10 wide receiver sleepers to target in 2024 fantasy drafts

Hitting on your early picks in drafts is the most important thing to do in fantasy, but the second most important thing is to hit on your sleeper picks who you take later. If you hit on your sleeper players, then you will have an advantage on all of your league mates who passed on your players.

Sleeper picks can be included in a wide variety of rounds, especially for wide receivers. I have a few receivers for fantasy in 2024 that I’m big on. Some are going in more of the middle rounds, some are going late, or even undrafted in some leagues. Let’s take a look at some of my sleeper guys at the receiver position for 2024, starting with the receivers going the earliest of the bunch and working our way down to the deep sleepers.

All ADP and stats are courtesy of Fantasy Pros, Player Profiler and PFF.

Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals

ADP: 59th overall

Higgins will be going into his age-25 season for the Bengals this season and hopefully his fantasy breakout year. There is a solid chance this will be Higgins’ last season in Cincinnati, as he wants a new contract and to be more of a team’s true alpha receiver.

Even as the clear WR2 behind Ja'Marr Chase, Higgins has still been a great fantasy option, putting up a WR18 finish in 2022 and a WR24 finish in 2021. He unfortunately hit the injury bug in 2023, missing 6 games and barely playing in three. Even in 2022, he had four games where he played 26 percent of the snaps, 16 percent of the snaps, and one percent of the snaps twice before getting ruled out due to injury. And he still finished as the WR18 with that against him.

Where he is being drafted, he is being drafted as a WR3. Higgins should be getting drafted as more of a high-end WR2. He is the second target to one of the best quarterbacks in the league in a pass-heavy offense and is arguably the league’s best WR2. When his body allowed him to play just 67% of the snaps or more, Higgins averaged 14 PPG in 2023, which included a wayward goose egg game in Week 1 where he had eight targets but none were deemed catchable, and 16.6 PPG in 2022. Higgins is a steal where he is going in drafts.

Terry McLaurin, Washington Commanders

ADP: 70th overall

McLaurin has been a player everyone has been waiting to break out for fantasy for a long time. I truly believe in his talent so I, along with many others, will not be giving up yet. McLaurin has been the victim of horrible quarterback play, offensive play calling, and just a bad team around him. The hope is that Jayden Daniels is at least a halfway decent quarterback. If he is, McLaurin should be at least a mid-WR2, and is going as a mid-WR3 currently.

McLaurin has finished higher than his current ADP every single year he’s played in the NFL, and he hasn’t had a good quarterback since Alex Smith in his rookie season of 2019 where he didn’t even get 100 targets. The biggest flaw for McLaurin due to quarterback play is the lack of touchdowns. With Daniels, he could be in for some major positive touchdown regression.

McLaurin should soar over 80 receptions and 1,000 yards and could pair that with seven or eight touchdowns instead of four or five like he has had the last four years of his career. When he had a decent quarterback in his rookie season, he put up seven touchdowns. Even with the lack of touchdowns and bad quarterback play, he still has finishes of WR14 in 2022 and WR20 in 2020. Believe in McLaurin as a high-mid WR2 in 2024.

Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos

ADP: 114th overall

I don’t think we can continue to ignore Sutton for fantasy for much longer. He is the clear WR1 for the Broncos and proved last season that even with bad quarterback play, he can still pull off at least WR3 fantasy production. He hasn’t been close to replicating his WR19 finish in 2019, but he should still finish as a solid WR3 option.

With Russell Wilson out of the picture, I see more deep-ball opportunities for Sutton in 2024. Even with Wilson at the helm, Sutton still caught 10 touchdowns. I expect this number to go down a little, but I expect his yards to go up. Rookie Bo Nix won’t be afraid to air it out and was an extremely accurate quarterback at the college level. His deep ball isn’t great, but he will give Sutton more opportunities. Luckily, at his size, Sutton is a fairly good contested catch receiver.

Curtis Samuel, Buffalo Bills

ADP: 127th overall

Samuel will be reuniting with offensive coordinator Joe Brady for the Buffalo Bills, which bodes well for him. Brady absolutely loved Samuel when they were together in Carolina, and I see that being a continued trend in Buffalo.

Tight end Dalton Kincaid will likely see the most targets on the team, but Samuel seems to be lined up to get the second most targets on a team with Josh Allen at quarterback. The way some are seeing it, he is the most talented wide receiver on the team. Even if Samuel falls behind one or both Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman, he is at his best when used as a gadget player. Combine his opportunity with his versatility with Brady’s likely big plans for Samuel’s involvement, and you got yourself a valuable fantasy option going in the 11th round of drafts. I see Samuel finishing 2024 as a fantasy WR3 with WR2 upside.

Joshua Palmer, Los Angeles Chargers

ADP: 167th overall

It does not seem as if a lot of people realize the opportunity Palmer will likely get in 2024. Palmer is the last receiver standing from the starting lineup in 2023 that included Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. The Chargers made notable additions to the receiver group by drafting Ladd McConkey in the second round and signing DJ Chark, but this still is not a good wide receiver room.

