After hitting on QBs and RBs already, let’s shift our focus to wide receivers in the 2024 NFL Free Agency Primer for Fantasy Football. Just as with the other positions, free agency significantly impacts team dynamics and shapes the landscape for Super Bowl contenders. Free agency also plays a critical role in how teams approach the 2024 NFL Draft. Here are all of the top 2024 NFL Free Agent Wide Receivers. Below we dive into a few notable names.
- Erickson’s Free Agency Primers: QB | RB
- More 2024 NFL Mock Drafts
- 2024 NFL Draft Guide
- 2024 NFL Draft Prospect Profiles
2024 NFL Wide Receiver Free Agency Primer
Calvin Ridley
Ridley’s 2023 season deserves a deep dive. It’s as bizarre as they come.
Ridley secured a pivotal role in the Jaguars’ offense, catching 76 passes on 136 targets for 1,016 yards, averaging 13.4 yards per reception. Nearly 1,800 air yards on a 22.5% target share and 36% air yards share. He scored 8 touchdowns, highlighting his red-zone effectiveness (3rd in red-zone targets).
Across 17 games, he totaled 191.9 fantasy points, averaging 11.3 points per game, making him a solid WR2 in fantasy formats. WR17 overall but WR26 in points per game.
But anybody who rostered Ridley knew this was a roller coaster season for a player who had missed so much time before this year. He and Trevor Lawrence were constantly not on the same page. Especially in high-leverage situations.
Ridley led the entire NFL in end zone targets (24). He was the WR10 in expected fantasy points per game. But he never fully took advantage of his elite opportunities to churn out a fantasy WR1 season, even though it was there for the taking.
When he and Christian Kirk were both healthy Weeks 1-12, Kirk was the target leader (21% vs 20%), while Ridley was the primary downfield threat. However, his fantasy points per game were the same at 11.3 versus Kirk’s 11-point average.
There’s no doubt that rhetoric around Ridley will be negative heading into 2024 after the human hype piece failed to deliver. But the only reason Ridley “busted” was because he was getting impossible expectations placed on him for a player who hadn’t played since 2021. He showed enough “good” in my estimate to acknowledge that the talent is still there and that we, as a drafting community, may have just been a year too early on Ridley. He won’t turn 30 until late December. I’d buy the dip. Assuming he returns to the Jaguars as an unrestricted free agent.
If the Jaguars re-sign Ridley, the 2024 3rd-rounder they sent to Atlanta will escalate to a second-round pick in this year’s draft.
His QB and GM have been vocal about ‘wanting’ to keep Ridley in the building. Given the gambling suspension and inconsistent play in 2023, hard to imagine Ridley getting any better deals – especially long-term – from an outside party. Think he knows he still has a lot to prove.
Marquise Brown
The 2024 free agent had a year to forget in 2023.
He struggled with bad Cardinals quarterback play before Kyler Murray returned to the starting lineup as the WR21 overall and as the WR34 in points per game (10.2). But after Murray returned, the Cardinals WR still didn’t produce. 5.8 points per game in three full, healthy games before ultimately missing the remainder of the season due to injuries.
Overall, Brown hauled in 51 receptions on 101 targets, accumulating 574 yards at an average of 11.3 yards per catch. He found the end zone four times during the season.
He scored 109.2 points over the season, averaging 7.8 points per game (53rd) in 13 games played. The lack of production was shocking, considering Brown posted nearly 1,200 air yards, a 25% target share, and 39% air yards share with the 16th-highest weighted opportunity rating.
After flaming out with his old college QB, it will be interesting to see how the market feels about Brown, especially with injuries riddling his production the last two seasons.
If Tampa Bay loses Mike Evans, Brown reuniting with Baker Mayfield (former Sooner teammates back in 2017) makes sense. KC loves speed WRs, so Brown could also be a fit there.
The Chargers also desperately need speed at WR, and Brown has ties to the new OC in Los Angeles, Greg Roman, from their time spent in Baltimore.
Tyler Boyd
Both the Titans and the Eagles could use Tyler Boyd as a depth target in the slot. Akin to what we have seen from Robert Woods as an older veteran. That’s not a ringing endorsement for fantasy football, but Boyd is only 29 years old (30 in November).
Boyd had 67 receptions on 98 targets in 2023, totaling 667 receiving yards at an average of 10 yards per catch, with a long catch of 64 yards. Boyd found the end zone twice. Over 17 games, Boyd earned 112.3 fantasy points, averaging 6.6 points per game as the WR64 in points per game.
He will be a nice real-life depth piece for a new team in 2024 and possibly provide some early in-season production as he turns 30 years old. Wouldn’t be awful to see him land in Tennessee as a solid check-down option for Will Levis.
Targets will be easier to come by for Boyd when he is not fending off the likes of Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins in the starting lineup. Boyd has not finished worse than WR50 since 2018, with 5 top-36 finishes.
D.J. Chark Jr.
The 27-year-old is hitting free agency (again) after playing an ancillary role with the Panthers in 2023.
Chark caught a long pass that was initially ruled a TD in Week 18, but it was overturned to a fumble through the end zone. Woof. He is a free agent in 2024 and will likely land on a new team as a complimentary deep threat who misses games with injuries.
Chark was the WR58 overall in 2023, averaging 6.5 points per game (65th). He led the Panthers in TDs (5) and posted over 1,000 air yards on a team-high 31% air yards share (33rd). No player had more air yards with fewer targets (66) than Chark despite two missed games.
Better in best ball? You better believe it.
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