Stefon Diggs and Davante Adams both land in the top 10 recommended players to draft in Stokastic’s Best Ball package. With a healthy debate between them as top fantasy targets, here we put Diggs and Adams under the microscope to see who is the best wide receiver for 2022 Best Ball fantasy football leagues.
2022 Best Ball Fantasy Football Wide Receivers Rankings
The Case for Stefon Diggs (Brady Goodman)
Opportunity, Efficiency, and Production
Stefon Diggs has seven seasons with over 80 targets and four seasons with over 100 targets. He also has over 1,000 yards in each of the last four years. Combine that with his almost 70% catch rate, and it’s easy to see how his current RDP in Stokastic’s Best Ball kit is No. 8. Diggs’ DraftKings season total in 2021 dropped 40 points from where his 2020 total landed, and he was still a top-10 fantasy wide receiver.
Among high-value target rankings for wide receivers, Diggs was top 10 in each category. He was second in total air yards, second in red zone targets, tied for fifth in targets over 20 yards, and he led the league in end zone targets.
These high-value targets are highly correlated with PPR scoring.
Buffalo Bills Offense Overview
In 2021, Diggs led the Bills in targets with 164. That’s 50 more targets than Buffalo’s 2021 WR2 Cole Beasley, who is no longer with the team. Emmanuel Sanders earned 72 targets for the Bills last season and is now a free agent. Those two departures leave 184 targets for Josh Allen to spread around to Diggs and the rest of the Bills pass catchers.
The returning Bills wide receivers of note are Gabriel Davis, who was only targeted 5.25 times per game, and Isaiah McKenzie, who only put up 178 yards receiving last season.
The Bills did add a few veteran wide receivers in the offseason. That list includes Jamison Crowder, who has already been missing time in camp due to injury, and Tavon Austin, whose best year was when the St. Louis Rams were still a thing.
Davis and fifth-round draft pick Khalil Shakir are creating buzz with their camp performances, but none of the receivers on the team presents a major threat to Diggs’ role in 2022.
Diggs Range of Outcomes
2021 was a “down year” for Diggs, when his yards per game output of 72 was his lowest since 2018. Buffalo’s offense was third in pass rate over expectation last season. Combine that with the fact that they threw the ball 123 more times on the opponent’s half of the field than any other team in the NFL, one can expect around 40% of the Bills targets, especially high-value targets, to head Diggs’ way. This should be a bounce-back year, which would be regression towards the mean for Diggs. Expect him to land in the top five of fantasy wide receiver rankings.
The Case for Davante Adams (Nathan Otto)
Opportunity, Efficiency and Production
In 2021, Davante Adams’ last dance with the Green Bay Packers, he saw a career high in targets (169), receptions (123) and yards receiving (1553). This signifies two things: He has become an elite perimeter weapon, and he is entering his prime. The production last year was on a similar opportunity to the previous three seasons, he just did more with it.
| Year | Games Played | Fantasy Points per Game | Targets | Receptions | Receiving Yards | Air Yards | Receiving TDs |
| 2021 | 16 | 21.5 | 169 | 123 | 1553 | 1520 | 11 |
| 2020 | 14 | 25.6 | 148 | 115 | 1374 | 1308 | 18 |
| 2019 | 12 | 17.6 | 127 | 83 | 997 | 1349 | 5 |
| 2018 | 15 | 21.8 | 169 | 111 | 1386 | 1980 | 13 |
| 2017 | 14 | 15.9 | 118 | 74 | 885 | 1116 | 10 |
| 2016 | 16 | 15.3 | 121 | 75 | 997 | 1471 | 12 |
Since 2018, Adams saw 613 targets in 57 games, equating to 10.8 targets per game. With 47 touchdowns on 432 receptions over the same span, it’s hard to argue that production and efficiency can be matched in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Raiders Offense Overview
However, the Raiders attempted 37.9 pass attempts last year, and foreseeing Adams commanding a 30% target share isn’t far-fetched. In fact, Stokastic’s experts project him for 10.5 targets per game in silver and black. College teammates Derek Carr and Adams reunite, with both coming off career seasons. Now with more weapons around him than ever, expect Adams to have more room to operate, allowing him to unlock more yards after the catch. The excitement alone gives reason to draft a player of his caliber if available.
Adams Range of Outcomes
Adams ranked second among wide receivers in Best Ball points added (198.7), per Player Profiler, displaying his superiority in that category. The AFC West has a star-studded quarterback group that can lead to some high-scoring affairs. This bodes well for any Raider, Chief, Charger or Bronco and is another reason to favor Adams over Diggs in Best Ball. With the Stokastic experts projecting WR2 in all scoring formats, Adams’ range sits between WR5 and the top spot.
2022 Best Ball Rankings & Projections (Both)
This offseason, Diggs got paid and secured his spot in Buffalo for the next six years. His target competition seems to have taken a bit of a hit as well. The Bills are the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl this season. That means Vegas expects another massive year from Diggs and Allen.
Adams, on the other hand, took a downgrade at quarterback and clearly has better pass catchers around him on a team with a lower pass rate. If Adams ends up in the top 10 of yards receiving, it will be the first time for a Josh McDaniels wide receiver to achieve that ranking since Wes Welker in 2012.
In 2021, Adams topped Diggs in every relevant receiving stat. But this article is comparing 2022 Adams and Diggs, and these two find themselves in dynamically different receiving corps than there were in last season.
It can be argued that the Bills pass attack has been superior to the Raiders in years past. The boom ability and the unknown of the Raiders pass attack could make Adams the superior gamble here. He signed the most-expensive contract at the position in NFL history.
Adams is currently getting drafted as WR2 in all formats, compared to Diggs, who is consistently WR4 everywhere but on Drafters, where he’s going as WR3. Each is paired with elite scoring units and projected as the clear No. 1 pass-catching option in all areas of the field.
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