Blue Rated Wideouts Week 15 2023

The volatile scoring nature of the wide receiver position may cause more start-sit headaches for fantasy managers than any other position, but when things go well wide receivers can post point totals capable of winning fantasy games.

How does one know which wide receivers are capable of posting those game-winning point totals? My player grading system (a full version of which can be found at TheFootballScientist.com) aims to identify these players via an overall/upside/downside approach. A player’s overall grade measures his likely performance, the downside the grade indicates how a player is apt to fare if things go poorly for him that week, and the upside grade measures the scoring ceiling of a player if things go well in a given contest.

This grading system also uses five color-coded categories: blue (indicating someone who can post elite point totals), green (a strong starter), yellow (a solid backup or a potential starter in bye weeks or deep leagues), orange (a desperation play), and red (someone who should not be started).

This means fantasy managers who are looking for big scoring potential at wide receiver should aim for someone who has a blue-rated upside grade (which is 90-100 in my system). This weekly article series will identify all the blue-rated upside wideouts in a given week and then provide details on a few of the unexpected candidates on this board. It will also detail the strength of the matchup each of these receivers is facing via a matchup points total of 1-100, with 100 being most favorable.

Week 15 wide receivers with blue-rated upside

Courtland Sutton, Denver

At first glance, Sutton might seem like a touchdown dependent starter, as he has scored 11.9 or fewer PPR points in the games where he hasn’t found the end zone. The good news for Sutton’s fantasy managers is that he has scored a touchdown in ten games, but there is more good news this week with a matchup against Detroit cornerback Jerry Jacobs.

Per Stathead, over the past four weeks, Jacobs has allowed 19 completions in 24 targets for 305 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a ridiculously high 12.7 yards per target pace and a 16.9 PPR PPG pace. Sutton should be a WR2 candidate here even if he doesn’t find the end zone, but Sutton could also rack up his first 20+ PPR point game if he tallies another game with a touchdown.

Zay Flowers, Baltimore

Flowers has been one of the biggest start-sit headaches for fantasy managers this season, but over the past two weeks he’s been a strong starter with 43.2 PPR points in that span.

He has a chance to post a third straight impact scoring game versus a shaky Jaguars secondary that has five players who have allowed a YPT of 8.8 or higher since Week 10, with four of those players having a double-digit YPT. This upside makes Flowers a flex candidate at the very least.

Puka Nacua, Los Angeles Rams

The concern for the Rams wide receivers is that Washington’s rush defense has been so awful that this contest is apt to be the Kyren Williams show.

That might not leave a ton of targets for Los Angeles wide receivers, but the Commanders secondary has been just as bad as the rush defense, as Benjamin St-Juste, Quan Martin, and Kendall Fuller all have PPR PPG allowed totals of 9.0 or higher since Week 10. Add in that every Washington secondary player sans one has a YPT of 9.5 or higher in that same time frame and it soon becomes clear that getting any Rams player into a starting lineup is the way go to this week.