2015 Fantasy Football: Wide Receiver Rankings (Part 1)
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11.) Mike Evans, Bucs – His rookie season was overshadowed a bit by Odell Beckham’s amazing year, but Evans would have won the rookie of the year in almost every other season with a 68 | 1050 | 12 line. The talent upgrade from Josh McCown to Jameis Winston is a big one and Evans could find himself on the receiving end of more accurate deep balls in 2016. Evan’s value is fairly dependent on Winston’s, but if the young QB plays well then Evans could dwarf his numbers from last year.
12.) T.Y. Hilton, Colts – My concern over players that just got paid is a little more relevant with TY than Bryant. The Colts added Andre Johnson and have two potential breakout receivers in Donte Moncrief and Duron Carter, which could cut into Hilton’s targets. He’s still the best big play threat on a team with an elite QB which should guarantee more good games than bad. I think Hilton’s overall point total could be a little lower, but he should stil be a top end WR2 with a few games this season that will win your matchup.
13.) Emmanual Sanders, Broncos – Manning’s weak arm period concerns me a little more with Sanders than Thomas. Sanders is more of a downfield option and needs a QB who can get the ball to him downfield. I’m not giving up on Peyton Manning quite yet and his suspect play late last year could lower Sanders price enough to make him a steal. Sanders is coming off his best season, is still only 28, and finished 8th overall among all fantasy WRs last year. The loss of Julius Thomas could mean more targets for Sanders as well and if he falls out of the top 1o WRs in your draft he’s a solid value.
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14.) DeAndre Hopkins, Texans – Nuk is already moving up draft boards after one episode of Hard Knocks. He should have been higher to begin with after a season where he showed flashes of dominance as the Texans WR2. Now with Texan legend Andre Johnson out of the picture, Hopkins should see a huge spike in targets and production. Unfortunately the Texans QB situation is ugly which is all that kept Hopkins out of my top ten. The talent is there and if either Hoyer or Mallet surprise, so could Hopkins.
15.) Kelvin Benjamin, Panthers – Another rookie season that flew under the radar due to the impressive rookie WR class. Benjamin had an excellent 73 | 1008 | 9 stat line despite a wildly inconsistent season from Cam Newton. The Panthers don’t have much else at WR, so Benjamin should be inline for another 140-150 targets easy.
16.) Jordan Matthews, Eagles – Last years #1 WR Jeremy Maclin is no longer with the Eagles which leaves Matthews as the new WR1 in Philly. He had a impressive 67 catches for 872 yards and 8 TDs, despite playing less than 50 snaps in 9 of his 16 games. Matthews was extremely productive given his limited snaps and he should be on the field much more often this season. He’s one of my favorite sleepers based on his average draft position.
17.) Brandin Cooks, Saints – An injury cut short a solid rookie season with an average of over 5 catches per game. Cooks was mostly used on short to intermediate routes, but with the loss of Jimmy Graham and Kenny Stills, Cooks could be looking at a much bigger slice of the targets. There is talk of the Saints becoming more of a running team, but with Cooks as the new WR1 he should still see almost double the targets he got last season.