Week 18 Fantasy Football: Wide Receiver rankings
For those of you still competing in fantasy leagues through Week 18, below you'll find our analysts' positional rankings. Obviously fantasy football seems particularly inconsequential right now, however. Our thoughts are still very much with Buffalo's Damar Hamlin as well as his family, friends and teammates. Everything else related to football (and certainly to fantasy) is far less important today.
DeVonta Smith and the Philadelphia Eagles still have a lot to play for in Week 18, luckily for you fantasy managers who roster the second-year wideout and face a similar scenario in your leagues. Smith and Co. are probably wishing this wasn't the case, but with the NFC's No. 1 playoff seed — and the NFC East title — still up for grabs after consecutive losses by the Jalen Hurts-less Eagles, the final week of the regular season now carries plenty of importance for Philly.
[Week 17 and 18 fantasy football status updates]
So come Sunday you figure to see Smith playing, and he's been producing at a career-best level in recent weeks regardless of the quarterback play. Smith has registered three straight games with 100-plus receiving yards (the longest streak of his career) and has hit the mark in four of his last five games. He's got four touchdown catches in that span and is coming off back-to-back games with double-digit targets, also a career first. Only two receivers have racked up more receiving yards than Smith since Week 13, one of them being his teammate A.J. Brown.
Of course, the final stats don't always tell the full story, especially that of the team's play. Smith himself said the Eagles' offense was "terrible" in their 20-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 17. The first-half performance, as Dalton Del Don points out, was particularly rough:
The Eagles hadn’t gone three-and-out on three consecutive possessions during any game this season but started Sunday with four straight, losing the time of possession, 23 minutes to 7, at halftime. Gardner Minshew struggled mightily, and some would argue even bolstered Hurts’ MVP case.
So while Smith is getting his numbers, it's obvious Philly really misses Hurts.
Here's the wide receiver position — check out where Smith and the rest of the WRs landed in our analysts' rankings for Week 18:
2022 Fantasy Football Rankings powered by FantasyProsECR ™ - Expert Consensus Rankings
