2023 Fantasy Football: 3 Wide Receivers to Avoid & 3 Sleeper Wide Receivers to Target

The fantasy wide receiver pool continues to be getting deeper each year. This year, we’ll be breaking down 3 wide receivers to avoid at their current ADP and 3 sleeper wide receivers you need to have on your draft boards. 

Wide Receivers to Avoid:

#1: Keenan Allen

Slowly but surely we can tell that Keenan Allen’s body isn’t cooperating with him. He’s been missing more time each season and doesn’t have the speed he used to. With the Chargers drafting Quentin Johnston in the first round, it seems like we’ll have a new number one receiver in Los Angeles before we know it. With how high Allen is being drafted for his age, we’re avoiding him unless he slides down a couple rounds as the injuries are too risky. 

#2: Calvin Ridley

Ridley hasn’t played a game of football since October 2021 and is still being taken as a top 20 wide receiver. We’re all for his comeback season, but we’d rather take better consistency from his teammate Christian Kirk than take a chance this early on. 

#3: Michael Pittman Jr

Pittman Jr has been a sleeper of ours for the past 2 seasons but he hasn’t had a true breakout year as we envisioned he would. Don’t get us wrong, he’s been above average putting up nearly 2,000 yards since being in the league but that hasn’t transitioned over into touchdowns. This past year, with 99 receptions, Pittman Jr couldn’t break 1,000 yards and only managed 4 scores. With rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson who is pretty inaccurate, we don’t know if Pittman Jr is going to fare as well as he’s done with traditional pocket passers like he’s had the last 2 years. 

Sleepers to Draft:

#1: JuJu Smith-Schuster

JuJu is being drafted as low as wide receiver #50 which is a far cry from where he was a couple years ago. He didn’t do as hot in Kansas City but that’s because Travis Kelce is there. In New England, Mac Jones doesn’t have a clear #1. The current wide receiver #1 is Devante Parker who will soon be replaced as the top option with JuJu Smith-Schuster. We love picking up Smith-Schuster with how low he’s being ranked. 

#2: Diontae Johnson

Kenny Pickett’s first year in the league was a bit shaky which resulted in wide receivers like Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and George Pickens to disappoint compared to their expectations last season. Claypool was traded and now the top two options on the Steelers for Pickett are Johnson and Pickens still. Johnson failed to find the end zone all last season which diminished his value, but we don’t expect that to be the case for two seasons in a row as Pickett should get out of his rookie nerves and get grooving sooner than later. 

#3: Marquise Brown

This pick doesn’t look pretty and you’re going to be questioning yourself the entire time you are doing it. But the Cardinals have nobody, so somebody has to catch the ball for them. Deandre Hopkins is out of the picture and Kyler Murray won’t be playing for a while. James Conner is injury-prone. That just leaves Marquise Brown as the lone player to have some kind of consistency. We expect Marquise Brown to play a role that Brandin Cooks has been playing with teams for years.