NFL Spin Zone
Fansided

Fantasy football keeper leagues: 5 best wide receivers to keep in 2023

By Devin Lange

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - JANUARY 14: Christian Kirk #13 of the Jacksonville Jaguars carries the ball against the Los Angeles Chargers during the second half of the game in the AFC Wild Card playoff game at TIAA Bank Field on January 14, 2023 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - JANUARY 14: Christian Kirk #13 of the Jacksonville Jaguars carries the ball against the Los Angeles Chargers during the second half of the game in the AFC Wild Card playoff game at TIAA Bank Field on January 14, 2023 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 3
Next

The Super Bowl is less than two weeks away. After the game, either the Chiefs or the Eagles will be crowned champions of the 2022-2023 NFL season. Another thing that is determined after the game is what kind of fan you are. There are fans that think the season is over, and it’s time to take a break. Then there are fans that think the off-season has officially begun. Trades, free agent signings, the draft are all right around the corner. It’s the second best time of the year (first is football season). Another fun thing about the off-season is fantasy football research. If you are in a dynasty league or keeper league, the offseason is when championship rosters are made. It’s likely top wide receivers helped win some league championships this season.

Similar to all the seasons proceeding it, 2022 had a lot of players perform better than where they were drafted. These overperformers helped fantasy managers in redraft leagues, will continue to help them in dynasty leagues, and can continue to help them in keeper leagues. For the sake of this article, I’m going to focus on the can-doers in keeper leagues. There were many players Rules in keeper leagues can differ, so to keep things simple, I’m going to cover players that were drafted in the 4th round or later. Here is my list of overperforming wide receivers to keep.

Fantasy Football
Fantasy football: Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown warms up before the game against the Packers on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, at Ford Field. /

Top Fantasy Football keeper league wide receivers to hold onto in 2023

1. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lions

St. Brown finished as WR9 in STD leagues and WR7 in PPR leagues in 16 games. Besides missing one full game, he also left two games early with injuries. The injuries actually help St. Brown defenders, like myself, because he could have finished even higher in the rankings if he played a full season. Before the season started, I predicted St. Brown would finish as a top-12 fantasy football wide receiver in 2022. The only thing I was wrong about was not ranking him higher. The fact that he had 119 targets in his rookie season led me to this belief. He smashed that total with 146 targets this season.

With an ADP of 59 in STD leagues and 61 in PPR leagues in 2022, I was a bit surprised to see St. Brown being drafted as low as the 22nd wide receiver. Despite finishing as WR23 in STD leagues and WR21 in PPR leagues in 2021, he was actually a top 5 fantasy wide receiver in the last half of the season (weeks 10-18). As a matter of fact, he was the number 2 fantasy wide receiver behind Cooper Kupp in the last 6 games (weeks 13-18). If this isn’t enough evidence that St. Brown has all the potential to be a top-5 wide receiver worth keeping moving forward, I don’t know what is.

Home/NFL