Fantasy Football Week 15 Wide Receiver Rankings: Jerry Jeudy, Brandon Aiyuk emerge as key playoff questions

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Heading into the Fantasy Football playoffs, some things are guaranteed. Amon-Ra St. Brown is a superstar, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett remain must-start WRs, and Christian Watson’s upside is too high to consider sitting, for instance. But there are still plenty of questions out there. Before we get to my Week 15 rankings for wide receiver, here are my thoughts on five of the biggest questions facing the position this week:

Does Deebo Samuel’s injury help Brandon Aiyuk?

Sure, it helps. Does it make him a must-start Fantasy WR? I’m a little more skeptical in that regard, just because I think the 49ers are probably going to remain an incredibly run-heavy offense with Brock Purdy. Losing Samuel means Aiyuk probably has a bigger share of the pie, but it probably isn’t going to be a particularly appetizing pie most weeks. Aiyuk is a solid Fantasy option moving forward, but I’m not expecting him to be a top-12 WR or anything — a WR2 is what I’m hoping for.

Is Jerry Jeudy now a must-start WR?

Week 14 was an interesting one for Jeudy. Obviously, it was a massive game — three touchdowns, 33.3 PPR points, and his third highest yardage total of the season. However, it was also just 73 yards on a 20.5% target share, in a game Courtland Sutton missed against a pretty good matchup. Don’t let the three touchdowns convince you this was some paradigm-shifting performance — and don’t let Russell Wilson’s struggles fool you into thinking his absence wouldn’t be a downgrade. Jeudy is very much in the starting conversation, especially if Sutton’s hamstring keeps him sidelined, but he’s still more of a fringe WR2 than a must-start guy.

Can I trust Amari Cooper?

“Trust” isn’t the right word, but I’m probably starting him. Deshaun Watson looked better in Week 14, but that doesn’t mean he played well — he still mostly threw short, and when he did throw long, it wasn’t really to Cooper, it was to Donovan Peoples-Jones, who had the second-most air yards in the league in Week 14. Still, Cooper has plenty of upside, as he’s shown throughout this season, so I think there’s just some inherent volatility in his profile — has been his entire career, really. It’s frustrating when things aren’t going well, but I have faith that Cooper will pull out of it, and I’m keeping him in my lineup for this week’s game.

Is Mike Evans still worth my time?

Evans hasn’t scored a touchdown since Week 4, a stunning drought for a guy who had 27 touchdowns in his first two seasons with Tom Brady. He hadn’t had more than 59 yards in a game since Week 8, either, which means he really hasn’t been very helpful for Fantasy for like two months. But I’m not going away from him. It seems like every week he’s inches away from a big play — in Week 14, it was a long touchdown nullified by a holding penalty plus a potential late touchdown thrown behind and below him in the end zone. Evans is a downfield-oriented playmaker, playing in an offense that is struggling to give its quarterback time, and he and Brady have just been a little bit off more often than not lately. That’s frustrating, but the opportunities are still there — 7.8 targets per game over the past five — and he only needs to hit one to be worth starting. The coin flip has come up tails a bunch of times in a row, but I still think heads have a pretty good chance of popping up here.

Can I trust Diontae Johnson?

Again, “trust” is the wrong word, but yeah, I think I’d be rolling with Johnson this week. He’s mostly still garnering his typically strong target numbers, and in Week 14 he actually started turning them into production. Maybe it was just a fluke, or maybe he just has a bit of a better connection with Mitchell Trubisky than Kenny Pickett; he has a 61.4% catch rate and 6.1 Y/T from Trubisky, compared to 57.4% and 5.4 with Pickett. Johnson isn’t a must-start WR by this point, but the volume remains strong enough for him to be in that WR2/3 range for me.

Here are my Week 15 rankings for WR:

  1. Justin Jefferson vs. IND
  2. Tyreek Hill @BUF
  3. Ja’Marr Chase @TB
  4. Stefon Diggs vs. MIA
  5. Davante Adams vs. AND
  6. AJ Brown @CHI
  7. Amon-Ra St. Brown @NYJ
  8. DeAndre Hopkins @DEN
  9. CeeDee Lamb @JAX
  10. Chris Godwin vs. CIN
  11. Keenan Allen vs. TEN
  12. Tyler Lockett vs. SF
  13. Terry McLaurin vs. NYG
  14. DK Metcalf vs. SF
  15. Chris Olave vs. ATL
  16. DeVonta Smith @CHI
  17. Christian Kirk vs. DAL
  18. Michael Pittman @MIN
  19. Amari Cooper vs. BAL
  20. Christian Watson vs. LAR
  21. Mike Williams vs. TEN
  22. Garrett Wilson vs. DET
  23. Jerry Jeudy vs. HE IS
  24. Brandon Aiyuk @SEA
  25. Mike Evans vs. CIN
  26. Diontae Johnson @CAR
  27. Jaylen Waddle @BUF
  28. Marquise Brown @DEN
  29. JuJu Smith-Schuster @HOU
  30. Zay Jones vs. DAL
  31. Curtis Samuel vs. NYG
  32. Adam Thielen vs. IND
  33. Drake London @NO
  34. Donovan Peoples-Jones vs. BAL
  35. Allen Lazard vs. LAR
  36. Michael Gallup @JAX
  37. DJ Chark @NYJ
  38. Darius Slayton @WAS
  39. DJ Moore vs. PIT
  40. Gabe Davis vs. MIA
  41. Chris Moore vs. KC
  42. Mack Hollins vs. AND
  43. George Pickens @CAR
  44. Jarvis Landry vs. ATL
  45. DeMarcus Robinson @CLE
  46. Parris Campbell @MIN
  47. Josh Palmer vs. TEN
  48. Noah Brown @JAX
  49. Marvin Jones vs. DAL
  50. Robert Woods @LAC
  51. Elijah Moore vs. DET
  52. Ben Skowronek @GB
  53. Josh Reynolds @NYJ
  54. Marquez Valdes-Scantling @HOU
  55. Skyy Moore @HOU
  56. Alec Pierce @MIN
  57. Van Jefferson @GB
  58. KJ Osborn vs. IND
  59. Greg Dortch @DEN
  60. Chase Claypool vs. PHI

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