume combined with his draft pedigree and college resume should have fantasy managers drooling over him at the end of the sixth round. I’m not going to guarantee the rookie wide-out will be a top-24 wide receiver, but I’m definitely not saying he won’t be. He’s got big-time upside. 

Ja’Marr Chase (CIN)

Brian Craighead @vandygrad92

Although it is often difficult to gauge the success of a rookie, Ja’Marr Chase has several factors in his favor. First of all, his current ADP, per FantasyPros.Com is only WR34 and overall number 75. As one can tell, Chase is currently projected as a low-end WR3 .The second thing that Chase has going for him is familiarity with his quarterback, Joe Burrow.

During LSU’s run to the National Championship in 2019, Burrow completed 402 passes on 527 attempts for 5,671 yards and 60 TD’s. The LSU team was stacked with future NFL draft picks, including both Chase and Justin Jefferson. During the season, Chase had more receiving yards(1780 to 1540) and TD’s(20 to 18) than Jefferson, and also had 21.2 yards/catch compared to Jefferson’s 13.9. In 2020, Jefferson caught 88 passes(on 125 targets) for 1400 yards and seven TD’s while playing for the Vikings. This ranked as the WR6 in PPR formats.

Although it may be difficult for Chase to repeat these lofty standards, the talent is obviously there. In addition to talent, a receiver also needs the opportunity to succeed. In ten games before suffering a torn MCL and ACL, Burrow attempted over 40 passes/game(404 total) and completed 264 of those for 2688 yards and 13 TDs. In those ten games, Tee Higgins had 76 targets(19 percent target share) , Tyler Boyd accumulated 87 targets(21.5 percent) Giovanni Bernard secured 41 targets(10.1 percent) and AJ Green had 77 targets(19.1 percent). 

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Antonio Brown (TB)

Evan Ritter @Ev_Ritt3

Brown is currently the WR 48 with an ADP outside the top 100 in both standard and PPR leagues. I’m not saying Antonio Brown is any more than a WR 3 but I’m drafting him in a ton of my leagues with how much meat is left on the bone when it comes to his draft value. Last year in the 11 games Brown played with both Mike Evan’s and Chris Godwin the targets were as follows: Godwin-78, Evan’s-77, Brown-76.

He’s pretty much free on draft day with the potential to massively outproduce his current ADP. He gets a full off-season to continue to build a connection with Tom Brady and the Bucs offense while seeing a similar target share to his top 20 counterparts. I’ll be buying plenty of Antonio Brown stock this fantasy season.

Brandin Cooks (HOU)

Erik Johnson @FantasyBBQ

WR21, WR20, WR10, WR17, WR20, WR71, and WR16. Those are his fantasy finishes for his career (PPR points per game). He is currently ranked 38th in Fantasy Pros Expert Consensus Rankings. The year-over-year disrespect is astounding. He will likely be without Deshaun Watson at QB, but who else is catching passes for this team?

Houston is in contention for the number one overall pick in 2022. This is a bad team on both sides of the ball. Luckily, garbage time points still count. You’re getting a team’s number one pass-catching option at the end of the eighth round. QB play will cap his upside, so don’t expect a top-20 finish; however, draft him and enjoy the top-36 floor he will provide.

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Darnell Mooney (CHI)

Chris Moshinskie @TheCommishFF

What happens to a wide receiver when he enters his second year in the league, has a road to more targets than his rookie season, and his potential new quarterback was one of the most accurate passers in college football? He becomes the 54th ranked receiver on FantasyPros! Doesn’t that sound silly? Darnell Mooney had a good rookie campaign despite his quarterbacks being Nick Foles and Mitch Trubisky.

Mooney’s catch rate was 62% with those guys throwing him the ball. If Fields is his QB, that number is going to increase substantially in 2021. He had 98 targets which was 36th in the league for receivers. He should see an increase in target share with Jimmy Graham getting a year older and Anthony Miller seemingly falling out of favor in Chicago.

I know Cohen is back and he will get his share plus most of Montgomery’s. Doesn’t concern me though in the slightest. Take Mooney in your drafts and enjoy him outperforming his ADP and all the other pass-catchers in his tier.

Corey Davis (NYJ)

Jarred Riccadonna ricco_3733

It feels wild typing this name, but Corey Davis is getting overlooked. Although he has a rookie QB in Zach Wilson, I’m a believer in Davis producing roughly WR3 numbers with Adam Gase gone. According to Fantasypros.com, the consensus PPR #141 is likely to bring value above this ranking. He played well in a run-heavy offense.

With the Jets likely to play behind, there should be plenty of opportunities to produce even in what appears to be a crowded wide receiver corps on paper. 

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