Super Bowl LVII is in the books, and now we are in the dead period of the NFL offseason between the 2022 season being over and the start of NFL free agency. The next big event on the NFL calendar is the 2023 NFL Combine, which will give us some insight into how well the best college players exercise and run around in shorts. We know the NFL Draft is upon us when Rich Eisen runs his 40-yard dash, and we can start debating whether a player has the size, quickness, speed, and strength to play in the NFL.

This is also the time of year that we start speculating about players that were good in 2022 and are on the verge of breaking out in 2023. Several good wide receivers were only WR3’s in fantasy, due to poor quarterback situations, injuries, or they did not develop into great fantasy receivers until later in the season. All of them are hoping that 2023 is their year to be among the best wide receivers in the NFL.

Here is my look at some WR3 options from the 2022 season that could be looking at breaking out as a fantasy WR1 option in 2023. They all did great things in 2022, and they could all be on the cusp of monster fantasy seasons in 2023 if their teams commit to them being the centerpiece of their passing offenses and if the teams can fix some of their issues on offense this offseason.

• NFL Free Agent & Draft Needs for Every Team
• NFL Free Agency Primers
• Introduction to Best Ball Leagues
• Erickson’s Best Ball Positional Primers

WR3s With WR1 Potential (2023 Fantasy Football)

Check out our consensus 2023 fantasy football draft rankings

1) Chris Olave (NO)

Olave just missed being a WR2 in 12-team leagues, finishing the fantasy season as the 25th-ranked fantasy wide receiver with 119 targets, 72 receptions, 1,042 yards receiving, and four receiving touchdowns. What made that accomplishment even more incredible is that Olave had Andy Dalton as his starter for the majority of the season. Dalton started 14 of the Saints’ 16 fantasy games in 2022, and Dalton was the 22nd-ranked fantasy quarterback. Olave was one spot away from being a WR2 in 2022, and he was playing with a 35-year-old QB that had not started more than 10 games in an NFL season since 2019 and had not been a Top-20 fantasy QB since 2017.

Andy Dalton Fantasy Seasons 2019-2022

I think things set up well for Olave in his second year. The Saints’ wide receiver room was crowded at the beginning of the 2022 season, but Michael Thomas played only three games before being lost for the season to injury. Thomas has started only eight games over his last three seasons, and he restructured his contract in a way that is likely going to make him a June 01 cut. Jarvis Landry was added to be a veteran contributor, but he only started three games in 2022. Landry is an unrestricted free agent, and he is probably going to look to sign a one-year deal with a Super Bowl contender. That means Olave should begin 2023 as their undisputed WR1, and if the Saints make any type of upgrade at quarterback, Olave could be poised for a breakout season that ends with him finishing as a WR1 in fantasy football.

2) Zay Jones (JAC)

I think if fantasy managers were asked to predict wide receivers they believed would finish in the top 20 in targets, Jones is not a name that would have come up in August 2022. Jones had been in the league for six years, and he was on his third team. The last time he saw 100 targets was in 2018 with the Buffalo Bills, which is also the last time he was fantasy relevant. Jones shocked the fantasy world this year, finishing with 121 targets, which was good for 18th in the league. Those 121 targets led to 82 receptions, 823 yards, and five touchdowns. He had a stretch from Week 10 to Week 15 where he averaged 17.0 fantasy points per game, and he was the sixth-ranked wide receiver in fantasy football.

One reason his average was that high was a three-touchdown game against the Dallas Cowboys. That one game accounted for 60 percent of his touchdowns on the season. However, there was a real dilemma for fantasy owners on whether they should be starting his teammate Christian Kirk or Jones at the end of the season because Kirk averaged 13.1 fantasy points per game in that same stretch of games. Jones was a journeyman wide receiver entering 2022, but he finally seemed to find a home. Trevor Lawrence is only entering his third year, and the combination of playing with a franchise quarterback on the ascent and an expanding role could lead to Jones being WR1 material in 2023.

3) JuJu Smith-Schuster (KC)

Smith-Schuster did not have the greatest start in Kansas City in 2022, he failed to tally a 100-yard game or score a touchdown in his first five games. He was averaging only 6.9 fantasy points per game, and he was the 54th-ranked fantasy wide receiver. He started to hit his stride in Week 6. He had a three-game stretch in which he averaged 18.5 fantasy points per game, and was the sixth-ranked fantasy wide receiver in the league. He looked like he was destined to have a monster year, and then he had a concussion against the Jacksonville Jaguars that caused him to miss the following week. He never really looked the same after that, other than a two-game stretch in Week 14 and Week 15. He averaged 14.9 fantasy points in those two games, before averaging just 3.8 fantasy points in the final two fantasy games of the season. It all shook out to him being the 29th-ranked fantasy wide receiver in an up-and-down 2022 fantasy season.

