Ranking best Steelers WRs to draft for fantasy football
By Tommy Jaggi
The Pittsburgh Steelers were filled with star fantasy football players in 2018. Here is the order in which you should draft their wide receivers this season.
If you were fortunate enough to land both Steelers receivers in Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster in your fantasy league last year, than kudos to you. Both were elite fantasy players last season, and I’m sure they did wonders for your team.
However, the Steelers look very different this year – both in reality and in the fantasy world.
Their group of wide receivers contains four players who have been with the team one season or less, so trying to figure out exactly how the Steelers plan to use each player is going to be a difficult task.
Still I took the liberty of doing so for you. Here are the order of Steelers wide receivers you should draft for your fantasy league in 2019:
1. JuJu Smith-Schuster
This was really quite unnecessary for me to list, but here it is anyway. JuJu will not only be the top fantasy wide receiver on the team, but a certain top 10 receiver, a borderline top 5 receiver, and the potential to be the number 1 fantasy receiver in 2019.
2. James Washington
ESPN fantasy analysts, Mike Clay, is just as stumped as you are here. He chose the easy way out by slotting James Washington and Donte Moncrief right next to each other as the 48th and 49th ranked receivers for fantasy PPR this year.
I tilt the scales slightly in favor of Washington as the 2nd best Steelers receiver to own. The Steelers have a lot invested in him as a former 2nd round draft choice, and he has a year of the playbook under his belt. Washington will be on thin ice though, and struggling early could land him on the bench.
3. Donte Moncrief
It’s hard to figure out exactly how the Steelers wish to use Moncrief, but his $9M over the next two seasons indicate that he is not going to be a player that simply watches from the sidelines.
Moncrief is probably the best athlete with the most speed in the wide receiver room, but I can see his fantasy production from week-to-week being a little bit shaky. Still, if he impresses in preseason, and Washington doesn’t, he could be on the fast track to a big role in Pittsburgh.
4. Diontae Johnson
This is a popular pick, because of the hype surrounding the rookie and the similarities he shares with Antonio Brown. However, don’t jump the gun too early here. It’s possible that Johnson could see a large role as a rookie, but remember the investments the Steelers have made in Washington and Moncrief.
Johnson could break out later in the season, but it might take one of the other receivers to struggle or get injured to do so. If this is a dynasty league you are drafting in, bump him all the way up to number 2 in your draft. However, you should be able to get him late in standard leagues.
5. Ryan Switzer
Unless you are in the deepest of leagues (I’m thinking 16 teams), you probably don’t have a need to store a player like Ryan Switzer on your bench.
Whether Switzer or Eli Rogers gets the nod in the slot, both possess very limited upside and would not be reliable options. However, one might be able to get you out of a pinch in PPR leagues if the passing volume is high enough.
dark. Next. Did the Steelers trade up in the first round of the draft a year too late?
It will be interesting to see how the Steelers receivers sort themselves out this season. The fantasy outlook after JuJu is admittedly murky. We will get a better assessment after we see these players take the field in Latrobe.