Tag: Cooper Kupp

Cooper Kupp suggested a play to Sean McVay that resulted in a 35-yard gain

Cooper Kupp saw something with the Ravens’ defense and suggested a play that resulted in a 35-yard gain to Van Jefferson

Cooper Kupp has already proved he’s one of the best players in the league, but he might also have a future as an offensive coordinator in the NFL. His football intelligence has been mentioned countless times and on Sunday against the Ravens, he showed off his mental acumen once again.

Sean McVay revealed after the Rams’ 20-19 win that Kupp suggested the play call that resulted in Matthew Stafford hitting Van Jefferson for a 35-yard gain. He recognized something with Baltimore’s defense that led him to suggest a play to McVay, and it worked to perfection.

Stafford threw a perfect pass to Jefferson deep over the middle that got the Rams to Baltimore’s 37-yard line, and though it didn’t result in points, it was the Rams’ biggest play of the day.

“He’s the one that basically called the second half on the first drive – the 35-yard gain to Van Jefferson. He recognized they were playing a certain coverage. He put that thought in my head and that was in essence his play call. And that just goes to show you, the guy’s making plays every time he gets an opportunity but he’s also making suggestions because of the way he sees coverage contours, he understands the way that the back end is distributing to get us to some of the voids and vacancies. And who else is making suggestions on a 35-yard gain that played out exactly like he articulated to me at the end of the first half.”

McVay joked that “maybe I should give him some of my salary, too,” before saying maybe not.

But this is just another example of the job Kupp has done not only as a receiver, but also in meetings and the huddle offensively. He’s as smart as they come in the NFL right now.

Cooper Kupp breaks Rams single-season record for receiving yards

Cooper Kupp is the Rams’ new record-holder for the most receiving yards in a single season, topping Isaac Bruce’s mark of 1,781 yards.

Cooper Kupp already set the Rams’ single-season receptions record last week against the Vikings, catching 132 passes in the team’s first 15 games. On Sunday against the Ravens, he set another franchise record.

With his fourth catch of the game, which went for 21 yards, Kupp broke Isaac Bruce’s mark for the most receiving yards in a single season in team history. Bruce held the previous record with 1,781 yards set in 1995, but Kupp topped that number with 1,801 yards and counting – and he did so in 16 games, proving he didn’t need the extra week to break it.

Kupp has put together one of the best seasons ever, catching 136 passes for 1,801 yards and 15 touchdowns up to this point. He’s just the fourth receiver ever with 100 catches, 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns, joining Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison and Randy Moss.

NFL Prop Bets Payday: Week 17 player prop picks and predictions

Analyzing the top NFL player prop bets odds and lines of Week 17, with picks and predictions for the most intriguing individual player performances.

With only two weeks remaining in the regular season, there are a lot of teams that have a huge stake in what happens to keep their playoff hopes alive. This week, we decided to go with five players in the middle of the postseason chase and whether their efforts will keep the dreams of getting in the playoffs and chasing down a Lombardi Trophy. Below, we look at 5 NFL player prop bets for Week 17, and make our best NFL picks, predictions and bets.

Week 17 prop bet picks and predictions

Odds provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Saturday at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady OVER 278.5 passing yards (-115)

My biggest problems with taking the Over on this is the slew of injuries on the offensive side. The Bucs may also blow out the Jets so quickly that he either gets benched in the second half or the team opts to run the ball to control the clock. I always hate going against Brady achieving something, but the Bucs are already in playoff mode and that often means throttling a team with the ground game, but Brady will likely have to be ahead by 30 before he comes out, and he can reach this number by that point.

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Kansas City Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill OVER 74.5 receiving yards (-115)

I love taking on a challenge with Hill when his Over/Under is in the 80s pushing 90. The Chiefs-Bengals game has all the earmarks of a high-scoring, back-and-forth contest with the “anything you can do, I can do better” mindset. If the game plays out like that, the Chiefs will look to Hill to make big plays. Hill seems to have his biggest game on the biggest stage against other playoff teams, and as I tend to note, it only takes one big play to eat up half the yards needed to get to the Over, and he will have at least one of those against the risk-taking Bengals defense.

