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Who should be the No. 1 Fantasy wide receiver this season? And is that player even considered the best receiver in the NFL? It's a fascinating topic this year in Fantasy and reality, and hopefully, we'll give you some clarity to the biggest decision you might have to make in Round 1. 

Welcome to the Elite Eight. These are the consensus top eight receivers in our CBS Sports rankings: CeeDee Lamb, Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase, Amon-Ra St. Brown, A.J. Brown, Garrett Wilson and Puka Nacua. You can make a strong argument that all of them should be selected in the first round this season -- they're that good.

But who should go first of those eight receivers? And do all of them have the chance to finish as the best eight receivers this season? There are certainly other contenders to the throne, including Marvin Harrison Jr., Chris Olave, Drake London, Jaylen Waddle, Michael Pittman Jr., Davante Adams, Mike Evans, Brandon Aiyuk, Nico Collins, Deebo Samuel and Cooper Kupp, among others.

We've identified these eight as the best of the bunch either based on what they have done or what they should be able to accomplish this season, which you can read about in-depth in this article. And based on the inexact science of a Twitter/X poll with more than 3,000 votes, the best Fantasy receiver this season should be Lamb (32.5 percent), followed by Hill (29.4 percent), Jefferson (24.2 percent) and Chase (13.9 percent). That happens to be our order as well.

However, as far as what the population on Twitter/X think about who is the best receiver in the NFL (non-Fantasy), the winner is Jefferson with an overwhelming 56.8 percent of the more than 3,000 votes. Hill was second (22.1 percent), Lamb was third (13.4 percent) and Chase was fourth (7.8 percent).

We'll let the NFL analysts decide if Jefferson is the best receiver. Here, we want to make sure you get the right order of Fantasy receivers, and we like Lamb at No. 1. He was a monster to close the 2023 season, averaging 28.5 PPR points per game in his final 10 outings, and we're hopeful he can pick up where last season left off.

But Lamb has a lot of work to do to hold off Hill (three years of more than 20 PPR points per game in his past four seasons), Jefferson (two years in a row with at least 20.2 PPR points per game) and Chase (two years in a row of at least 20.1 PPR points per game whenever Joe Burrow is healthy).

It would not be a surprise to see Lamb, Hill, Jefferson and Chase all be selected in the top five picks, along with Christian McCaffrey, who should be the consensus No. 1 overall selection. After that, you can expect St. Brown to be the next receiver drafted, and he just averaged 20.7 PPR points per game in 2023.

Brown will likely be the No. 6 receiver off the board in Round 1, and he's averaged at least 17.0 PPR points per game in two years with the Eagles. And Brown might be the last receiver drafted in Round 1 in most leagues, but Wilson and Nacua are also worthy of being first-round selections.

While Wilson has yet to establish himself as an elite Fantasy option, that should happen in 2024 with the healthy return of Aaron Rodgers (Achilles). And Nacua will hopefully build off his record-breaking rookie campaign in 2023 when he helped many Fantasy managers win a championship as the best waiver-wire addition in most leagues.

But we're not talking about waiver-wire options here. These are the best receivers in the NFL -- the Elite Eight -- and we want you to know why they should dominate the position in 2024. 

We'll break this into eight parts that you can find on CBSSports.com/FantasyFootball in the coming days. Today, we'll focus on Part 3 -- featuring Justin Jefferson and his case to be the No. 1 wide receiver in Fantasy for 2024.

Justin Jefferson, Vikings

  • 2023 stats: 68 catches for 1,074 yards and five touchdowns on 100 targets in 10 games
  • Stats that grab you: In four healthy games with Kirk Cousins last year, Jefferson averaged 25.8 PPR points per game. And in four games to close the season last year with Nick Mullens, Jefferson averaged 22.1 PPR points per game. He had eight games last year with at least nine targets and scored at least 24 PPR points in six of them. For his career, he averages 9.6 targets per game. ... Jefferson is the NFL's all-time leader in yards per game at 98.3. The next closest receiver is Calvin Johnson at 86.1. ... Jefferson holds the record for most receiving yards in his first four seasons in the NFL with 5,899. And last year he became the fastest player to 5,000 receiving yards, reaching the mark in 52 games. Beckham previously held the record at 54 games.
  • Quote to note: "When you watch Justin, you can see him do things that other guys cannot do, whether it's running the short, intermediate or longer routes. His ability to do things explosive at full speed with total control of every facet of his body, and then go attack the football in the air. And that's the other part of it. There's very few guys in this league, when the ball goes up, as long as there's not too many people around him, we expect him to make the play. It happens to be that most times when we break the huddle there's about three defenders aware of where he is and how they're going to defend him. I love coaching him and love being around him. He continues to get better. My favorite thing about him is the competitor in him and the fire in him to want to be so great at what he does." -- Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell to CBS Sports about Jefferson at the NFL owners meeting
  • The breakdown: Jefferson has proven to be a special talent, and his production last year with Mullens should be encouraging. The Vikings have a new quarterback with Cousins now in Atlanta, and Minnesota will go with some combination of J.J. McCarthy and Sam Darnold this year. McCarthy should get the majority of starts, and hopefully he continues to lean on Jefferson for nine-plus targets per game. T.J. Hockenson (knee) could be out to open the season, and Jordan Addison should remain in a secondary role behind Jefferson. We know O'Connell wants to run the offense through Jefferson as much as possible, and he has averaged at least 19.4 PPR points per game or more in three seasons in a row. The loss of Cousins could be immense for Jefferson, but O'Connell doesn't plan to change his offense, which is a plus for Jefferson continuing to see a hefty amount of targets.