Fantasy Football: 25 WR Stats from the 2024 Season

As the real-life NFL season continues through the playoffs and approaches the Super Bowl, now is the perfect time for reflection on the fantasy football season. Our 25 Statistics series is back, and for the sixth consecutive season, I have the honor of covering the WR position. The goal of this article is to give some insight into the position as a whole, point out some statistical outliers, and have some fun along the way. From targets to touchdowns, to yards per route run and everything in between, here are 25 WR stats that stand out from the 2024 season.

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all scoring is ½ PPR scoring per the Ballers Consistency Charts.

1. We always start this article at the top, and this year, that means talking about Ja’Marr Chase. He was the WR1 on the season, and it wasn’t particularly close. His 339.5 fantasy points rank as the third-highest ever recorded in a season. You can see the top ten list in the table below, where you’ll notice three names from the past two seasons. 

2. As you can see in the table, Chase is one of just four WRs to average 20+ fantasy points/game for a full season. He barely got there but was well ahead of the rest of the league in 2024. Chris Godwin put up fantasy points at the next highest rate, though nearly four points fewer per game (16.1). Justin Jefferson, who finished as the WR2 overall, averaged 15.6 fantasy points/game. Chase’s teammate Tee Higgins averaged 15.5.

3. Chase became the first WR to win the receiving triple crown since Cooper Kupp’s record-setting season in 2021. Chase accomplished the feat with more receiving touchdowns than any other member of the elite club, which can be seen in the table below.

4. The triple crown of receiving includes the most traditional stats, but Chase also led the entire league in total targets (175), red zone targets (49), end zone targets (19), YAC (797), receiving first downs (75), and broken tackles (11, tied with CeeDee Lamb).

5. Chase narrowly averaged triple-digit receiving yards, finishing at 100.5 yards/game. He became the 23rd receiver to average over 100 yards/game since 2010. Calvin Johnson holds the record with 122.8 receiving yards/game in 2012

6. One category that Chase did not lead in was routes run. His 709 were second to Jerry Jeudy, who ran 714. Nobody else topped 700 routes run.

7. OK, enough about Chase. Let’s talk about Puka Nacua. He missed five games with injury (and most of another for throwing a punch), but he rivaled Chase as the league’s best receiver when he was on the field. His 3.56 yards/route run led the league by a large margin. A.J. Brown ranked second at 2.99 yards/route run, narrowly missing the elite 3.0 yards/route run threshold.

8. How about those rookies? Marvin Harrison Jr. may have been the first WR drafted, but Brian Thomas Jr. and Malik Nabers led the way for the 2024 WR class. We’ll get to Nabers soon, but BTJ led all rookie wideouts with 240.5 fantasy points. That ranks fifth all-time among rookies. You can see the top ten rookie fantasy seasons in the table below.

*For a deeper look into the 2024 rookie class, check out the 2024 Rookie WR Class Review.

9. Thomas scored the most overall fantasy points among rookie wideouts but played two more games than Malik Nabers. On a per-game basis, Nabers averaged 14.6 fantasy points. That’s more than Thomas (14.1) and Puka Nacua’s 2023 season (14.5).

10. Much of Nabers’ production came on the back of targets. His 170 on the season were the most ever by a rookie, and his 34.9% target share was higher than that of any other player in the league, rookie or not. He turned them into 109 receptions, which is the most ever by a rookie wide receiver. (Brock Bowers, who I’m sure will be featured in the 25 TE stats article, topped him with 112 receptions.)

11. A.J. Brown was next highest in target share at 34.4%. They were the only two players above 30%. Puka Nacua (29.9%), Justin Jefferson (29.8%), and Davante Adams (29.5%) were each extremely close to hitting that threshold. Jefferson was the only one of the top five in target share to play all 17 games. 

12. AJB finished as the WR16 overall and the WR13 in fantasy points/game, but it wasn’t due to a lack of talent. He broke ESPN Analytics’ Receiver Score, which combines their analytical Open, Catch, and YAC scores. Brown scored a 99 out of 100. For reference, the next highest score was tight end George Kittle with a score of 88, followed by Stefon Diggs with a 74. The larger issue for Brown was Philadelphia’s offense. The Eagles attempted a league-low 26.4 passes/game and ranked dead last in pass rate over expected (PROE) at -8.7%.