Philadelphia Eagles TE Dallas Goedert UNDER 54.5 receiving yards (-110)

Goedert’s number got inflated because he had 135 receiving yards in the first meeting with Washington. But Goedert is more of a chain-mover than a deep, downfield threat and given his performance against WFT just two weeks earlier, the defense will make adjustments and take Goedert away much more than it did the first meeting. This will be a tight game and taking away Goedert will be a priority.

Dallas Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb OVER 65.5 receiving yards (-114)

The Cowboys and Cardinals are expected to get into a high-scoring battle, and Dallas won’t be likely to take their foot off the gas whether they are ahead or behind. Over the last four games, Lamb has averaged six receptions a game, and given his speed and the amount of single coverage the Cardinals defense play, one big splash play will likely be enough get the job done as he looks to keep the Cowboys in the running for the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

Los Angeles Rams WR Cooper Kupp OVER 111.5 receiving yards (-114)

There are certain players I have loved making money on this season, and Kupp is at the top of that list. What he is doing is incredible. He is averaging 116 yards a game and is within reach of hitting 2,000 yards in a season. He is within reach of Calvin Johnson’s single-season record of 1,964 receiving yards, and the Rams may look to enhance those chances by targeting him 15 or more times to give him the opportunity to put his name in the annals of the history books. That, combined with a Ravens secondary ravaged by injury, as outlandish as that number is for an Over/Under, he has topped that number in seven of his last 10 games.

Also see: All Week 17 odds and lines

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Jalen Ramsey rooting for Cooper Kupp to break receiving record this week

Jalen Ramsey hopes Cooper Kupp “goes crazy this week” and breaks every record he can this season.

Cooper Kupp broke out in a way that almost no one expected him to this season. There was a strong belief that his numbers would improve with Matthew Stafford at quarterback, but no one thought he would threaten Calvin Johnson’s single-season receiving record.

Kupp needs just 231 more yards to break the record of 1,964 yards in one season, which Johnson set back in 2012 – coincidentally with Stafford also throwing him passes. Jalen Ramsey doesn’t want Kupp to wait until the 17th game to break that mark, though. He hopes he goes off and breaks it this week, and then continues to put up huge numbers all postseason.

Because when Kupp and Stafford are connecting, the Rams offense is usually having success.

“Coop is one of the most unselfish guys, which is great for the team,” Ramsey said Thursday. “But when Coop’s ballin’, we ballin’ as a team. So selfishly, I hope Coop breaks the record this week. I hope Coop goes crazy this week, the next week, every playoff game. Just because when him and Staff do have a lot of success, we have a lot of success on the offensive side of the ball, as well. I know I’m rooting for him to break that record and honestly, as many records as he can break. That would be dope.”

Kupp has a chance to break the record this week against a depleted Ravens secondary that gave up 525 yards to Joe Burrow in Week 16, with 194 of those yards going to Tee Higgins. It’ll take a career-best performance for Kupp to top Johnson in 16 games instead of 17, but it shouldn’t be ruled out with the way he’s been playing.

At the very least, all he needs to do is maintain his average of 115.6 yards per game to break Johnson’s record by … 1 yard.

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DFS Fantasy Football: Favorite Pro Plays – Week 17

WinDailySports’ CEO Jason Mezrahi checks in with his top Week 17 DFS fantasy football for FanDuel and DraftKings

Top-ranked daily fantasy sports pro Jason Mezrahi, founder and CEO of WinDailySports.com, breaks down his favorite DFS plays at various salary ranges for Week 17 of the NFL season. We are back for another year of DFS domination and we have some new tools to take advantage of from my team over at WinDailySports.com.

