Projecting top five fantasy football WRs for 2025: Can Ja'Marr Chase repeat?

In what's become a trend over the past few seasons, wide receivers are dominating in the early rounds of fantasy football drafts. In many mock drafts, six or even seven receivers are going in the first round. 

Last season, the top three receivers were drafted in the first round, while others were third and eighth-round picks. 

For the 2025 season, there's more confidence that drafting a top wide receiver in the first round will yield good results by the end of the season. 

5. CeeDee Lamb, Dallas Cowboys

Just two seasons from a WR1 finish, Lamb has a chance to get back on track after a 2024 WR8 finish. Lamb's slower year can be attributed to Dak Prescott missing nine games. 

With Prescott healthy again, a less-than-ideal defense and run game, the Cowboys are expected to throw the ball a lot. Even with the addition of George Pickens, Lamb is still going to command his targets. 

We've seen Lamb perform at his ceiling and floor over the past two years. The ceiling? 403 PPR points and WR1. The floor, 263 PPR points and WR8. Either way, Lamb is going to produce. 

4. Nico Collins, Houston Texans

Coming off a WR12 finish, Collins is expected to shatter expectations in 2025. Even after missing five games, Collins still managed 1,000 yards with seven scores last year. 

Collins' chemistry with C.J. Stroud has been one of the league's best when healthy. In two years together, Collins has 148 catches for 2,303 yards and 15 scores in just 22 games. 

A 17-game pace with those stats leads to 98 catches, 1,400 yards and nine scores. Another full season with Stroud can lead to a potential WR1 season for Collins. 

3. Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings

Another former WR1, Jefferson, enters 2025 with another new QB. The biggest worry for the LSU standout is how he'll conne ct with J.J. McCarthy.

If Jefferson has proven anything over his five-year career, it's that whether it's Kirk Cousins, Nick Mullens or Sam Darnold throwing him the ball, he's going to produce. With many different QBs, Jefferson still is the all-time leader in yards per game at 96.5.

The 2022 WR1 may be dealing with an early injury, but by midseason, he will hopefully have developed a connection with the young QB. If that's the case, Jefferson will have an easy top-five fantasy finish. 

2. Malik Nabers, New York Giants

After finishing with the second-most single-season receptions by a rookie, Nabers has a great chance to finish as a top-three receiver. In a season where he missed two games, Nabers still finished as the WR6 with 109 catches for 1,200 yards and seven scores. 

What makes this a promising season for Nabers is that he finished as the sixth-best receiver with Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, Tommy DeVito and Tim Boyle throwing him the football. Although in the latter half of his career, Russell Wilson is an instant upgrade from last year. 

A QB known for his arm and deep ball ability, matched with one of the best contested catchers, is a perfect match. Nabers led the league with a 34.9% target share last year, with no changes to New York's receivers, expect Nabers to be force-fed into a great fantasy season. 

1. Ja'Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals

Coming off only the fifth instance of leading the league in receptions, yards and touchdowns, Chase is in prime position to repeat as the WR1.  

Chase racked up 403 PPR points last season (fourth time in history) and averaged 23.7 PPG. A player hasn't finished back-to-back seasons as the WR1 since Antonio Brown did it from 2015-2018. 

Despite this, the Bengals' defense is still going to allow plenty of points, meaning this offense is always going to be firing, leading to another high-volume workload for Chase this season.