13. Yards/rec doesn’t exactly correlate to consistent fantasy scoring. Alec Pierce led the league by averaging 22.3 yards/rec in 2024 and finished as the WR37. The top three in the category are rounded out by Christian Watson (21.4) and Keon Coleman (19.2). These guys are tough to trust but can win you a week when things go right.

14. Pierce, unsurprisingly, also led the league in yards/target (11.9) and average depth of target, or aDOT (22.8).

15. Pierce did not lead the league in deep targets (20+ yards). That title went to DK Metcalf, who saw 32 deep targets. George Pickens came in next with 31, followed by a three-way tie between Alec Pierce, Terry McLaurin, and Brian Thomas Jr. with 30 apiece.

16. Enough about deep shots; let’s talk about reliability. Amon-Ra St. Brown led the league in reception percentage at an ultra-efficient 81.6%. It’s the second-highest catch rate ever for a receiver with at least 130 targets, trailing only Michael Thomas and his 85.0% catch rate in 2018.

17. We need to talk about Marvin Mims Jr. He finished as a top 50 fantasy WR just once over the first 12 weeks of the season, then was within the top six at the position in three of his final four games. 

18. Mims Jr. easily led the league with an average of 12.3 YAC/rec. KaVonte Turpin (8.5) was the next highest, with Jameson Williams (8.4) in third. According to Next Gen Stats (NGS), Mims’ averaged 2.8 YAC above expectation, second only to Keon Coleman (3.5). According to NGS, Mims also ranked first with an average separation of 5.2 yards. 

19. Perhaps most impressively, Mims ranked fourth in the league with 2.57 yards/route run. However, he was the only receiver in the top 20 to run fewer than 200 routes. For context, Mims ran 196 routes over 17 games, while Nico Collins, who ranks just ahead of Mims with 2.87 yards/route run, ran 350 routes in 12 games.

20. Mims did most of his damage from the slot. He had a league-high 38.2% target rate from the slot. Puka Nacua was right behind him at 35.2%. Drake London, Malik Nabers, and Brian Thomas Jr. are the only other WRs who saw over 30% target rate from the slot.

21. Jaxon Smith-Njigba led in total targets from the slot, where he saw 112 of his 133 total targets. No other WR topped 100 targets from the slot, with Wan’Dale Robinson’s 91 being the next closest.

22. Air yards are a tricky stat to track. The number you get varies depending on your source, but they all had Calvin Ridley as the overall leader in 2024. The average from three sources has him at 1,858 air yards, with Courtland Sutton coming in next at 1,796 and Drake London third at 1,698.

23. Drops are another stat subject to some subjectivity, but according to Pro Football Reference, Amari Cooper and Jerry Jeudy, who played six games together for the Browns before Copper was traded to Buffalo, tied for the league lead with 12 drops each. They are the only two players credited with double-digit drops.

24. Some wide receivers supplement their fantasy points with work on the ground. As usual, Deebo Samuel led the way with 42 carries, more than twice as many as the next closest, Jayden Reed and Xavier Worthy, who each had 20. It was Reed, however, who led the position with 163 rushing yards. Worthy led with three rushing touchdowns. 

25. Since 2019, there has been just one 90+ yard reception each season. That changed in 2024 when three wideouts went for over 90 yards on a single catch. Marvin Mims Jr. went for 93 yards in Week 13, Justin Jefferson housed one from 97 yards in Week 2, and Nick Westbook-Ikhine had the longest reception of the season, a 98-yard bomb from Will Levis in Week 11. 

98-YARD TD! Will Levis takes a shot out of the end zone and it pays off for the @Titans!

: #MINvsTEN on CBS/Paramount+
: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/0o5Uj7RZ9q

— NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2024

Bonus #FootClan WR Stats

• Quentin Johnston and Jayden Reed each had 55 receptions.
• Calvin Austin III and Chris Godwin each had 55-yard catches. Both were TDs.
• Calvin Ridley has exactly 55 rushing yards.
• Darius Slayton had a 55% catch rate (54.9…but we’ll round up).