Our projection model, lineup optimizer, and data tools have been revamped and back tested to start the season off right. So what I will do in this article is list some of our highest projected players based off raw points and our highest point-per-dollar plays based on DraftKings.com pricing. Special Huddle Member Discount: If you would like to give our membership at Win Daily a try, take advantage of a FREE 2-week promotion where you will gain an all access gold pass to our DFS package. Use promo code “thehuddle” at checkout for 2 weeks FREE for our DFS Gold Package. Sign up now.
These are some of the players Jason will be locking in his lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel for this weekend’s slate.

Quarterbacks

Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

$7,800 DRAFTKINGS
$8,500 FANDUEL

It took all the way to 2022 to put some respect back on his name, but the public once again believes in Mahomes and the Chiefs. Shocking to say this out loud but Patrick is still good at football. Throughout all the ups and downs of the season he has still averaged 23.1 points per game. Now he faces off against an offense that can put up a lot of points as well. I have a feeling the public will choose Burrow over Mahomes because of last week and the cheaper price tag, but I will take Mahomes all day. At this point of the season the Bengals defense has more weaknesses than the Chiefs and I will take the upside here with Mahomes. I believe we see ceiling games from everyone involved in this game, so don’t be hesitant to game stack Mahomes with some pass catchers from both sides on Sunday.

Trey Lance, San Francisco 49ers

$4,800 DRAFTKINGS
$6,400 FANDUEL

Lance is more of a DraftKings only play for me due to his value price tag when compared to FanDuel. We saw it last week with Josh Johnson that you don’t need much to hit value when you carry a $4800 price tag. In 2 starts earlier this season versus tougher opponents than what he’s facing on Sunday, he racked up 15.6 and 20.4 points which would be a great floor for Sunday. Lance provides running upside and the matchup versus Houston is a good one. Due to the fact that the 49ers are coming off a tough loss, in a must win, and their defense has been scored on, I think we see an aggressive game plan for a full 4 quarters from Lance and the coaching staff. There are some studs to pay up for this week so use Lance as your free square on DraftKings.

Running Backs

Ronald Jones, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

$6,300 DRAFTKINGS
$7,000 FANDUEL

Boy was I scared when I saw Vaughn score the first touchdown for Tampa Bay last week. But Jones followed it up with a touchdown of his own with 20 carries for 65 yards in a somewhat tough matchup against a stingy Panther defense. This week should be all systems go with Jones as he faces off against the worst run defense in the league in the New York Jets. This is a great spot for Ronald as the Jets are allowing 141 yards rushing per game and the game script should lean heavy in his favor. I expect a breakout performance in this one and I’m predicting a 100+ yard game with 2 touchdowns so play Jones in both cash games and tournaments.

Damien Harris, New England Patriots

$6,600 DRAFTKINGS
$7,400 FANDUEL

The rule to not draft New England running backs in season long and DFS was broken this year with the emergence of Harris. He won at least one person I noticed last week a million dollars with his 3 touchdown performance versus Buffalo and while I cant expect that again, I still see massive upside at his price in a matchup versus the Jaguars. The Jaguars are just bad and the Patriots really don’t need to expose Mac Jones to much passing as they can literally run for four quarters straight and win this game with ease. Harris is a touchdown machine. So I expect his floor to be around 60 yards and 1 touchdown with my goal being to double both stat categories on Sunday.

Wide receivers

Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams

$9,500 DRAFTKINGS
$10,200 FANDUEL

Cooper needs 231 yards and 18 catches to break single-season receiving records and while I don’t see it happening this week, I also wouldn’t be surprised in the very least. Kupp has been an unstoppable force this year and what he has done is truly remarkable. They say don’t look at the box scores when doing your research but I simply can’t resist. He is on auto pilot and he is the McCaffrey of recent years where matchups and price tags truly don’t matter. Take your 25-35 points and simply get different at a different spot. If you want other motivation than his track record and possible record breaking incentive you can also toss in the matchup against the worst ranked passing defense in the league. If you still want to fade him please go look at what Burrow and the Bengals did to the Ravens last week. Enough said play Cooper Kupp!

