In the fantasy football world, one of the most underrated aspects to look at is each team’s coaching tendencies. After looking at the best coaches and worst coaches for running backs last month, this article will look at the best coaches for wide receivers. To start, we will look at which coaches provide the most overall opportunities (targets) to the position. Then, after looking at the coaches that provide the most opportunities overall, we will dive more specifically into the best coaches for wide receivers depending on your league’s scoring settings (standard, 0.5 PPR, PPR). Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Writer’s Note: These lists only include the 42 active offensive-minded head coaches and offensive coordinators who have previous NFL experience as either an offensive coordinator or NFL head coach.
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Opportunities
When you plan to create your own personal rankings for your fantasy football draft, it’s always good to know which coaches have historically given their wide receivers the most opportunities (targets) since it can impact a player’s value. To help you with this, here are the top ten active coaches (with previous NFL experience) in providing opportunities to their wide receivers.
*Projected to be team's primary offensive play-caller going into the 2021 NFL season
Looking at the coaches that rank in the top ten of wide receiver usage, we see six teams with their primary play-caller featured - the Cincinnati Bengals (Zac Taylor), Dallas Cowboys (Kellen Moore), Arizona Cardinals (Kliff Kingsbury), Carolina Panthers (Joe Brady), Miami Dolphins (George Godsey), and Los Angeles Chargers (Joe Lombardi). If you want wide receivers that are more likely to see a healthy workload each week, you should be investing in players on these teams.
Fantasy Players This May Impact: Tee Higgins (WR - CIN), Ja'Marr Chase (WR - CIN), Tyler Boyd (WR - CIN), Amari Cooper (WR - DAL), CeeDee Lamb (WR - DAL), Michael Gallup (WR - DAL), DeAndre Hopkins (WR - ARI), Christian Kirk (WR - ARI), A.J. Green (WR - ARI), Rondale Moore (WR - ARI), D.J. Moore (WR - CAR), Robby Anderson (WR - CAR), Terrace Marshall Jr. (WR - CAR), Jaylen Waddle (WR - MIA), Will Fuller V (WR - MIA), DeVante Parker (WR - MIA), Keenan Allen (WR - LAC), and Mike Williams (WR - LAC).
Fantasy Points Per Game
While seeing the number of opportunities a coach provides to their WR room is great, it's perhaps more important to look at which coaches have historically gotten the most fantasy production out of the position. Below are the top 10 offensive-minded coaches/coordinators in standard, 0.5 PPR, and PPR scoring formats.
*Projected to be team's primary offensive play-caller going into the 2021 NFL season
*Projected to be team's primary offensive play-caller going into the 2021 NFL season
*Projected to be team's primary offensive play-caller going into the 2021 NFL season
Looking at each of these tables, we notice that six teams have their primary play-caller land in the top 10 on at least one of these lists - the Dallas Cowboys (Kellen Moore), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Byron Leftwich), the Houston Texans (Tim Kelly), the Carolina Panthers (Joe Brady), the Arizona Cardinals (Kliff Kingsbury), and the Los Angeles Rams (Sean McVay). This suggests that these offenses have a better chance of producing multiple fantasy-relevant wide receivers than most other teams, and indicate it's a good idea to target receivers on these teams - particularly in the later rounds of drafts.
Fantasy Players This May Impact: CeeDee Lamb, Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, Mike Evans (WR - TB), Chris Godwin (WR - TB), Antonio Brown (WR - TB), Brandin Cooks (WR - HOU), Nico Collins (WR - HOU), D.J. Moore, Robby Anderson, Terrace Marshall Jr., DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Kirk, A.J. Green, Rondale Moore, Cooper Kupp (WR - LAR), Robert Woods (WR - LAR), and DeSean Jackson (WR - LAR).
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Eli Grabanski is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Eli, check out his archive and follow him @3li_handles.
