In this weekly article, Ryan Ramsarran uses the Advanced Stat Explorer and other RotoViz tools to dive deep into wide receiver usage trends. Usage is key for making waiver wire adds, start/sit decisions, and finding the next blowup WR in DFS. We’ll use the advanced WR metrics to highlight a few buy-low options at the position each week.
Week 15 is in the books, and it was full of some nail-biter endings and complete blowouts. As most leagues have passed their trade deadline and many have passed their waiver deadline, we’ll look at which wide receivers may be great starts or DFS plays for Week 16.
As always, we’ll start with one of the best plays by a wide receiver this past week:
TEE HIGGINS JUMP BALL AND THE REACH! WHAT A TD 😱
📺: #MINvsCIN on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/vtmfEKvOLy pic.twitter.com/sLb6U64XNq— NFL (@NFL) December 16, 2023
Routes Run and Routes per Target
Routes run is the first key statistic I’ll focus on because WRs need to be on the field to produce. The second statistic is routes per target. Unlike RB usage, targets are earned as a WR and routes per target is a helpful measure in figuring out which players are good (or which players coaches want to get the ball to).
*Routes for Monday’s games are not included