The Los Angeles Rams offense has been on absolute fire this season, though most of the fantasy football production has been isolated to Todd Gurley, Robert Woods and Jared Goff. Sammy Watkins Stans have been trying to make that happen, but his inconsistent usage doesn’t make him a weekly fantasy football proposition. This week, they go up against the Arizona Cardinals and Patrick Peterson, and must do it without Robert Woods. With Patrick Peterson putting the clamps on Sammy Watkins this week, is Cooper Kupp a useful fantasy football starter this week? Should you fire him up?
First, let’s look at the Rams passing game. No Robert Woods this week, and Patrick Peterson has already spent a game against these Rams tying up Sammy Watkins and casually tossing him aside. He’ll do that again this week. The tight ends are a hot mess this year, with Tyler “Platonic Ideal of a Non-Factor” Higbee leading the way. That leaves Cooper Kupp as the best option for Jared Goff to go to this weekend against the Cardinals.
Goff already has a good amount of rapport with Kupp, getting him at least seven targets in six of the last eight games. This includes games where Kupp had incredibly costly drops, but those drops did not deter Goff to look Kupp’s way if he was the best option for the play. This trust has given Kupp an amazingly high PPR floor, netting 20 catches and 227 yards over the last three games, for an average of 14.2 PPR fantasy points over that span.
As for the opposition, the Cardinals have a second CB problem, in that the #2 wide receiver on teams opposing them usually end up having good days while Patrick Peterson does his darnedest to take away the #1 WR on the team. This weekend Cooper Kupp will have that opportunity. And even if you don’t believe that story (you should), how’s this for a story? The Cardinals allow the eighth-most fantasy points to opposing wide receivers, including 51 yards and a score to a little guy by the name of Cooper Kupp in week seven.
Kupp will take advantage of a combination banged up and locked up receiving corps to come to the forefront this weekend. He’s already taken advantage of this matchup once this season to drop double-digit fantasy points and will bump up his base level production to a higher level. He’s a perfect WR3 or PPR flex play to light up your lineup this weekend.
