Teammates Who Could Both be Fantasy WR1s in 2024

There are 32 NFL teams. There are 12 slots for fantasy football’s WR1s. Just based on sheer math, then, you’d expect the 12 WR1s to come from 12 different teams. And in 2023, that worked out — the best teammate pairing last season came from the San Francisco 49ers, with WR14 Brandon Aiyuk and WR15 Deebo Samuel.

But that is absolutely not the trend.

In the last 20 years, there have been 26 different occasions where a pair of WR teammates have both finished a season as top-12 PPR finishers. That’s 1.3 pairs per season, including at least one in 16 of 20 years. Check it out:

So today, let’s take a look at the candidates in 2024 to be teammate WR1s in fantasy football.

Teammates Who Could Be Fantasy WR1s in 2024

Miami Dolphins (Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle)

Hill and Waddle cracked the above list in 2022, when Hill put up a typical Hill season and Waddle had a breakout to the tune of 1,356 yards and 8 touchdowns. Waddle regressed in 2023, but he still had three hundred-yard games despite missing three games. Waddle was only WR34 last year, so he’s need a big rebound, but we’ve seen it out of him, and not very long ago.

Philadelphia Eagles (A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith)

Like Hill and Waddle, Brown and Smith did this two years ago. Unlike Hill and Waddle, they came reasonably close to repeating in 2023, with Brown improving to WR5 and Smith falling only to WR19. It was the target total for Smith that fell off, with him having 8 or more targets 12 times in 17 games in 2022 but seven times in 16 games in 2023. If Dallas Goedert — who has missed multiple games four years in a row — misses time in 2024, Brown and Smith could be a dynamic fantasy duo again.

San Francisco 49ers (Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk)

Samuel and Aiyuk were our top teammate finishers in 2023, coming in WR14 and WR15. We know they have the capacity to climb to the WR1 ranks (assuming they, you know, remain teammates). The problem is that Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle are still going to command work as always, and now Ricky Pearsall is in town as well. They can do it, but there might not be enough targets.

Cincinnati Bengals (Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins)

The longer that Higgins is on the Bengals, the more it seems he’ll be there in 2024 (likely for his last season as a Bengal, on the franchise tag). And if so, these two could easily reach new heights for their time together. Tyler Boyd’s gone. Joe Mixon is gone. Zack Moss and rookie third-rounder Jermaine Burton are in their place, but they are much less known quantities than their predecessors. There’s a clear path for these two.

Los Angeles Rams (Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp)

In the 26 games preceding his 2022 injury, Kupp averaged 24.7 PPR points per game. That was the best in all football (quarterbacks included), and nearly 3 full points ahead of the next-best flex player (Austin Ekeler, 21.7). Sure, he wasn’t as good upon his return in 2023, but another season of recovery could get him back to where he was. And of course Nacua was a superstar as a rookie.

Houston Texans (Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell)

No, all three of these guys aren’t going to finish as WR1s (at least, almost certainly aren’t). But you can’t that confidently say which two of the three you believe could do it. Collins is the more-or-less given here. So is it Diggs, who has six straight 1,000-yard seasons but appeared to fade hard last year as he crossed 30 years old? Or is it Dell, who is undersized and coming back from a bad injury but was electric before getting hurt?

New York Jets (Garrett Wilson and Mike Williams)

Assuming Aaron Rodgers is healthy (which, who knows), the Jets don’t have much in the way of exciting offensive depth. It’s basically Wilson, Williams, Breece Hall and maybe rookie Malachi Corley, if you believe in the hype coming out of New Jersey. That’s a recipe for the veteran QB to lean on his two veteran receivers, and if Williams can stay healthy (which, who knows even more), they could absolutely dominate in targets.

Chicago Bears (DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze)

If the Bears had bolstered the offensive line at 1.09 in the draft instead of drafting Odunze, the Moore/Allen combo could easily be projected for 320 combined targets in 2024. But with Odunze around, the three of them might vulture enough targets from one another to hold them in check. That said, if Allen (now 32 and oft-injured) can’t stay healthy or hits the aging wall, or if Odunze isn’t as pro-ready as we all believe, the remaining two could thrive.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Mike Evans and Chris Godwin)

Godwin has only managed 5 touchdowns across the last two seasons, so maybe his days of being a fantasy starter are behind him. But he has a WR2 season on his resume, and over 1,000 yards in four of his last five seasons. We know (as much as we can know anything) Evans is going to top 1,000 yards again and flirt with WR1 territory, so if Godwin can rebound, they can get there again.

Minnesota Vikings (Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison)

Jefferson is a relative given. Addison? He might be a long shot, but the list of known quantities in the Minnesota receiving game is basically these two and T.J. Hockenson, and Hockenson isn’t likely to be ready for Week 1. If the tight end misses a significant chunk of the season, Jefferson and Addison could each average 10 targets a game.

Green Bay Packers (Jayden Reed, Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs)

I am the person who maintains our offensive fantasy football depth charts. Generally speaking, figuring out the order for a group of receivers is easy — the top guys are easy to sort, and the bottom guys are so interchangeable that it doesn’t really matter what order they go in. The Packers … are the exception to that. If you can confidently sort Reed, Watson and Doubs 1-2-3 for 2024, be my guest. I cannot. But if we can winnow that three down to two and Jordan Love takes another step forward, there’s a path to some big fantasy numbers.