Fantasy football Week 1 WR preview: Luther Burden III a top-20 play despite lengthy preseason absence

Heath Cummings has Luther Burden III inside his Week 1 top 20 and weighs Parker Washington's outlook among the key WR start-sit decisions Sep 8, 2026 at 8:53 pm ET • 3 min read One of the most fun things about Week 1 is seeing where coachspeak and beat writer reports look accurate, and where they led us astray. That's not to say that Week 1 will be definitive, but for a few days next week, it is all the real football we have. And we'll use that real football to either say "see, the writing was on the wall," or "LOL, can you believe we fell for that?" The two prime candidates for those discussions are Luther Burden III and Parker Washington.Both Burden and Washington finished 2026 stronger than they started it. Both have been the constant focus of both their coach's praise and their beat writer's amazement. Both had preseason injuries that we do not expect to affect their Week 1 production. So you may be wondering why I have Burden ranked as W18 in Week 1 and Washington as WR30. Some of it is my own bias regarding which one I think is a better wide receiver. Well, not really my bias. History's bias. Burden is a former five-star recruit and a Round 2 pick from last year. Washington is a former sixth-round pick who averaged 24.2 receiving yards per game in his first 36 career NFL games. I think we would have had near-universal agreement on Thanksgiving of last year that Burden was the better talent. Should the best two months of Washington's life change that? Maybe, but not for me. Not yet, at least.The other part of the equation is that when I do my projections, I try to make player projections fit within the offensive environment they exist in. Burden, Colston Loveland, and Rome Odunze are the only players I have projected on the Bears for larger than a 12% target share. In Jacksonville, Parker Washington, Brian Thomas Jr., Jakobi Meyers and Brenton Strange should all clear that mark with ease. One way or another we're going to have takes about these two players after Week 1. I would start both in a three-wide-receiver league and project them to have career years. But I am more optimistic about Burden having a league-winning breakout season and I view him as more of a must-start in Week 1.Here is the rest of the Week 1 WR Preview: Week 1 WR Preview WR Preview Numbers to Know 2.71 -- Amongst receivers who saw at least 50 targets last year, Luther Burden ranked third in yards per route run at 2.71.20.2 -- Chris Olave averaged 20.2 PPR FPPG in the second half of last season with Tyler Shough.19.9 -- Quentin Johnston averaged 19.9 PPR FPPG the first month of last season before the Chargers offensive line fell apart.100 -- No pass catcher has seen more than 100 targets in the last four seasons for the Packers. We're hoping for signs that will change in Week 1.5.9 -- Mike Evans averaged a career low 5.9 yards per target in 2025.25.5 -- The Bengals held receivers to 25.5 points per game last year, the second-lowest mark in the league.18.9 -- Alec Pierce had an aDOT of 18.9 last year. That will have to come way down if he is going to see an increase in targets.59% -- Josh Downs played 59% of the offensive snaps last season; we are hoping he will be a full-time player in 2026.42 -- Deebo Samuel had 42 rush attempts in 15 games the last time he was in Kyle Shanahan's offense. That could make up for a lower target share this year. WR Preview Waiver Wire Targets Projections powered by Sportsline Projections powered by Sportsline WR Preview Heath's Projections My full set of Week 1 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 1. Projected stats for all starting wide receivers are updated throughout the week, so make sure you check back in later in the week for changes.