It's Week 15 of the NFL season. Your Fantasy semifinals. And wide receiver has turned into the Upside Down. It's absolutely terrifying and almost unrecognizable. We currently expect four of the top 20 receivers to miss Week 15, and even some who are playing feel less than safe. Kenny Golladay will try to overcome David Blough, while Cooper Kupp just tries to get on the field a little more. Tyler Lockett and John Brown are mired in month-long slumps and Julio Jones hasn't scored in a month himself.
It's a disaster.
The only positive is that you can find legitimately-good receivers on the waiver wire. I ranked my preferences below but this is best viewed on a case-by-case basis.
Anthony Miller has the biggest projection at the start of the week He also has a nice floor with at least 11 PPR Fantasy points in four straight games.
Dede Westbrook likely has the highest PPR floor of the group. I would expect double-digit targets with D.J. Chark out.
A.J. Brown has the most upside, especially in non-PPR. This is a great matchup but he also comes with the risk of a run-heavy game script.
Zach Pascal very much deserves to be in the discussion if T.Y. Hilton doesn't play. It's not a great matchup, but it worked out pretty well for the 49ers last week.
Isaiah Ford, Allen Hurns, Justin Watson and Breshad Perriman all have enormous upside and almost no floor as injury replacements.
I can make a case for any of these receivers as waivers options, and most of them rank in my top 30 this week, but that's more about the state of the position than any certainty about their production.
Week 15 WR Preview
The following players are not being projected to play Week 15 at this time. Here's what it means:
Justin Watson is my favorite option, but he's risky.
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Dede Westbrook is a start. Chris Conley is in play too.
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Allen Hurns and Isaiah Ford are great deep-league adds.
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I don't love Russell Gage against the 49ers.
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Numbers to Know
- 27.3% - Darius Slayton's target share over the Giants' last four games. He's led the team in three of those games.
- 46.2% - Breshad Perriman's career catch rate. No player has been worse since he joined the league.
- 12.7 - Yards per target for A.J. Brown. He doesn't get many targets, but he hasn't needed many.
- 4 - Odell Beckham's targets have decreased four weeks in a row. If the Browns have a lead, they'll protect it on the ground.
Matchups that matter
Waiver Wire Targets
I expect Miller's targets to rebound in a competitive game.
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As long as you can stomach his floor, the upside is phenomenal.
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The Raiders' pass defense is terrible and Westbrook should lead the team in targets.
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Pascal is a low-end No. 2 as long as Hilton doesn't return.
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Ford saw nine targets after Parker left Week 14.
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Hurns has been playing ahead of Ford, so you'd expect Hurns has better rapport with Fitzpatrick.
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Watson saw a huge target spike after Evans went down, and Godwin will draw Darius Slay if Slay plays.
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Ross could be a league-winner in Week 16.
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DFS Plays
This is not a bad matchup, and I'd expect the Panthers to be playing from behind. The price went down, too.
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Ford is likely to be the lowest owned of the injury replacement receivers.
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Heath's Projections
Non-PPR Rank | PPR Rank | WR | NON PPR FPTS | PPR FPTs |
1 | 1 | Michael Thomas | 16.86 | 25.81 |
2 | 2 | Julian Edelman | 13.35 | 21.12 |
5 | 3 | Robert Woods | 12.43 | 19.08 |
4 | 4 | Jarvis Landry | 12.92 | 18.82 |
3 | 5 | Chris Godwin | 13.05 | 18.69 |
12 | 6 | DeAndre Hopkins | 11.52 | 18.55 |
7 | 7 | D.J. Moore | 12.18 | 18.55 |
10 | 8 | Allen Robinson | 11.81 | 18.48 |
9 | 9 | Julio Jones | 11.90 | 18.29 |
16 | 10 | Davante Adams | 11.07 | 17.47 |
6 | 11 | Devante Parker | 12.27 | 17.31 |
8 | 12 | Tyreek Hill | 11.94 | 16.87 |
13 | 13 | Emmanuel Sanders | 11.47 | 16.48 |
27 | 14 | Keenan Allen | 10.01 | 16.15 |
14 | 15 | Deebo Samuel | 11.32 | 16.10 |
28 | 16 | Dede Westbrook | 9.99 | 16.06 |
11 | 17 | Kenny Golladay | 11.76 | 15.88 |
20 | 18 | John Brown | 10.49 | 15.86 |
18 | 19 | Amari Cooper | 10.83 | 15.82 |
15 | 20 | A.J. Brown | 11.26 | 15.77 |
25 | 21 | Anthony Miller | 10.16 | 15.43 |
17 | 22 | Darius Slayton | 10.89 | 15.21 |
23 | 23 | Odell Beckham | 10.32 | 15.11 |
19 | 24 | Stefon Diggs | 10.63 | 15.08 |
32 | 25 | Christian Kirk | 9.35 | 15.05 |
24 | 26 | Will Fuller | 10.16 | 15.04 |
21 | 27 | Zach Pascal | 10.49 | 14.91 |
22 | 28 | Courtland Sutton | 10.37 | 14.84 |
29 | 29 | Cooper Kupp | 9.73 | 14.80 |
33 | 30 | Cole Beasley | 8.99 | 14.39 |
26 | 31 | D.K. Metcalf | 10.12 | 14.12 |
31 | 32 | Tyler Lockett | 9.36 | 13.79 |
30 | 33 | Terry McLaurin | 9.42 | 13.42 |
40 | 34 | Larry Fitzgerald | 8.07 | 13.31 |
34 | 35 | Michael Gallup | 8.89 | 12.97 |
45 | 36 | Tyler Boyd | 7.48 | 12.65 |
36 | 37 | Golden Tate | 8.62 | 12.63 |
35 | 38 | Robby Anderson | 8.65 | 12.53 |
39 | 39 | Adam Thielen | 8.34 | 12.26 |
43 | 40 | Sterling Shepard | 7.61 | 12.23 |
37 | 41 | Mike Williams | 8.55 | 12.13 |
48 | 42 | Danny Amendola | 7.13 | 11.89 |
So who should you sit and start this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 15 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that out-performed experts big time last season.