Antonio Brown, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

$6,100 DRAFTKINGS
$8,500 FANDUEL

While Cooper will be motivated by breaking records, Antonio will receive $333,000 if he eclipses each of these stat lines. He needs 11 more receptions, 281 more yards, and 2 more touchdowns to make a cool $999,000. The 11 receptions are a lock and could happen this week. The yards and touchdowns will come down to how generous his friend Tom Brady is. Brown went for 10 receptions and 101 yards in his first game back and would have gone for more but this game was over quickly as the Bucs blew out the Panthers 32-6. The Jets defense is not terrible but they will be scored on. As long as Brown is healthy (non-participant on Thursday) I like his chances for a repeat performance and some touchdowns to help him reach his bonuses.

Tight ends

Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs

$7,300 DRAFTKINGS
$8,200 FANDUEL

Kelce, as mentioned above with Mahomes, is still good at football. After a couple of rough weeks he came back with a vengeance with a 10 catch 191 yard 2 touchdown walk off performance versus the Chargers. The Bengals have real trouble defending the tight end (check Mark Andrews box score from last week) and defending the pass in general as they rank 29th in the league. One of the great parts about this matchup is that the Bengals can trade punches as their offense is also one of the best in the league. With no run game from the Chiefs and an over which keeps pushing higher (currently at 51) I want stacks in this game and I think the highest scoring pairing will be a Mahomes/Kelce stack.

Dallas Goedert, Philadelphia Eagles

$5,100 DRAFTKINGS
$5,800 FANDUEL

Goedert has quietly turned around his season with 2 great performances in his last 3 games. Goedert has become Hurts most trusted receiver alongside Smith and a matchup versus Washington should be a nice landing spot for him to post another strong game. Washington has been getting gashed through the air all season allowing the 30th most passing yards per game at 269. In a week 15 matchup versus Washington he caught 7 balls for 135 yards and I would love to lock that stat line in again this Sunday.

Good luck in Week 17, and if you ever have any questions, please hit me up on Twitter!

Jason Mezrahi has been a professional, top-ranked Daily Fantasy Player on FanDuel and DraftKings for more than eight years. He has won FanDuel’s $155,555 King of the Diamond competition and placed second in DraftKings’ Fantasy Basketball World Championship, earning him $300,000. He owns and operates WinDailySports.com, which supports the DFS and Sports Betting community with resources such as tools, projection models, expert chat, in-depth written analysis and podcasts, plus much more.

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Cooper Kupp now has better odds to win MVP than Matthew Stafford

Cooper Kupp has pulled ahead of Matthew Stafford in the MVP race, but they’re both still long shots with 2 weeks left

No two players in the NFL have had a stronger connection on the field this season than Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp. The two have been outstanding for the Rams in their first year together, putting up huge numbers through 15 games.

Kupp leads the NFL with 132 catches, 1,734 yards and 14 touchdowns, while Stafford is among the league leaders with 36 touchdown passes, 4,339 yards and an average of 8.4 yards per attempt.

Both players are in the race to win league MVP, but for the first time all year, Kupp has better odds than his quarterback. According to Tipico Sportsbook, Kupp is +2000 to win the award, while Stafford is +5000. Kupp has the seventh-best odds and Stafford is ninth.

Aaron Rodgers is currently the runaway favorite at -180, with Tom Brady being a distant second at +600. Kupp and Stafford have very little chance to win MVP as the season winds down, but just having two players in the top 10 is quite impressive.

Kupp and Jonathan Taylor will battle it out for Offensive Player of the Year, being the top two non-quarterbacks in the NFL this season. Taylor probably has a slight edge in that race, given his MVP odds of +600, but if Kupp breaks Calvin Johnson’s receiving record and wins the triple crown by leading the NFL in receptions, yards and touchdown catches, he’ll have a strong case.

