Fantasy football start/sit advice, Week 15: Wide receivers

Week 15 of the fantasy football season is here, and we’re back with another crop of start/sit options. We have a nice set of data about each team through six weeks, and can make informed decisions on good plays and traps. With that in mind, we’ll pick wide receivers who should exceed expectations in Week 15, along with three you should probably sit.

Since Jimmy Smith was lost to injury, the Ravens’ secondary has been torched on a pretty regular basis by top wide receivers, including Antonio Brown’s amazing 11-213 line last week. If Gordon compiled just half of Brown’s stats it would be considered a smash week. DeShone Kizer is totally locked in on Gordon, who is making a serious statement about the resumption of his career. He’s a terrific play this week.

The Texans rank 26^th in fantasy points allowed to wide receivers and Blake Bortles has targeted his rookie 27 times over the past three games. Westbrook finally got his first career touchdown last week and has increased his yardage in each of his four games since being activated. Westbrook is going to be a special receiver in this league, and he’s already showing why. The Texans should be powerless to stop him and the rest of the Jacksonville passing game this week, especially if Leonard Fournette is inactive.

Funchess has really come on since the Panthers traded away Kelvin Benjamin, and now he gets to face a Packers’ secondary that is missing its best players (who weren’t particularly good to begin with) and have been overwhelmed by opposing wide receivers for weeks on end. With Greg Olsen still slowed by injuries, Funchess figures to be Cam Newton’s primary target, which should lead to a monster performance in a potential shootout if Aaron Rodgers is on his game.

I have listed three receivers in this section who, if active, probably have to be played. They are studs and you always play your studs. But I think there’s a serious dose of reality that is baked into all three of these guys this week, and owners need to understand that there are serious risks associated with all of them. Expectations must be lowered pretty dramatically. If you are lucky enough to have a plethora of good alternatives, the unthinkable -- sitting them -- needs to at least be considered.

Hopkins has been an absolute monster all season, BUT: He has missed the past two days of practice with a toe issue and is not even a guarantee to suit up on Sunday; T.J. Yates is going to be the starter at QB against a ferocious Jaguars pass rush; the Jaguars’ secondary has been death for No. 1 outside receivers all season. It’s just a brutal confluence of factors. I suppose if anyone can overcome it all, it would be Hopkins, but this was going to be a rough matchup even before the injury.

Green is going to need some divine providence on Sunday, because he’s spending his afternoon in Rhodes Island (see what I did there?). Xavier Rhodes has gone full-Revis this season, as the Vikings have routinely taken top wide receivers out of the game. Remember when Julio Jones dropped a 50 a few weeks ago? The next week, Rhodes held him to two catches. Green has been less than spectacular even in good matchups recently, so his outlook this week is rather dim. Unlike Hopkins, this one is a legit “sit” situation if your roster allows for it.

At the beginning of the season, the Jameis Winston-Evans combo was poised to be one of the most prolific in fantasy. It hasn’t worked out that way, and Winston’s shoulder injury in the middle of the season scuttled it altogether. But perhaps most disturbing is what’s happened to Evans since Winston has returned. In the past two weeks combined, Evans has seen 11 targets. That is normally a low total for one Evans game, let alone two. The Bucs are in total freefall, while the Falcons are steaming toward a playoff berth. Again, you probably have to play Evans, he could go off at any time. But he enters this game looking very ordinary and this is not the week for very ordinary to be in your lineups.