5 Fantasy Football Draft Wide Receiver Dart Throws (2023)

It’s often said that you don’t win your best ball contests in the early rounds, especially the late ones. While we still need to hit the early rounds, it’s absolutely true that good late round picks can propel a roster, just ask anyone who drafted Zay Jones last year. In this article, we’ll argue for five wide receiver darts that have the potential to make a splash when it matters.

Fantasy Football Draft Dart Throws

Here are some late draft picks worth taking in upcoming fantasy football drafts.

Rondale Moore (ARI) 131.5

The Cardinals are generally expected to be a mess in 2023, and there aren’t too many people who will try to argue that opinion is wrong, but at some point we have to consider whether the offensive pieces we can count on have become a value. DeAndre Hopkins has been released and the wide receiver room consists of Marquise Brown, Rondale Moore, Michael Wilson and Greg Dortch. It’s easy to think of Moore as a slot receiver because so much of his production can occur near the line of scrimmage, with an astonishingly low average depth of field of 1.4 yards in his rookie season. Moore played on 39 percent of 2-WR sets during games he was active last year, and new head coach Jonathan Gannon has talked several times about wanting to involve Moore more vertically. If Moore plays in 2-WR sets consistently and is out there when Kyler Murray is healthy, it could make for a fun end to the year where the Cardinals defense looks like they will put the offense in plenty of pass-heavy scripts.

Nico Collins (HOU) 135.2

The Texans’ passing offense regressed greatly in 2022, and with Brandin Cooks unhappy and not looking like himself while John Metchie battled leukemia, it left plenty of room for others to understand. Nico Collins was expected to show up, but battled through injuries and played just nine full games, averaging 9.7 PPR points. What makes him an ideal candidate for this list, though, is that he was on pace for nearly 120 goals when healthy, and from Week 10 to Week 13 he had two 10-goal games. Now that Cooks is no longer on the team and the Texans have upgraded massively at quarterback, Collins should once again have ample opportunity to potentially lead this team in scoring.

Van Jefferson (LAR) 146.2

There is a theme to this article so far, and it has typically been around offenses that are perceived as potentially bad this coming season. The Rams are somewhat of an enigma, with their defense looking severely depleted, but it’s possible their offense could take a step forward after last year’s woes, which were largely caused by a depleted offensive line and injuries to Matthew Stafford bar throughout the offseason. and into the season. Behind Cooper Kupp, the Rams have added very little, with Van Jefferson mainly facing competition from Demarcus Robinson and possibly rookie Puka Nacua. Jefferson was a top 36 wide receiver in 40 percent of his appearances last season, including games where Baker Mayfield and John Wolford were the starting quarterbacks. With the Rams defense expected to be poor and plenty of question marks about the state of the running game, sprinkling some Van Jefferson and Matthew Stafford stacks is a cheap and reasonable upside bet.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling (KC) 155.8

Last year, some of us might have expected a little too much from Marquez Valdes-Scantling after several years of him never quite making the jump in Green Bay. Valdes-Scantling didn’t deliver his ADP of 95 last year, but now he’s routinely available 60 picks later and is still tied for the best quarterback in the league in Patrick Mahomes. Valdes-Scantling led Chiefs wide receivers in routes run (532) and deep targets (18), with no other receiver seeing more than 10. During the Conference Championship, when the Chiefs needed a player to step up, it was Valdes-Scantling who did so, catching six of his eight targets for 116 yards and a touchdown. The Chiefs need a player to step into the slot role left vacant when JuJu Smith-Schuster left, and while they may need to figure out which receiver can do that, Valdes-Scantling will likely stick around the field as the vertical playmaker. It’s not always pretty with MVS, but the potential for a huge spike week is always lurking, and that can’t be said for all receivers in this range.

Tyquan Thornton (NE) 161.2

It was a slow start to Tyquan Thornton’s rookie campaign, missing the first four games due to injury, and then the Patriots got him back upon his return. Thornton suffered the effects of an offense run by Matt Patricia and Joe Judge in what looked like a terrible move at the time and looks even worse in retrospect. Thornton flashed a top eight weekly finish in Week 6 and a top 16 finish in Week 16 when DeVante Parker missed time. As long as the Patriots don’t add a receiver whose name rhymes with MeAndre Shopkins, Thornton’s path to consistent usage is blocked only by Parker, Smith-Schuster and Kendrick Bourne.