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Targets, Touches and TDs: Week 17

Reflecting on 2021 fantasy breakouts, disappointments and more.

As we enter championship weekend in the majority of leagues, it’s time to take look back and analyze the fantasy year that was.

It was a season that saw Derrick Henry start strong — and division-rival Jonathan Taylor finish strong — as they ruled the running back ranks.

It was a season with an intriguing mix of fresh — and very familiar — faces populating the top 10 of fantasy quarterback rankings.

And it was a season where Cooper Kupp dominated the fantasy wide receiver field in record-setting fashion en route to the probable first wide receiver Triple Crown campaign (league leader in receptions, yards and receiving touchdowns) since Steve Smith in 2005.

On the flip side, we had the usual allotment of brutal injuries, fantasy duds, and disappointments — not to mention an untimely rash of late-season COVID cases — which has derailed an untold number of well-laid draft plans and league championship runs.

It’s impossible to encapsulate all that went into fantasy 2021 — with a championship-round chapter yet to come — but we are looking at each of the four main fantasy positions this week and selecting a positional MVP, a surprise, and a disappointment for the season to date. All statistics and positional rankings are complete through play in Week 16.

Here we go, kicking things off as usual with our selections at …

Quarterback

Positional MVP: Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Brady likely won’t end up as the year’s highest-scoring fantasy QB, and his rushing numbers (28 carries-81 yards-2 touchdowns) are woefully behind the times in this era of highly coveted, dual-threat QBs who routinely tack on an extra 8-to-10 fantasy points to their weekly scores via their legs.

But Brady was pacing the league with 4,580 passing yards and 37 TD passes through Week 16 and ranked third with 397.10 fantasy points and an average of 26.5 points per game (Huddle Performance scoring) — all while leading the defending champion Bucs to an 11-4 record and their first NFC South title since 2007.

Oh, and you might have heard that Brady is doing so at the age of 44 — older than more than a third (12) of the league’s 32 head coaches.

Surprise standout: Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals

This second-year QB had his rookie year cut short (10 games total) by a devastating multi-ligament knee injury and was the 13th quarterback selected, on average, in fantasy drafts this past summer.

But on the wings of his semifinal-deciding 43.35-point outing Sunday in which he shredded the Baltimore Ravens for a franchise single-game-record 525 yards and four TD tosses, he ranks sixth at the position with 351.05 total fantasy points and 4,165 yards.

Burrow also is tied for seventh with 30 passing scores — while adding two more on the ground — and has teamed with three top-30 fantasy wide receivers to form one of the league’s most formidable aerial attacks.

Disappointment: The 2021 rookie class

Five quarterbacks were selected in the upper half of the first round of the NFL draft last spring, and over the summer, three of those QBs (No. 15 Trevor Lawrence, No. 18 Justin Fields and No. 19 Trey Lance) were selected among the top 20, on average, in fantasy drafts.

But the New England Patriots’ Mac Jones (20th with 248.95 points) is the only rookie QB currently in the top 20 in total fantasy points, but even he ranks 30th with an average of 16.6 fantasy points per game among QBs who have played in at least five contests.

Lawrence, meanwhile, is 22nd at the position with 239.35 total fantasy points and is followed by fellow rookies Fields (29th with 175.5 points), Zach Wilson (30th with 168.75) and Davis Mills (31st with 160.8).

Lance has totaled 49.4 points in five games — with 38.45 coming in back-to-back contests in Weeks 4 and 5 filling in for the injured Jimmy Garoppolo. He’s only played five offensive snaps and hasn’t attempted a pass since then, though.

Altogether the five first-round rookie QBs and the third-rounder Mills, who’s started nine games for the Houston Texans) have combined to throw 53 TD passes and 61 interceptions while adding nine more combined TDs on the ground.

Rookie numbers to be sure, but certainly not usable outside of two-quarterback leagues.

