After a nothing rookie year, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Cedric Tillman made significant strides in his sophomore season. He eventually emerged as the Cleveland Browns’ WR2, operating as a near every-down player, earning weekly fantasy football starter status. Are fantasy managers sleeping on Tillman in 2025 drafts? Or was he just a flash in the pan?
Should You Draft Cedric Tillman in Fantasy?
It was very easy not to care about Tillman entering the 2024 season. He was a third-round pick in 2023 and managed just 21 receptions for 224 yards. Nothing about his prospect profile or rookie year performance suggested he would be more than rotational depth at the NFL level.
Entering the 2025 season, that may be all Tillman is. But he did show flashes of much more in his sophomore season.
Cleveland Browns WR Cedric Tillman
Every target in 2024 👇
29-339-3 receiving
49 targets25.4 years old at start of 2025 season (Year 3) pic.twitter.com/WmAGRwruHr
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) June 18, 2025
You can’t look at Tillman’s work and glean anything useful. He caught 29 passes for 339 yards and three touchdowns. Although he played three fewer games than he did as a rookie, 30.8 receiving yards per game isn’t exactly moving the needle. He averaged 7.3 fantasy points per game.
The real story is what happened specifically in Weeks 7 to 9. Out of nowhere, Tillman went from entirely irrelevant for a weekly WR1.
Before Week 7, Tillman had three receptions for 10 yards on the season. That was across six games. He was averaging 10.3 routes run per game. There was no reason for him to be on any fantasy rosters.
Then, in Week 7, Tillman played 82% of the snaps, ran 46 routes, earned 12 targets, and caught eight for 81 yards. Naturally, this resulted in many fantasy managers scooping him off the waiver wire. But it’s not as if one fluke week would earn him anyone’s trust. Then, he did it again.
In Week 9, Tillman went 7-99-2. By Week 10, he was in fantasy lineups and rewarded managers with a 6-75-1 line.
MORE: Free Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator
Following the Browns’ Week 10 bye, Tillman had a down game, posting a mere 7.5 fantasy points. However, he was still playing 95% of the snaps. Unfortunately, in Week 11, Tillman suffered a concussion that would end his season.
Entering the 2025 season, we have a player who showed nothing as a rookie for the first six weeks of his sophomore season. He then popped off three WR1 performances in three consecutive weeks before getting hurt, depriving us of the opportunity to determine if this was legit or if he was merely Travis Fulgham 2.0.
For those who may not remember, Fulgham was an Eagles WR who didn’t play until Week 4, then immediately posted 19.3 PPG over his first five games. Then, in Week 10, he vanished. Over the rest of his career, which ended essentially after the season, Fulgham totaled 19.4 fantasy points. He played one more professional football game in Week 17 of the 2021 season. He ran one route and wasn’t targeted.
Tillman is obviously going to continue to have a career and catch passes. But if he returns to being a seldom-used WR3/4 depth piece, there’s nothing for fantasy. We need to figure out what his role will be.
It’s important to note that nearly all of Tillman’s production came with Jameis Winston under center. Like his teammate Jerry Jeudy, Tillman benefited from Winston launching the ball downfield with reckless abandon. Joe Flacco offers something similar, but he is not Winston and is almost certainly not starting the entire season.
Tillman should start in three receiver sets at the bare minimum. Beyond Jeudy, Tillman, and the newly signed Diontae Johnson, this depth chart doesn’t possess a single name that belongs on an NFL field outside of a handful of routes per game.
Jeudy is the only one guaranteed a target, though. In theory, Johnson should be the best wide receiver on the team. He’s the most talented, by far. That is, when his head is on right.
Johnson was on four different rosters last season and was quite disgruntled. But from Weeks 3-6, Johnson posted elite WR1 numbers in three out of four contests. He’s not that far removed from that effort. Johnson had just as many WR1 games as Tillman, except Johnson has a much stronger track record of success.
The good news is that the Browns project to be a bad team and could be trailing, thus throwing a lot. They led the league in pass attempts last season.
The Browns also run a lot of 11 personnel. They used that formation 72.1% of the time last season, sixth-most in the league. If his talent allows, that should give Tillman a chance to be on the field and earn targets.
Ultimately, Tillman is a low-risk, pure upside play. He has a WR67 average draft position (ADP) and has proven capable of producing WR1 weeks. I have Tillman ranked WR62 and have been warming up to him as the Summer progressed.
I’ve always been a Johnson guy, though, and still believe he is worth a stab on the upside alone. But both guys are basically free and can easily be dropped if things don’t work out. If you want to take a chance on Tillman, there’s really no downside.
Mason LeBeau’s Cedric Tillman Fantasy Projections
Cedric Tillman is a sneaky play for deeper leagues where you need a receiver who will start. He’s been slow to start his career — a third-round pick in 2023, he only had 45 receptions in his career. What sparked confidence was his three-week run last season, where he had finishes as WR14, WR3, and WR12.Â
Of course, that came with Jameis Winston, so while he won’t see that level of volume again, Joe Flacco has also been known to let it rip. If the veteran QB can breath some life into this offense, then Tillman stands a reasonable chance at producing solid results in that time. I can’t speak to what will happen when the other QBs come in, but you can get him for free and move on easily once the turnover starts.Â
This all applies to your standard-sized redraft leagues as well. I truly believe he could be a usable sleeper early in the season. However, I understand the hesitation in using a bench spot on a young Browns WR when other names like Josh Palmer, Jack Bech, and Xavier Leggette go in the same area and represent better upside. But if he produced early, don’t say I didn’t tell you.Â
