Super Bowl Wide Receiver Rankings

To be honest, as fun as it is, the Super Bowl isn't great for fantasy football. At the end of the day, it's just one game, featuring just two teams. That means traditional fantasy formats are essentially impossible, and most of the action is in Showdown DFS formats. 

Still, regardless of your format, it's always helpful to consider how all the available players at each position stack up. With this in mind, here are my wide receiver rankings for this year's big game. 

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1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seattle Seahawks

Do I need to justify this? This season's Offensive Player of the Year was a weekly contender to be the WR1 overall on slates featuring all 32 of the league's teams.

With just one other team to compete with — and one without a true alpha at that — JSN is obviously the top fantasy wideout on this slate. And no, I'm not worried about Christian Gonzalez. 

2. Stefon Diggs, New England Patriots

As mentioned, the Patriots' offense has not revolved around a true alpha wide receiver this season,  but Diggs has been the next-best thing.

The veteran was excellent on a per-route basis all season, only held back by inconsistent usage in terms of routes and snaps. But his role has become more consistent when it matters most. Last week's 72% route participation rate was his lowest mark of the playoffs, but it was still easily clear of his 65% regular season average. 

On the other hand, Diggs' postseason production has been nothing to write home about. The Patriots' offense has struggled against some elite defenses, and their WR1 has recorded receiving totals of just 16, 40, and 17 yards. Against yet another top-tier defense in the Seahawks, Diggs isn't a sure thing, but he's still clearly the safest non-JSN option on this slate. Whether that says more about him or the rest of the players on this list is a question I will leave up to the reader. 

3. Kayshon Boutte, New England Patriots

I'm ranking Diggs above Boutte because we have a season's worth of data suggesting that the former is New England's top target. But if we just go based on postseason results, things aren't so clear.

Boutte is barely behind Diggs in route participation rate (75% to 79%) and targets (16 to 15). Thanks to his much more downfield role, he easily leads in air yards (265 to 88) and also actual production (24.7 half-PPR points to 18.8). If you asked me who I preferred only on those numbers, I would pick the third-year wideout.

Given that those aren't the only numbers we have, Boutte is still my WR3. He's much more liable than Diggs to completely disappear if he doesn't hit on a couple of deep targets. But, depending on the format you're playing, pivoting to Boutte off of Diggs could be a profitable move if the rest of the market is treating them as clearly different options. 

4. Cooper Kupp, Seattle Seahawks

The next two wideouts on this list are actually very comparable to Diggs and Boutte. Kupp is like discount Diggs, a veteran who should see a handful of targets but doesn't bring much juice at this point in his career. Rashid Shaheed (spoiler alert) is like discount Boutte, capable of breaking a big play but with essentially no floor. 

However, given that my goal for this article is to put players in order of their likely median outcomes, Kupp is my pick here. Shaheed has just one catch so far this postseason (a 51-yard bomb on Seattle's third play of the Conference Championship Round). 

Kupp runs more routes (73% to 61%) and sees far more targets (a 21% target share to Shaheed's 9%). He is actually averaging a respectable 10.1 half-PPR points in the playoffs. The former Super Bowl MVP is not exciting, and he's capable of a dud, but he's the last WR I'm fairly confident isn't going to drop a zero. 

5. Rashid Shaheed, Seattle Seahawks

As mentioned, Shaheed is the ultimate boom or bust option for this Super Bowl. He has elite big-play ability, capable of providing a usable fantasy outing on just one touch.

He even started these playoffs with a 95-yard kickoff return TD. But he's also potentially likely to see literally just one touch, so if he doesn't hit that big play, he could drop a goose egg. 

6. Mack Hollins, New England Patriots

If Shaheed is discount Boutte, Hollins is discount Shaheed. In his return from injury last week, he posted just a 41% route participation rate. On a normal week, that would keep him out of my rankings entirely. 

But this isn't a normal week (duh). Hollins did see two targets for a healthy 41 air yards against the Broncos. He's not going to rack up volume, but no one should be surprised if he connects with Drake Maye on at least one big play.  

7. DeMario Douglas, New England Patriots

Next up in the Patriots' rotating cast of wideouts, we have Douglas. Douglas is in an interesting position. Although he had some splash plays this season, he's traditionally been more of an underneath slot guy than anything else. 

That role means that Douglas relies on volume to provide fantasy value … which doesn't combine well with 31% route rate last week. We are truly in desperation land here. But Douglas will be on the field at least occasionally, and being on the field when Maye drops back has been a recipe for explosive plays all season.

I'd argue there's a real gap between him and Hollins (not to mention the players above Hollins), but he's the best of the rest. 

8. Kyle Williams, New England Patriots

Williams didn't see a target two weeks ago, but he did run only one fewer route than Douglas (eight vs. nine, to give you an idea of how deep we are in the barrel).

The third-round rookie has only 11 career catches, but one of them was for a 72-yard touchdown. Maybe he can break another one on the biggest possible stage.

9. Jake Bobo, Seattle Seahawks

Unlike the Patriots, the Seahawks mostly stick to their top three receivers. Bobo has been the team's fourth wideout in terms of routes this postseason, but has run just 10 total across their two games.

On the positive side, he did see three targets on those 10 routes, catching two for 33 yards and even a touchdown. He joins Douglas and Williams in the “hope he catches a TD in the brief time he's on the field” category.