Running back

Positional MVP: Jonathan Taylor, Indianapolis Colts

The second-year Indy back enters Week 17 having scored 47.5 more PPR points than the next best fantasy running back (Austin Ekeler).

Only Henry, who played in eight games prior to a foot fracture, is averaging more fantasy points per contest (23.4) than Taylor’s 23.1.

Taylor, though, leads the league with 1,626 rushing yards, 1,962 yards from scrimmage and 19 total touchdowns. He enters fantasy championship weekend riding a streak of 12 straight games with at least 108 total yards or a touchdown, putting up at least 19.7 fantasy points in 11 of those 12 contests.

And to think there were still lingering doubts about Taylor entering Week 4 as he totaled only 32.1 fantasy points without a TD in his first three 2021 outings.

Fast forward three months, though, and the 22-year-old Taylor has established himself as the near-consensus No. 1 fantasy pick entering 2022.

Surprise standout: Cordarrelle Patterson, Atlanta Falcons

The list of 2021’s 10 highest-scoring fantasy running backs is comprised mainly of usual suspects and repeat performers, but the RB at No. 8 stands out from the rest.

It’s Patterson, the 30-year-old journeyman who’s been fantasy’s surprise breakout star playing on his fifth team in nine seasons.

His most recent two games (4.3 and 8.3 PPR points) have been two of his three worst of the season, but he has totaled 225.2 fantasy points on the year — an average of 16.1 per outing.

Entering 2021, Patterson hadn’t logged more than 85 touches or 149.7 fantasy points in any of his first eight seasons, but he’s handled a team-high 189 for the Falcons, including 49 receptions for 523 yards (second among RBs) and five TDs as he’s put his WR skills to good use in the backfield on a team that desperately needs offensive playmakers.

As a rusher, he’s shattered his previous career highs with 140 carries for 579 yards and six total TDs, making him the waiver-wire find of the fantasy season.

Disappointment: Christian McCaffrey, Carolina Panthers

For the second straight season, Run CMC was the consensus No. 1 overall fantasy pick, and for the second consecutive year, he’s played less than half a season in a campaign wrecked by injuries.

After playing in only three contests a season ago, hamstring and ankle injuries limited McCaffrey to seven games this year before he finally landing on the injured reserve list after Week 12.

When he did play, McCaffrey flashed his elite RB1 skill set, catching 37 total passes and scoring 24.7 or more fantasy points in four of seven games. He averaged 18.2 PPR points per contest, ranking seventh at the position.

But 23 missed games over the last two seasons, unfortunately, will be the most notable number attached to McCaffrey entering drafts next offseason, and it will be interesting to see if he remains a sure-fire first-round fantasy pick.

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Wide receiver

Positional MVP: (Who else but) Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams

With 132 receptions for 1,734 yards and 14 TDs on 177 targets, Kupp not only is in line for the rare WR Triple Crown, but with 389.4 PPR points to date, he’s only 24.7 points away from eclipsing Jerry Rice’s single-season WR fantasy record of 414, set in 1995.

Kupp has had at least seven receptions, 92 receiving yards and 16.2 fantasy points in 14 of 15 games, including a current run of 11 straight.

It’s left the fantasy competition in the dust.

Green Bay Packers standout Davante Adams has the second-most WR fantasy points with 302.2, but that trails Kupp by a whopping 87.2 points — basically equal to the point gap between the No. 12 fantasy wideout (Mike Evans) and the No. 46 wideout (Marquez Callaway).

Not bad for a wide receiver with a preseason ADP of 53.65 — 20th at the position.

Kupp is your overall 2021 fantasy MVP.

Surprise standout: Deebo Samuel, San Francisco 49ers

Drafted four or so rounds later than Kupp, on average, was Samuel, who was coming off an injury-addled 2020 sophomore season in which he totaled only 80.7 fantasy points in seven games.

Samuel sped past that total in Week 4 this season and hasn’t slowed down since, totaling 296.8 points so far to trail only Kupp, Adams and the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson (297.1).

