Fantasy Football 2018: Early NFC North wide receiver rankings

3. Adam Thielen, Minnesota Vikings

Adam Thielen has improved each year, and he should be high on your fantasy radar this season. Thielen finished 2017 with 1,276 receiving yards and four touchdowns, and these numbers could continue to jump up now that Kirk Cousins is his quarterback.

You’d like to see Thielen score more touchdowns — he has just 10 in four seasons. But in what should be a very strong Vikings offense, the fifth-year receiver has the potential to become a big-time fantasy option.

Matthew Berry of ESPN has Thielen ranked 12th in his early 2018 PPR rankings. He’s ahead of Alshon Jeffery, Larry Fitzgerald and Jarvis Landry. If Thielen can find the end zone more regularly, he could become a solid WR1.

More touchdowns would turn solid scores into good ones, and good scores into great ones. While Thielen did have four games with at least 17 fantasy points in 2017 (standard scoring), two of which were over 20, he also had multiple scores below five points.

The addition of Cousins could be great news for both Thielen and Diggs. It will be interesting to see which receiver Cousins leans on the most. I’m giving the edge to Thielen, who continues to get better each season.