Ladd McConkey – NFL Draft Sleeper Alert
Jay Felicio
We’re running through our 2023 fantasy sleepers and busts series with a look at 2023 WR sleepers. Check out more in the series here:
Looking for a wide receiver to draft later in the order? Here are four potential sleeper candidates for the 2023 fantasy season.
These four WRs are currently being drafted outside the top 24 at their position, making them excellent sleeper candidates for fantasy football in 2023.
2023 Fantasy Football WR Sleeper Candidates
Jameson Williams, Detroit Lions
I know, I know. Everyone is calling Jameson Williams a sleeper WR in 2023 – but for good reason. The 2022 first-round pick is simply an explosive player. He lost virtually all of last season to injury, but when he did touch the ball he was electric. He had two official touches – both of which went for over 40 yards. A third touch – another 40-plus yard TD – was called back by penalty.
He was the No. 1 college WR before an injury. And he’s going to show people why in 2023. As a junior at Alabama in 2021, Williams caught 79 passes for 1,572 yards – a whopping 19.9 YPC average. He scored 15 TDs too.
Williams is the perfect complement to chain-mover Amon-Ra St. Brown. The Lions offense is going to be good for fantasy in 2023, and Williams will be a big reason why.
Marquise Brown, Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals are looking downright awful heading into 2023, but Marquise Brown will not be a reason why. This is doubly true if the team ends up losing DeAndre Hopkins.
Prior to his injury, Brown scored 12 PPR points in six straight games, including 20-plus in three straight from Weeks 3-5. From Weeks 1-6, only five WRs had more fantasy points than Brown: Cooper Kupp, Stefon Diggs, Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase.
Not bad company.
It’s looking less and less likely that Hopkins will be on the Cardinals in 2023, which means it’s becoming more and more likely we see Brown as a WR1 again.
George Pickens, Pittsburgh Steelers
George Pickens had a mostly-typical rookie season with a slow ramp up followed by scattershot production.
But it was also not-so-typical in some ways too, including doing things like this:
And he started doing stuff like that on a near-weekly basis.
All told, Pickens finished with six games in the top 24 among WRs, and he had two weeks in the top 10. He finished with double-digit points in nine of his final 13 games, and all of this was while playing second fiddle to Diontae Johnson. But Pickens actually outscored Johnson in all league formats from Weeks 4-18 last year. While Johnson scoring 0 TDs last year had something to do with that, it’d be foolish to think that Pickens (4 TDs) might not bully his way into the WR1 role in Pittsburgh.
Elijah Moore, Cleveland Browns
The fantasy community loved Elijah Moore heading into 2022, but his own team did not, and he ended up running wind sprints the entire year as a result. Now Moore finds himself on a new team (the Cleveland Browns) with a massive upgrade at QB (Deshaun Watson) compared to what he’s played with so far in his young career.
Let’s try to remember why we loved Moore going into last year: As a rookie, Moore had a stretch of seven healthy games in the middle of the year from Weeks 7-13. He posted six games with double-digit fantasy points and three games with 20-plus.
From Weeks 9-13 in 2021 – a stretch of over one full month – only Justin Jefferson scored more fantasy points than Moore.
Moore is extremely cheap in early 2023 fantasy drafts, and he’s worth a flier. The talent is there.