McConkey has impressed in training camp, but he is a rookie who will likely take some time to develop into that true alpha receiver the Chargers are hoping to get out of him. Chark just got signed to compete with Quentin Johnston for the WR3 spot. After the horrible rookie year Johnston put forth, Chark has the edge in the preseason.

With that being said, Palmer will likely start the season off as the WR1 for the team, and even if McConkey takes that role over he will still be the WR2 for an offense with Justin Herbert at quarterback.

Ricky Pearsall, San Francisco 49ers

ADP: 195th overall

Pearsall was drafted in the first round of the 2024 draft by the San Fransisco 49ers. He is somebody scouts were extremely high on in the draft process. Pearsall is an extremely good athlete who pairs that with great ball skills, making some elite highlight catches in college. Similar to a guy like Terry McLaurin coming out of college, Pearsall was limited by Florida’s offense. He is just good at every wide receiver trait all around.

Right now, Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk are on this depth chart and therefore put Pearsall at least behind them on the depth chart. Then, you also have to take into account the targets Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle will get. However, with this Aiyuk situation, he could be traded any minute now. This is why the buy-low window on Pearsall is closing each second because of his talent and if Aiyuk gets moved, Pearsall gets thrust into a premier role on one of the best offenses in the league. He could realistically get to the second target on the team if Aiyuk does get moved.

Michael Wilson, Arizona Cardinals

ADP: 240th overall

Greg Dortch is shaping up to be the WR2 in the Cardinals' offense, but the other wide receiver who has the opportunity to take that role is Wilson. Wilson is coming into his second year in the league and showed flashes in his rookie season. He had multiple spike weeks with Joshua Dobbs at quarterback, and when he got back on the field with Kyler Murray at quarterback he performed well. He only played four games with Murray, but in two of those games – back-to-back weeks – Wilson averaged 15.5 points. A good flex option is in the range of outcomes for Wilson.

Demarcus Robinson, Los Angeles Rams

ADP: 260th overall

If Robinson keeps his WR3 role for the Rams, he will be a flex option in fantasy who is going undrafted in many leagues. That looks like it will be the case, as reports have surfaced that Robinson is emerging as the Rams’ WR3.

In 2023, Robinson got the Rams’ WR3 role in Week 12, looking at the snap counts. In the six weeks of him being the WR3 – taking out Week 18 when he played only 39 percent of the snaps – Robinson averaged 13.4 PPG. That easily categorizes into flex range, and he was consistent in doing it. Robinson only had one game under 13 points in that span. Plus, if Puka Nacua misses time, Robinson will get even more targets to start the season. The Rams’ WR3 role is a lot more valuable than people seem to realize.

Kendrick Bourne, New England Patriots

ADP: 327th overall

There are two Patriots wide receivers who are looking like they have the most value for fantasy in 2024, those being Bourne and rookie Javon Baker. For more on them, check out the 10 backup receivers who need to be added in dynasty leagues.

A season-ending injury last season put an end to what seemed like what shaping out to be a great season for Bourne. In eight games, Bourne had 37 receptions for 406 yards and four touchdowns. He had multiple weeks of nine or more targets and had a three-week stretch where he averaged 16 PPG, the last game of this stretch being the one that ended his season.

Bourne likely isn't an extremely consistent fantasy option, but it is realistic to say he can be the Patriots' best wide receiver in 2024. His spike-week potential can turn him into a WR3 for fantasy. Bourne has the longest tenure with New England in the wide receiver room.

A.T. Perry, New Orleans Saints

ADP: 331st overall

Perry is a receiver for the New Orleans Saints entering his second year in the NFL. He was drafted in the sixth round of the 2023 draft out of Wake Forest. After a middling rookie season, Perry is going undrafted in fantasy in 2024 but is looking like a week-to-week flex option.

Perry had a later breakout age in college, not breaking out until his junior season at 22 years old. However, when he did break out he did so in a big way. As a junior, Perry posted a season of 71 receptions for 1,296 yards and 15 touchdowns and then followed that up with a senior season of 81 receptions for 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns. This gave him a 30 percent dominator rating, which is just the percentage of a player’s team’s yards and touchdowns on the season, in those two seasons combined. He also showcased an impressive 2.57 yards per route run in college.

What impressed scouts more than anything about Perry was his elite contested catch ability and deep-threat ability. At 6-foot-3, Perry has the height to be this in the NFL. Perry had a very limited role in 2023, only having 18 targets the whole season. Of those 18 targets, six were deemed a contested catch, and he posted an elite 66.7 percent contested catch rate on those. Perry also put up four touchdowns on just those 18 targets.

Expect Perry to have a much more increased role in 2024, which should help him expand on his 12 receptions, 246 yards and four touchdowns in 2023. Perry could easily turn into a weekly flex option for your dynasty team.