For three consecutive years, fantasy football managers have paid for a Garrett Wilson breakout that hasn’t materialized. In 2026, it’s going to happen for a fourth time. Perhaps there’s a different New York Jets wide receiver managers should target? Adonai Mitchell has been turning heads at OTAs. Could he be the guy everyone should look to draft?
Adonai Mitchell Has Been The Star Of Jets OTAs
Once considered a potential Round 1 talent, Mitchell fell to the back half of the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft. After a rookie season that didn’t quite go as expected, mired by inconsistent quarterback play, Mitchell was traded to the Jets in 2025.
Of course, things weren’t much better in New York with the trio of Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor, and Brady Cook throwing him passes. Yet, Mitchell found a way to impress anyway.
Now, he’s been lighting up OTAs.
We might need to have a conversation about Adonai Mitchell pic.twitter.com/hMlI5RT03a
— SleeperNFL (@SleeperNFL) June 18, 2026
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. One t-shirt and shorts highlight doesn’t matter. But this singular clip isn’t why fantasy managers should be bullish on the third-year receiver.
Mitchell joined the Jets midseason. He wasn’t a particularly productive player during his time in Indianapolis. Joining a bad team with a bad coaching staff and three quarterbacks who may never start an NFL game again on purpose, he easily could have done a whole lot of nothing over the second half of the 2025 season. Instead, Mitchell flashed.
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In eight games with the Jets, Mitchell’s total numbers aren’t going to stand out. What matters is the upside.
If we throw out Week 18 when half the league wasn’t really trying, Mitchell earned at least six targets in every other game with the Jets. He saw nine targets in three of them. His most impressive outing came in Week 13 against the Atlanta Falcons when he caught eight of 12 targets for 102 yards and a touchdown.
As a former second-round pick and having recorded just 312 yards as a rookie, we know the odds are stacked against Mitchell ever being an impact player. But now in his third season, the threshold has changed. What counts as outperforming his ADP expectation is way different than when he was a rookie.
Mitchell is an afterthought in fantasy drafts. He’s currently going off the board as the WR75 in best ball drafts. Even if he continues to climb, he’s not going to reach a point where he’s expensive. At worst, he’d cost a 12th or 13th round pick most likely.
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Every year since 2023, fantasy managers have drafted Wilson at a price point he’s never lived up to. This year will be no different. For Wilson to justify his WR19 ADP, he will have to actually post mid-WR2 numbers at worst. To this point, Wilson’s WR18 finish in 2024 is the best he’s ever done.
The bar is much lower for Mitchell.
Sure, the Jets spent first-round picks on Omar Cooper Jr. and Kenyon Sadiq. However, neither is necessarily guaranteed an immediate starting role.
Cooper is one of the weaker Round 1 wide receivers in recent memory, and Sadiq averaged 21.2 receiving yards per game during his three years at Oregon. Mitchell has the inside track to the starting Z role opposite Wilson. If he plays like he did last season and can benefit from what should be improved quarterback play provided by Geno Smith, Mitchell could end up being the more valuable Jets WR relative to cost.
