Wide Receiver Depth Charts Analysis - AFC

Antonio Losada looks at the wide receiver corps for every division in the AFC and provides some analysis on WR sleepers and busts.

The regular season is right around the corner and each team's depth chart is mostly complete! Before diving into the fantasy season, RotoBaller has you covered with some last-minute wide receiver depth chart recaps for each team, including some useful bits of analysis for players you want to keep on your radar.

Please note that the charts below are based on individual team depth charts and come from RotoWire's projected starting units. The charts project the real-life pecking order expected to be used by head coaches at the respective franchises, not where RotoWire projects those players to finish in fantasy leagues.

Here are the current preseason depth charts at wide receiver for each division in the AFC.

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AFC WEST

Forget Denver's QBs and Bet on the Comeback Kid: Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos

Everybody is worried about the Broncos' quarterback situation in a pocket that will feature either Teddy Bridgewater or Drew Lock, or most probably both at different points of the season. That's not what you'd call QB1-talent, but in this offense, things will work the other way around, with the wide receivers--Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy--being the ones to actually elevate the QBs' perception.

Sutton, if you remember, missed virtually all of 2020, but everything looks good for him to be available in Week 1. PFF, which is projecting him over a full 17-game season, has the wideout as the WR31 to close next year while fantasy GMs are drafting him at a "low" 83rd overall ADP. That's value right there. Tyreek Hill and Keenan Allen are locks to produce, but it feels like some GMs are forgetting about Sutton given his kind of low price these days.

AFC NORTH

Avoid the Bengals Headache, Fly Under the Radar: Jarvis Landry, Cleveland Browns

Another year, another chance missed by most fantasy GMs. They never learn. While everybody is going nuts with the Bengals and their seemingly packed offense--now with a three-headed receiving corps and a sophomore quarterback coming back healthy!--there is Jarvis Landry sitting available at an unreasonable 116th overall ADP and WR42. You don't need to check any sort of fantasy projection system to know that Landry will wildly outproduce that ADP and PFF, just to use one site, has the WR projected to a top-24 finish.

I'd even go further to say he will be a top-18 player at the position at the very least. But here we are, with seven players at the position in this division with more expensive ADPs than Landry. LOL.

AFC SOUTH

No Watson, No Problem: Brandin Cooks, Houston Texans

Don't get Cooks wrong, folks. The Houston Texans won't have their no. 1 QB available and on the field anytime soon. Does that mean Cooks is going to stink? Probably not. Obviously, we're talking about playing under Tyrod Taylor in a depleted offense that also has three starting-level rushers (given that backfield's context, I mean) and that is ways below getting targets from Brees/Brady/Goff/Watson. But Cooks has been a top-17 WR in five of the past six seasons.

Cooks is as safe a pick as any other you can make with a top-100 draft pick. His value is sky-high given his ADP of 102nd overall and WR37 when put next to his projection of WR27 on the season. Cooks is one of only three players in this division projected to score more than 200 PPR points--and I'm absolutely positive Julio Jones won't be getting there, even though PFF thinks he will.

AFC EAST

Beware of Diggs' Regression, Fish in New England's Pond: Nelson Agholor, New England Patriots

I'm closing this article with a warning and a gamble. If you find Stefon Diggs available in the back end of the second round or even the early third, think about drafting him right there. Before that, though, I would consider too much of a risk. Diggs will produce, but he won't be the monster he turned into last year while putting up a career season in Buffalo--draft Cole Beasley on the cheap instead.

Now, for the gamble, I'd bet on a Patriot--no, not any of their new tight ends as they'll eat each other alive in the best-case scenario--that has recently arrived in town and has virtually no competition for targets: Nelson Agholor. He is definitely a risky play, but he's also boasting an ultra-low 173rd ADP (WR63) while carrying a 179+ PPR-point projection and is expected to finish 2021 as a top-45 WR. Nothing to lose at that price for a player with massive upside--even more once rookie QB Mac Jones gets to man the pocket.

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