Fantasy Football Start/Sit Rankings & Advice: Wide Receiver (Week 15)

It’s been feast or famine with JuJu Smith-Schuster this year. He’s had six games with 74 or more receiving yards and six games with 46 or fewer receiving yards. But since Week 6, he’s been the WR16 in fantasy points per game (half-point PPR), and I’ll happily take my chances with the No. 1 wide receiver for Patrick Mahomes, who’s averaging 320 passing yards a game.

I currently have Jerry Jeudy ranked WR25, but I’ll move him down a few spots if Russell Wilson isn’t able to clear the concussion protocol and the Broncos are forced to start backup QB Brett Rypien. Jeudy had 8-73-3 last week on nine targets, and one of his three touchdowns came on a pass from Rypien. Broncos WR Courtland Sutton (hamstring) is likely to be out again, and WR Kendall Hinton (hamstring) could be out, too, giving Jeudy an enhanced target outlook against a poor Cardinals pass defense. But a double-digit target count wouldn’t necessarily be that valuable if Rypien is the target delivery mechanism.

What do we do with Allen Lazard? From Week 6 of 2021 to Week 9 of 2022, Lazard had 13 touchdowns in 17 regular-season games. But Lazard has gone scoreless in his last four games, while Packers rookie Christian Watson has piled up eight touchdowns in Green Bay’s last four games. It would be naive to think that Watson’s emergence hasn’t devalued Lazard to some degree, but Lazard has still been involved, with 15 catches during Watson’s torrid four-game stretch. I consider Lazard a midrange WR3 this week against a Rams defense that isn’t as tough on WRs as it used to be. The Rams have given up the sixth-most receptions and 12th-most receiving yards to wide receivers.

Remember what I said about chasing upside in the introduction to this article? Generally, I think the whole “I need upside” thing is folly. But Gabe Davis might be an exception. I wouldn’t start Davis ahead of receivers I have ranked 6-10 spots higher, but I’d consider starting him ahead of receivers I have ranked a couple of spots higher if I were an underdog in my Week 15 matchup and needed to land a few haymakers to pull off an upset. Davis has had fewer than 40 receiving yards in three straight games and five of his last seven. He’s had only one game this season in which he’s seen more than seven targets. But Davis has turned in a 3-171-2 game, a 6-93-1 game, a 4-88-1 game and a 3-74-1 game this season. This is a dude who can land a heavy punch. Just realize there’s a good chance he’ll swing and miss.

In Marquise Brown‘s first two games back from a foot injury, he’s had 10-80-0, averaging 5.0 yards per target. For the season, he’s averaging a career-low 10.7 yards per catch. Brown has a tough matchup against the Broncos this week, and he’s going to be catching passes from backup QB Colt McCoy after starter Kyler Murray tore his ACL on Monday night. Brown is just a high-end WR4 this week.

With Brandon Cooks and Nico Collins both out last week for the Texans, seventh-year veteran Chris Moore stepped into the breach and had a career-best 10-124-0 day against the Cowboys. Moore commanded a whopping 40.7% target share against Dallas and looked terrific. Never before has Moore been able to carve out a significant role as a pass catcher, but he’s made a nice career for himself as a special teamer, and perhaps seven years of practices and meetings have helped Moore hone his craft as a pass catcher. The Week 15 status of Cooks (calf) and Collins (foot) is uncertain, but the 1-11-1 Texans have little incentive to rush either one back. Moore is an intriguing deep-league play against a Chiefs defense that has given up the fourth-most fantasy points to WRs.

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