Bill Belichick has been remarkably bad at drafting wide receivers. N’Keal Harry, Chad Jackson, Bethel Johnson, Aaron Dobson. But he’s been remarkably good at finding and developing more unheralded wide receivers, and I’m wondering if he’s got another one of those guys on his hands.

No team has been better over the last 20 years at getting good production out of receivers other teams have overlooked. The Patriots saw the value in using a seventh-round pick on Julian Edelman, who was a quarterback at Kent State. And Belichick saw potential in Wes Welker (who wasn’t drafted) swinging a trade for him before his career got rolling. David Patten, Kendrick Bourne, Danny Amendola and Jakobi Meyers all went undrafted, and all have had good seasons for the Patriots.

David Givens and Troy Brown were late-round picks who played well for the Patriots (though Brown was playing well before Belichick showed up).

Since the move to 32 teams in 2002, 28 times a New England receiver has finished with top-40 numbers (PPR scoring) 28 times, and over two thirds of those players have been guys who originally went undrafted or were picked no higher than the seventh round. That’s by far the most (over half of the teams in the league have had no more than two such receivers, and seven haven’t had any at all).

UNHERALDED RECEIVERS WITH TOP-40 NUMBERS
TeamNoTotalPct
New England192868%
New Orleans153050%
Tennessee61735%
Buffalo72627%
Green Bay83225%
LA Chargers62425%
Minnesota62722%
NY Jets52719%
Dallas52917%
Denver52917%
Cincinnati53714%
Seattle43013%
NY Giants32512%
Houston22110%
Las Vegas2229%
Miami2248%
Tampa Bay2287%
Chicago1176%
Jacksonville1225%
Baltimore1234%
Atlanta1264%
Carolina1274%
LA Rams1274%
Philadelphia1274%
Detroit1284%
Pittsburgh0400%
Indianapolis0320%
Arizona0300%
Washington0220%
San Francisco0200%
Kansas City0180%
Cleveland0160%

With that in mind, I’ve got my eye on Demario Douglas. He’s the slot receiver out of Liberty that New England selected in the sixth round. He had the nice game against Buffalo, catching 4 passes for 54 yards, including a catch at the end that was inches away from being the game-winning touchdown.

Earlier in the season, he had a 4-catch game against the Eagles, and a 42-yard catch at Dallas. He played more against Buffalo because JuJu Smith-Schuster was sidelined by a concussion. The Patriots signed Smith-Schuster to a big contract in the offseason, but Douglas on Sunday played better than he has all year. Smith-Schuster has caught only 14 of the 25 passes thrown his way and is averaging only 6.1 yards per catch.

It's a performance-based business. With that in mind, I think the Patriots will turn the page, transitioning from Smith-Schuster. Douglas just seems to be better, and I think we’ll see him in that role in the second half of the season. For the rest of this season, I expect he’ll be their 2nd-most productive wide receiver (behind Kendrick Bourne).

I’m not suggesting that Douglas is a secret league winner. But I think it’s reasonable to consider placing him on the tail end of a roster. Particularly if we’re talking about a dynasty format. I think there’s a good chance Douglas will be one of the main pass catchers for the Patriots in 2024. Where it goes from there, we’ll see, but he looks pretty promising to me. Might be another Jakobi Meyers.

The following list shows my current top 80 receivers for dynasty leagues. I’m assuming PPR scoring, with teams holding the rights to players indefinitely. In these rankings skew towards younger players. Keenan Allen and Adam Thielen, for example, are great right now, but they’ll be 32 and 34 on opening day next year; it makes more sense long-term to pick a 22-year-old like George Pickens or Drake London.

I turn my attention to dynasty leagues each Saturday, rotating between the four notable positions. Rookies are tagged with black dots. To see my most recent rankings for other positions, use the “past issues” navigation both on this page.

Last week: Running backs.

Next week: Tight ends

DYNASTY LEAGUE RECEIVERS
RkTmPlayerAge
1.CINJaMarr Chase23.7
2.MINJustin Jefferson24.4
3.NYJGarrett Wilson23.3
4.PHIA.J. Brown26.3
5.MIATyreek Hill29.7
6.DALCeeDee Lamb24.6
7.DETAmon-Ra St. Brown24.0
8.INDMichael Pittman26.1
9.SFBrandon Aiyuk25.6
10.PITGeorge Pickens22.7
11.NOChris Olave23.3
12.SEADK Metcalf25.9
13.CHIDJ Moore26.5
14.PHIDeVonta Smith25.0
15.BUFStefon Diggs29.9
16.BAL• Zay Flowers23.1
17.GBChristian Watson24.5
18.MIAJaylen Waddle24.9
19.JACChristian Kirk26.9
20.KC• Rashee Rice23.5
21.SFDeebo Samuel27.8
22.LAR• Puka Nacua22.4
23.ATLDrake London22.3
24.CINTee Higgins24.8
25.LARCooper Kupp30.4
26.LVDavante Adams30.8
27.HOUNico Collins24.6
28.MIN• Jordan Addison21.8
29.PITDiontae Johnson27.3
30.CLEAmari Cooper29.4
31.WASTerry McLaurin28.1
32.DETJameson Williams22.6
33.SEA• Jaxon Smith-Njigba21.7
34.JACCalvin Ridley28.9
35.HOU• Tank Dell24.0
36.LVJakobi Meyers27.0
37.LACKeenan Allen31.5
38.ARIMarquise Brown26.4
39.BUFGabe Davis24.7
40.TBMike Evans30.2
41.GBRomeo Doubs23.5
42.TBChris Godwin27.7
43.CLEElijah Moore23.6
44.WASJahan Dotson23.6
45.LACJosh Palmer24.1
46.DENCourtland Sutton28.0
47.CARAdam Thielen33.2
48.NYG• Jalin Hyatt22.1
49.IND• Josh Downs22.2
50.LACMike Williams29.1
51.DENJerry Jeudy24.5
52.GB• Jayden Reed23.5
53.NEKendrick Bourne28.2
54.NORashid Shaheed25.2
55.SEATyler Lockett31.1
56.TENDeAndre Hopkins31.4
57.NE• Demario Douglas22.9
58.BUFKhalil Shakir23.7
59.TENTreylon Burks23.6
60.DEN• Marvin Mims21.6
61.DALBrandin Cooks30.1
62.WASCurtis Samuel27.2
63.MINK.J. Osborn26.4
64.LAC• Quentin Johnston22.1
65.JACZay Jones28.6
66.ARI• Michael Wilson23.7
67.CARDJ Chark27.1
68.NOMichael Thomas30.7
69.KCKadarius Toney24.8
70.BALOdell Beckham31.0
71.TB• Trey Palmer22.6
72.KCSkyy Moore23.1
73.NYGWan'Dale Robinson22.8
74.LARTutu Atwell24.1
75.BALRashod Bateman23.9
76.DALMichael Gallup27.6
77.CHIDarnell Mooney26.0
78.DETJosh Reynolds28.7
79.CINTyler Boyd29.0
80.INDAlec Pierce23.5

—Ian Allan