Smith-Schuster is a free agent this offseason, he may find a bigger contact outside of Kansas City. It is also possible the Chiefs decide to go in another direction and continue to revamp their wide receiver room. He needs to be in this offense or an offense with a franchise quarterback to have good fantasy value. If he is back with the Chiefs in 2023 and they do not make any major upgrades at wide receiver, he may be more consistent with a second year in the system. I think he is probably the biggest longshot on this list to be a WR1 in 2023. The only thing that gives him a shot at being a WR1 in fantasy is playing with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. There are a lot of things that would need to break his way to be a fantasy WR1 in 2023.

4) Christian Watson (GB)

Watson did not see a lot of targets or playing time early in the 2022 season. When he did see playing time, he made the highlight real for the wrong reasons. Watson dropped a 75-yard touchdown pass against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1 that had Packers fans and fantasy managers shaking their heads. That is what happens when a player tries to make the transition from North Dakota State to the NFL and misses most of the offseason program with nagging injuries. That drop looked like it might define his rookie year, Watson was averaging 3.6 fantasy points per game in the first nine weeks of the season, and he was the 110th-ranked fantasy wide receiver after Week 9.

He proceeded to blow up in Week 10 and finished the season averaging 15.4 fantasy points per game from Week 10 to Week 17. He was the eighth-ranked fantasy wide receiver in the NFL in those games. If Aaron Rodgers were younger and certain to come back to Green Bay, Watson would be a slam-dunk WR1 prospect in 2023. Instead, Rodgers turns 40 years old this year, is coming off a poor season by his standards, and is a candidate to be traded this offseason. That means that Watson might have to play with a first-year starter, Jordan Love, and nobody knows if Love is going to be the next star quarterback in Green Bay or a bust. He has only 83 regular season passes in three seasons, although one of them was a 63-yard TD strike to Watson against the Philadelphia Eagles last year.

Watson is 6′ 5″ and he can fly, he was clocked at 4.36 seconds in his 40-yard dash time, and he has a 38.5″ vertical. He has all the tools to be an elite wide receiver, and if the Packers are willing to trade Rodgers, they must think Love has a chance to be a good starter in 2022. Watson appears poised to be the next great Packers wide receiver, and he has an excellent chance on building on a season where he finished as the 38th-ranked wide receiver, despite having little to no production in the first half of the season.

5) Drake London (ATL)

London was stuck in an anemic offense that tallied just 415 pass attempts (31st), 2,699 passing yards (31st), and just 17 passing touchdowns (24th). This offense struggled to move the ball through the air, and London still finished the fantasy season with 109 targets, 66 receptions, 646 receiving yards, and four receiving touchdowns. He was the 39th-ranked fantasy receiver playing with Marcus Mariota and rookie Desmond Ridder at quarterback.

I am not sure if the Falcons are going to give Ridder another shot at the starting job, sign a veteran quarterback, or draft one in the first round of the NFL Draft. I think Ridder has a chance to develop into a good starting quarterback, and if he is going to develop into the player the Falcons hope he will, it is because he has good skill position talent, such as London and Kyle Pitts. I need to see more before I am sold on London becoming a WR1 in 2023, but I think he showed enough that he has to be considered as someone that could be in for a huge jump in production in 2023.

6) George Pickens (PIT)

I think what you think of Pickens is going to depend on what you think of Kenny Pickett’s rookie season. Pickett looked good at times, but he only had one 300-yard passing game, and he failed to throw multiple touchdowns in the same game. The Steelers did end the season winning six of their last seven games, but Pickett eclipsed 200 yards passing only once in those games. There was speculation that the Steelers could move on from offensive coordinator Matt Canada, but he is going to be back in 2023 as the play caller. Pickens is going to have to build on a rookie season that saw him post 49 receptions on 78 targets, 729 yards receiving, and three receiving touchdowns playing with the same offensive coordinator that did not like to stretch the field vertically in 2022.

Pickens flashed WR1 talent at times last year, but the Steelers ranked 24th in passing yards (3,411) and 32nd in passing touchdowns (12). There is no way that a wide receiver can hit WR1 numbers in an offense that throws the ball that poorly. Pickett did make strides in his rookie year, and he is going to need to make a jump in his second year to keep his job. If the Steelers make some upgrades on the offensive line and if Pickett can make the jump in his second year, Pickens is one of their most physically talented wide receivers in the NFL, and he could be the beneficiary of the increase in passing production that leads to him becoming a fantasy WR1 in his second year.

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Derek Lofland is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Derek, check out his archive and follow him @DerekLofland.