Picking True #1 WRs

Wide receivers. These are the guys who give fantasy managers more headaches than any other position. You know how it goes. One week your WR2 grabs 3 balls for 40 yds, while that scrub on your bench catches 4 balls for 110 yds and one long TD. So you switch them next week and the scrub goes 3-25, while your WR2 who you were cursing last week is putting up 7-60 and a TD on your bench. What you want is a WR who will get at least 5 catches a game and always top 50 yds and hopefully the century mark on a weekly basis, plus a red-zone look a game.

So it begins -- the great search for consistency. The best way to find that consistency and eliminate those headaches is to grab true #1 WRs on their own teams. There are only 32 out there in a perfect world, but with teams like Oakland and Tennessee around, the list of true-impact #1 WRs are much more limited. Just like I did in my previous blog post: http://www.screamingsports.com/en/profile/profile_readblog.aspx?b=2526 in which I broke down all 32 teams' running back situations, I have detailed all 32 teams' wide receiver situations below. The teams that have a star next to them are the teams that I believe possess a true #1 WR who will get 5+ catches and put up some fairly solid numbers week-to-week. The teams with two WRs listed are guys you can also take who will put up numbers like WR1s because they play for such good offenses.

Upon further breakdown, there are only 20 teams that possess true #1 WRs. Among the 12 teams without a star, only Detroit and New England have desirable options. They have so many good options that I don't see any one WR putting up big numbers. There are others that you can gamble on like Atlanta, Chicago and SF, who I didn't list as having a big #1 because I'm concerned the poor QB play won't allow for big numbers. Then there are the rest of the teams, which I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole (Jac, KC, Min, Ten, etc.)

So the stars show just 23 big-producing guys, and maybe a few sleepers I left off ( Brandon Marshall, Santonio Holmes, etc.) Looking at the big picture heading into a draft with 12 teams, you'll notice that there are only about 2 of these guys for each fantasy team. Keep that in mind, and try to grab 3. You'll have much fewer headaches starting Braylon Edwards, a true #1 WR on his own team, rather than starting Greg Jennings, a clear-cut #2 WR on his own team.

Here is the breakdown:

*Ari - Fitzgerald, Boldin

Atl - Horn

Bal - M. Clayton

*Buf - L. Evans

*Car - S. Smith

Chi - Berrian

*Cin - C. Johnson, Houshmandzadeh

*Cle - B. Edwards

*Dal - Owens

*Den - Walker

Det - Roy Williams

*GB - Driver

*Hou - A. Johnson

*Ind - Harrison, Wayne

Jac - M. Jones

KC - Kennison

Mia - Chambers

Min - Williamson

NE - Moss

*NO - Colston

*NYG - Burress

*NYJ - L. Coles

Oak - Curry

*Phi - R. Brown

*Pit - Ward

*SD - V. Jackson

SF - D. Jackson

*Sea - Branch

*Stl - Holt

*TB - Galloway

Ten - B. Jones

*Was - S. Moss

Draft accordingly.