December 26, 2015

Below you will find our Week 16 wide receivers rankings, to help determine your WR starts/sits for this week, brought to you by Edward Gorelik (@EdwardGorelik) and Zach Wilkens (@LopsidedTrades).

Featured fantasy football writer Zach Wilkens also highlights some WR rankings and matchups analysis for Week 16, and draws some matchup conclusions. He tells you who he likes, who he doesn't, and most importantly who he thinks you should be starting in Week 16.

You can also check out our 2015 fantasy football ranking dashboard, for more in depth rankings analysis on all positions including rookies and dynasty leagues.

Week 16 Fantasy Football Rankings - Wide Receivers

Week 16 Wide Receiver (WR) Rankings Analysis

By Zach Wilkens (@LopsidedTrades)

This week I am loving Jeremy Maclin against a team giving up the fourth most points to WRs. That includes 10 touchdowns to WRs over the past five games.

People continue to be skeptical of Maclin because he plays with Alex Smith but this is a great matchup and he has proven he has real upside. Maclin has six touchdowns and three games of over 140 yards this season. There is no reason he can’t excel here.

I’m also high on Emmanuel Sanders. Brock Osweiler’s tenure as starter has led to some inconsistency from both Sanders and Demaryius Thomas. Last week was the first in five Osweiler starts that we good big weeks out of both receivers.

The hope is that we get another shootout here which requires a lot of throwing by Osweiler. I’m not sure that will be the case with A.J. McCarron at the helm for the Bengals. Over the last four games (Since Sanders didn’t play in Brock’s first start) their line’s are: 21-330-1 for Sanders and 22-253-3 for Demaryius. They both have their positives and both should be started but I prefer Sanders over DT and that puts me in the minority.

On the negative side we have Calvin Johnson. It pains me to say it but over his last three games he has just five catches for 79 yards. He is either hurt or experiencing a serious decline. Golden Tate over the same span has 23 catches. To me it seems pretty clear that he is just a decoy on the field right now.

I have moved him down to WR24. I still see him as startable just because we all know what he is capable of but if you are in your championship game there is a real chance you have better options. There is no point in risking a Megatron start when you don’t have to.

I am also low on A.J. Green. Green has three checkmarks against him. A backup QB, a very bad matchup and a back injury that caused him to play just 59% of the snaps last week. I am really having a terrible time seeing Green doing anything this week.

In particular I don’t see A.J. McCarron finding much success against Denver. Even if Green was healthy I’d be shying away. The back injury only makes it that much easier. I have Green at WR25 and recommend avoiding him if your roster can allow for it.

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