For the sake of time and space (not to mention my sanity), not every player that has scored a point appears below. My qualifications at wide receiver: at least five games played and one top-30 finish. (I kept a non-qualifier such as Michael Thomas on the table below for the sake of reference.) "Best" refers to the player's highest weekly fantasy finish, while "worst" obviously refers to his lowest. "Aver" is the player's average weekly finish. Squares were left blank when the player was active but failed to register a fantasy point. Got it? Good.

Tyreek Hill was a bit of a bust in a "weather game" against Buffalo in Week 6, but his average weekly finish in his eight other outings is 14.1. That is incredibly impressive for a player who may have been considered by many to be an elite vertical threat and not much else this summer. D.K. Metcalf is busting those same myths about his game as well. Although he hasn't delivered the goods every single week, he has finished as a WR2 or better in six of eight games (including four WR1 efforts). That's not bad for a player who many thought could run about three routes at this time last year. His only kryptonite so far was seeing Patrick Peterson on 85.5 percent of his routes in Week 7. To be fair, however, it's reasonable to wonder if that game (against the Cardinals) was more about exploiting Dre Kirkpatrick in coverage (receivers converted 13 of 16 targets for 136 yards and two touchdowns in his coverage) than it was about avoiding Peterson.

There didn't appear to be much doubt before the season whether or not Calvin Ridley could be a WR1 in 2020, but his consistency has been impressive nonetheless. If we count only the six games in which he wasn't either affected by injury somewhat (Week 4) or left early due to injury (Week 8), his average weekly finish is 10.5, and his lowest weekly finish is 25. He's not going to benefit from easy matchups for the remainder of the year per se, but he's an alpha receiver on a team with a bigger and badder alpha (Julio Jones), so he will continue to see favorable coverage regardless of how difficult a matchup might appear on paper. Ridley has already excelled in what were supposed to be difficult on-paper matchups against Chicago in Week 3 (5-110-0) and Carolina in Week 5 (8-136-0) when Jones was out and Ridley was the focus of the defense.

Although such observations are tricky because the public usually isn't privy to such information week after week, OC Tim Kelly has reportedly called plays for the Texans all season long. (The one week he was supposed to give those duties up to HC Bill O'Brien, the latter was fired.) The reason I mention this is because very little about the offensive brain trust has changed since O'Brien departed. However, it is probably more than coincidence that Brandin Cooks has posted a WR1, WR1, WR2 and WR3 finish in the four games since O'Brien's departure. (For those that may not remember, Cooks was borderline droppable after three weeks.) His average weekly finish since O'Brien left is 16.5, while Will Fuller's is 19.8. It's not a statement that Cooks has passed Fuller as the top dog in Houston, but the pair appears to be on equal footing. Given the Texans' defensive issues, it's probably a safe bet Fuller and Cooks maintain their current level of production.

Do we need to beware of Minnesota receivers? HC Mike Zimmer has made it abundantly clear he wants his offense to run the ball and it makes sense when Dalvin Cook can turn 25 touches into 200-plus yards. While it's not necessarily Cook's volume that affects the receivers, Minnesota has established a firm pattern in its wins and losses: in three wins, Kirk Cousins has attempted no more than 22 passes and thrown a total of 56. In the Vikings' five losses, he is averaging 30.6 attempts. It may not appear to be a huge difference, but the extra 7-8 targets per game make a huge difference in the receivers' ability to pay off in fantasy. During Cooks' two-game surge since Minnesota's Week 7 bye, Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson have seen a total of 17 targets. As a result, Jefferson's 53rd place finish last week is the best the duo has posted in that stretch. It's likely a blip on the radar since at least one receiver was paying off in the three previous games, but let this serve as a reminder there is rarely enough volume in this passing game to allow both players to hit in fantasy in the same week.

Of note: The Rams' devotion to the running game has the same kind of effect on their receivers as it has on the Vikings' wideouts, although Robert Woods has been more immune to inconsistency than Cooper Kupp, Thielen and Jefferson. Woods been given at least eight opportunities (targets plus carries) in all but one game and scored at least 14 PPR points in five of eight games (at least 11.3 in six contests). In the Rams' three losses, he has averaged 21.2 fantasy points. In five wins, his average drops to 12.3. Kupp topped 12 fantasy points for the first time in a month in the Rams' last game (Week 8). Unlike Woods, who has been a top-26 receiver in five of eight outings, Kupp has been a low-end WR3 or lower in five of his eight. … I can't wait to find out the story behind the story this offseason regarding Mike Evans and D.J. Moore. Most people know Evans is operating at far less than 100 percent, but let's break down his weekly ranks anyway: two WR1 efforts, two WR2s and four other performances where he was 46th or lower among his position group. Moore's breakdown looks very similar: two WR1s, two WR2s and five efforts that ranked 49th or lower among all receivers. … The fantasy world is justified in believing Jakobi Meyers won't be able to repeat last week's 12-169-0 performance on 14 targets. But once folks realize his 37.9 percent target share since Week 7 trails only Davante Adams (38.8) over that span, they might be a little more willing to buy into him as a weekly starter moving forward.