Cheap fantasy football wide receivers with the best point-scoring floors

New York Times

7 days ago

Football coaches often say that in order to win a game, you first have to not lose it. The same advice applies to fantasy football teams. The early-round picks are essential to notching victories, but it is also imperative that your team avoid low scores or goose eggs (otherwise known as zero-point performances) that can crush a team's chances at winning.
These low scores are prevalent at the wide receiver position, where 30 or so targets are split among many players. Add in bye weeks and injuries and filling your lineup can become particularly fraught.
What fantasy managers need during those times are reliable, low-cost wide receivers. These pass catchers may have relatively low ceilings, but they provide a consistently high floor that can keep a fantasy team in contention for a win. I call these very valuable prospects lunch pail wide receivers.
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Lunch pail wide receivers are wideouts with well-defined roles in their offenses. They also need to meet one of two qualifications. The first is to be rostered by less than 60 percent of teams on at least one of the major fantasy football platforms. The other is to have a consensus positional ADP of 42 or lower. This ADP level indicates that these wide receivers aren't generally considered starters in a 12-team league with three wide receivers and a flex position (assuming roughly half of the flex starters are wide receivers).
Using those criteria as a guideline, here are this year's lunch pail wide receivers, starting with someone who is vastly underrated.
Note: All metrics per TruMedia/PFF or Stathead.
Coleman was heavily utilized on stretch vertical targets (passes of 20+ air yards) last season, ranking second on the Bills with 18. With Amari Cooper vacating nine stretch vertical targets for this offense, Coleman could see even more downfield usage. That can help set a strong floor, but what earns Coleman a spot on this list is a 9.2 yards per target (YPT) mark on short passes (10 or fewer air yards) that was tops among wide receivers with 25+ short targets. Add in Coleman ranking second on the team in red zone and inside the 10-yard line targets and it trends him towards being a go-to wideout in one of the best offenses in the NFL.
Pearsall racked up an impressive 47.6 PPR points in Weeks 17-18 last year. This may have been part of Kyle Shanahan's plan to prime Pearsall for a larger role in this offense in the 2025 campaign. Available targets shouldn't be an issue with Deebo Samuel gone and Brandon Aiyuk looking like he will miss at least a few weeks of the regular season while returning from injury. Add in what might be the most favorable cornerback schedule at this position (Pearsall earns a 97 grade out of 100 in my matchup points category) and it should make Pearsall a very good high-floor candidate.
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Pittman is one of only 10 players to post 110 or more targets in each of the past four seasons. That trend should continue regardless of whether Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones (or a combination of both) is under center for the Colts this season. Pittman led Indianapolis in receptions inside the 5-yard line last year and was tied for the red zone reception lead. Both of those marks are within his reach this year as well. Pittman is only a season removed from ranking fourth in short PPR PPG, so he has proven to be a quality possession receiver. Merge these factors and Pittman should see enough targets on a weekly basis to set the desired high floor.
Higgins gets some prime pass-catching real estate by taking over the Tank Dell role in the Texans offense. His draft profile says Higgins should be up to that task. Dane Brugler's The Beast NFL Draft Guide indicates that Higgins has all-around receiving skills that bring to mind his Houston teammate, Nico Collins. Few offenses have two wideouts with three-level skills (short, vertical and stretch vertical), so Higgins can be utilized in ways that should send him 100+ targets. He's proven to be up to the task of a high workload, having racked up 87 receptions last season for Iowa State. Combine this with Higgins' 60 receptions of 10+ yards last year (best in the Power 4) and a Big 12-high in red zone catches and it shows why Higgins is a reliable backup who may end up in starting lineups more often than not. With a consensus ADP in the 50s in every league scoring type, Higgins should provide solid value.
As noted in my Top 25 QB rankings, Jim Harbaugh is a run-first coach but even he wants to throw the ball more than the Chargers did last year. Los Angeles brought in a lot of young pass-catching talent to help, but they also returned Allen to their roster after a year in Chicago. Allen is one of only five players to post seven or more seasons with 100+ targets since 2017. He worked with Justin Herbert for four seasons, so getting in sync should not be an issue. Allen was very good on short passes last year, ranking 24th in short PPR PPG. He was also solid on vertical (48th in PPR PPG) and stretch vertical (43rd) passes, thus providing Herbert with multiple production avenues. It may be best to lean on Allen earlier in the year than later as an age-related precaution, but unless he hits the wall, he should give fantasy managers plenty of solid point totals.
It may have seemed like Father Time was catching up to Thielen for a spell last year, but the veteran proved that wasn't the case in the final third of the season. From Weeks 13-18, Thielen ranked 12th among wide receivers in both standard and PPR points. That's part of why Thielen had some incredible PPR PPG numbers last season. He ranked 28th in short, 15th in vertical and seventh in stretch vertical PPR PPG in 2024. It was a major factor in Bryce Young's late season production burst. Head coach Dave Canales isn't about to move production of that caliber out of a lineup that needs all of the big-play production it can get. And he certainly wants Thielen's veteran presence to help Carolina's young wide receivers develop more quickly. It should be a recipe for a very low-cost, high-floor roster addition.
(Photo of Keon Coleman by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)
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