Late-Round Draft Targets: Rashod Bateman, Michael Wilson, Darius Slayton (Fantasy Football)

Hitting on your late-round draft picks can turn a good fantasy football team into an unstoppable one. Ask those who drafted Puka Nacua or Tank Dell in 2023, Zay Jones in 2022 or Amon-Ra St. Brown in 2021. Using FantasyPros’ average draft position (ADP) data, below are six wide receivers you should target in the later rounds of your fantasy football drafts.

Late-Round Draft Targets: Wide Receivers

Rashod Bateman (WR – MIA): 173.0 ADP

The Ravens let Odell Beckham Jr. walk after one year in Baltimore, on the surface making their wide receiver room that bit thinner, but ever since the season ended, John Harbaugh has talked — unprompted — about how much he expects Rashod Bateman to take a big leap in 2024. So far (touch wood) this is Bateman’s first healthy offseason of his NFL career and many players have said it takes two years to fully recover from a Lisfranc injury.

Bateman was getting open last year, he just failed to get on the same page as Lamar Jackson, in part because they had very little chance to in the offseason, with Bateman recently revealing he only found out he was able to play in 2023 a matter of two weeks before the season started. We likely can’t expect the same things we did when Bateman was drafted, but a solid WR2 on an offense we expect to be good is worth a dart throw.

#Ravens HC John Harbaugh on which player he expects to make a leap in 2024:

“I think Rashod Bateman’s gonna take a big step… The ball’s gonna get to him a lot more next year.”

Harbaugh sports an 85% reliability rating on usage/workload coachspeak

We’ll be drafting a good… pic.twitter.com/9x2vtg56yS

– The Coachspeak Index (@CoachspeakIndex) February 27, 2024

Michael Wilson (WR – ARI): 171.0 ADP

As the Cardinals sought to rebuild this offense in their new coaching staff’s image, Michael Wilson was one of the first skill position players they brought in for the 2023 season. Wilson went on to play 12 games, averaging 79% of snaps. In the four games he played with Kyler Murray, he saw 19 targets and ran a route on 91.9% of dropbacks. Wilson checks all the boxes for a wide receiver, coming in at 6-foot-2, 213 pounds. He doesn’t need to leave the field. If this offense can be more functional this year he could be in line to have plenty of good weeks with defenses focused on stopping Marvin Harrison Jr. and Trey McBride.

Darius Slayton (WR – NYG): 205.0 ADP

Perhaps no quarterback in the NFL is fighting for their future as a starter as much as Daniel Jones is in 2024, but he should be helped by the recent addition of Malik Nabers, who is light years better than the next best wide receiver the Giants have had in Jones’ tenure. Darius Slayton has played 55 games with Jones and the two have regularly displayed chemistry together. Now, with the pressure eased on Slayton to be the top dog, the field might open up more for him and he can have a fine season.

NFL Puka Nacua Tank Dell Zay Jones Amon-Ra St. Brown Rashod Bateman Odell Beckham Jr. Lamar Jackson Michael Wilson Kyler Murray Marvin Harrison Jr. Trey McBride Darius Slayton Daniel Jones Malik Nabers