Kevin Szafraniec uses RotoViz’s Advanced Stats Explorer to uncover under-the-radar trends at the wide receiver position from the first nine weeks of the 2025 NFL season.
Earlier this summer, I touted Amon-Ra St. Brown as fantasy’s most undervalued superstar after he found himself firmly rooted in the second round following two straight seasons scoring as a top-three fantasy wide receiver. Maybe part of the problem is that St. Brown does not regularly fill up highlight reels as he chips away at defenses in the short and intermediate areas of the field. But one thing St. Brown has offered Jared Goff and fantasy managers alike is reliability.
During his five years in the league, St. Brown has only missed two games, consistently playing through injuries that would sideline most players. And since his first top-12 performance in Week 13 of his rookie year, Detroit’s star wideout has been able to hit that same benchmark in nearly half of his games.
Although St. Brown’s game might not be the sexiest, it is undoubtedly effective. And the way things are going so far in 2025, he is showing no signs of slowing down on his way to potentially finishing the year as the overall WR1.
Before we get into the latest information available in the Advanced Stats Explorer, just a few quick reminders about the article.
- Early in the offseason, I updated my deep dive into the past six years of wide receiver data available in the Advanced Stats Explorer and broke it down into four separate articles: Routes and Targets, Intended Air Yards, Yards After the Catch and Evasion, and Catchable Targets, Drops, First Downs, and Touchdowns.
- When working through the six-year sample, I found that the 90th percentile and above generally included most of the top 24 wide receivers for each metric in any given season. The 75th percentile and above included the top 55 to 60 WRs in any given metric per season. Given that these two cohorts easily apply to a normal 12-team fantasy league, they will be referenced often throughout the article.
Our current sample of wide receivers to earn a target in 2025 rose to 194 in Week 9, up from 185 in Week 8.
