Rookie Wide Receivers Are a True Wild Card for NFL Depth Charts: Challenging the Wisdom of the Crowds, Part 4
Image Credit: Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire. Pictured: K.C. Concepcion.

Kevin Szafraniec applies the historical team trends he discovered by comparing wide receiver ADP and their PPR finishes to the 2026 best ball environment.

In Part 1 of this series, I asked the question: How effective is the fantasy community at predicting wide receiver depth charts?

To answer this question, we compared ADP data from the past six years against how WRs ranked among their teammates in terms of total PPR points and PPR/GM at the end of the year. We uncovered a slew of interesting trends during the exercise, many of which we will be relating to the 2026 ADP landscape. In this installment, we will work our way through the ADPs of each NFL WR depth chart and attempt to predict which historical trends may apply to them when the 2026 NFL season has come to a close.

So far, we have covered 23 NFL WR depth charts in this series. In this installment, we will feature the remaining nine as we talk our way through WR1s with late-round ADPs and WR3s who have worked their way up to the top of their depth charts. Given both the uncertainty and upside that rookie wideouts bring to the table, it shouldn’t come as a huge shock to find out that first-year players factor into both groups pretty heavily.

For this series, we will be focusing on the FFPC slim format, which features 20-round drafts, tight-end premium scoring (1.5 points per TE reception and 1.0 PPR for all other positions), and starting lineups consisting of one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, and two standard flex spots.

Are you ready to battle for your share of the 2026 FFPC Best Ball Tournament’s $1.64M prize pool? New users get $25 off their first FFPC team of $35 or more by using promo code 25ROTOVIZ or by following this link!

Late-Round WR1s

A Brief Recap

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Kevin Szafraniec

Lead Writer and Full-time Cat Dad. Sneakerhead, Record Collector, Beatmaker, Lord of the Rings Superfan, and Jeopardy Enthusiast in my free time. Follow me on X and Bluesky @thecatdadff

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Kevin Szafraniec finishes his deep dive into the NFC North by identifying the best and worst picks on the Minnesota Vikings’ roster in 2026 best ball drafts. Perhaps no team was more eager to put 2025 in the rearview than the Minnesota Vikings. Despite finishing the year with a respectable 9-8 record, the JJ McCarthy experiment was an unmitigated disaster. The quarterback singlehandedly decreased the…...

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