Week 4 Wide Receiver Rankings - Standard Leagues

We have reached the point where bye weeks start to alter your lineups. While only two teams are off in week 4, this is the start of at least two teams a week being having a bye. Week 12 will be the next time that all 32 teams play in the same week. Last week we saw some tremendous performances out of a few older players, showing the first two weeks of their seasons weren't flukes. Steve Smith Sr., Brandon Marshall, and Larry Fitzgerald are all having seasons that remind you of when they were closer to their prime. At this point I have to buy in to all three of these guys, as the Quarterbacks that they have are targeting all of them a lot, and are producing numbers to go with it.

We can tell which pass defense are bad at this point, and which are tough matchups. That is now being fully weighted into my rankings. Now pure talent sometimes makes up for a lack of a good matchup, see Julio Jones, but those who aren't elite get dropped down past guy's who are just not as good, but they at least have a good matchup. Keep that in mind when seeing where I rank guys, but that is a bigger component now, and will be for the rest of the year. Now to the rankings, and some commentary on a few guys.

Teams on Bye: Patriots, Titans

Antonio Brown - I am a little worried about what Michael Vick has left in the tank, but Brown is still the best route runner there is in the NFL. While Brown won't see the volume he normally will, Brown is one of the most dynamic receivers. I still have him ranked in the top 6, but it is more to show if you are playing DFS including the Thursday games, I would rather have one of the five guys above him if you are paying up for an elite receiver.

Amari Cooper - Derek Carr keeps looking better each week. Any worry that I had before the season that Carr may have had a few lucky games last year is clearly being proven wrong. For Cooper to be the guy we all expect him to be in his career, he needs Carr to essentially be an Andy Dalton clone. While Cooper and Green are two different talents, the similarities in the situation. Cooper is well on to his way currently to having a Green like rookie season. Now factor in that he gets to go up against a team who has looked poor so far this season, and is selling players for the future, depleting the starting defense. Great play this week as I see him replicating the last two weeks here.

Marvin Jones - Jones has been mentioned on this site numerous times by myself and other writers, and we are all in agreement. This guy is a talented player, who wasn't on people's radars since he sat out the 2014 season with an injury. He has a great matchup here against the weak Chiefs defense. Dalton will be throwing the ball with enough success this week to get all of his main targets good numbers.

Rishard Matthews and DeVante Parker - I ranked these two guys back to back, with Matthews taking the slight edge. My heart says Parker will erupt this week against the Jets, but my brain is telling me Matthews will have one more week better then Parker, but it won't be by much. My love of Parker has been well documented in many of my articles, and take a look at this from week 3. Parker increased his snap count to 54% from 25%. Rishard Matthews went from 78% to 51%. Clearly a changing of the guard is happening, no matter how good Matthews is doing in games. In a couple of weeks Jennings should be the guy losing a lot of snaps, but until then, both guys might hinder each other, mostly Parker's upside. If for some reason Parker is available in your league, go get him now, as he will be showing his skills in a few weeks, and keep it up for the rest of the season.

Percy Harvin - I didn't rank Sammy Watkins as I don't believe he will play this week. If he does play though, Watkins will be ranked 26th, just behind John Brown. Percy Harvin at that point will fall to number 50 in the rankings. Tyrod Taylor has been a solid QB so far this year, but is playing it like a better Alex Smith. This means you shouldn't expect those huge games from receivers, but a solid performance is easily obtainable for a guy like Watkins when healthy.

Victor Cruz - It is looking like this will be Cruz's first game back since that horrific injury last year. I bet he will be on a snap count for at least a few weeks here, so take a wait and see approach until further notice. It is possible he is out there in the redzone for his nice short route running, and with that a TD could happen. I wouldn't play him, but if you need to take a flier in a deep league, I guess there are worse options.