Samuel has reached elite WR1 territory in unconventional fashion as he ranks 20th in receptions (70) among wide receivers, but has rushed the ball a position-high 44 times for 301 yards and seven TDs — adding to his 1,247 yards and five scores as a pass-catcher.

Disappointment: Allen Robinson, Chicago Bears

Robinson had a fourth-round ADP, 12th among wideouts, this summer as fantasy GMs expected 2020’s ninth-ranked wide receiver to pick up right where he left off.

Instead, Robinson is wrapping up the worst season of his career with all of 32 receptions for 353 yards and one TD on 56 targets, ranking 90th among wide receivers with 73.3 fantasy points.

So what’s happened?

Injuries/COVID-19 have cost Robinson five full games, and inefficiency has dogged him in the 10 contests he has played in in the Bears’ low-volume passing attack. His catch rate has fallen off more than 10 percentage points (57.1 from 67.5) from last season, and his yards per target average has sunk from 8.3 to 6.3.

He’s also been stuck on one TD grab since Week 2, and the majority of fantasy teams who spent a top four-round pick on Robinson have long since cut bait and moved on.

Tight end

Positional MVP: Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens

Andrews has put together one of the most impressive tight end fantasy stretch runs in recent memory with 29 receptions for 376 yards, four TDs and 80.6 fantasy points on 34 targets over the last three weeks, propelling a good number of his fantasy teams into the championship round.

He’s also done it largely with backup QBs Tyler Huntley and Josh Johnson at the helm in place of the injured Lamar Jackson.

Andrews’ late-season surge has also boosted him to the top of the season-long fantasy tight end ranks with 265.7 total points — 27.7 more than second-place Travis Kelce.

Andrews, of course, leads the Ravens with 93 receptions for 1,187 yards and nine TDs — all career and 2021 tight end highs — and he’s opened up a serious debate on who should be the top tight end selected in fantasy drafts this coming offseason.

Surprise standouts: Dawson Knox, Buffalo Bills and Dalton Schultz, Dallas Cowboys

Knox is tied with Andrews and the New England Patriots’ Hunter Henry for the positional lead with nine TD grabs — the main reason why the third-year Buffalo player ranks seventh among tight ends with 153.8 total fantasy points.

Knox entered 2021 with 52 career receptions for 676 yards and five TDs in 27 games over two seasons, but has 46 catches for 538 yards and the nine scores in 13 contests this season as the Bills’ surprising second-leading pass-catcher.

Schultz also has surprised as the Cowboys’ second-leading receiver with 69 receptions for 733 yards and six TDs on 91 targets. That’s good for 178.3 fantasy points, ranking only behind Andrews, Kelce (238 points) and San Francisco 49ers stud George Kittle (189.5).

That latter threesome all own top-five fantasy tight end ADPs while Shultz and Knox checked in at 35 and 28, respectively.

Disappointment: Darren Waller, Las Vegas Raiders

Waller, who had the second-highest tight end ADP this offseason, does rank fifth at the position with an average of 12.9 fantasy points per game, but he’s missed five contests, including the last four as he recovers from a Thanksgiving Day knee injury that originally wasn’t believed to be overly serious.

Perhaps it was just that Waller set the bar too high out of the gate with 26.5 fantasy points on 19 targets in Week 1. He’s topped 15 fantasy points only three times since then, though, and ranks 15th overall at the position with 129.3 total points on the season with still no indication if he’ll be available to tack on any more in the Raiders’ final two games.

Waller hasn’t been a fantasy disaster of the aforementioned Allen Robinson variety, but it’s certainly not the season fantasy GMs envisioned when they used a late second- or early third-round pick on the Vegas tight end.

Chasing Calvin: Cooper Kupp on track to break receiving record by 1 yard

With two games left, where does Cooper Kupp stand in his pursuit of Calvin Johnson’s single-season receiving record?

Cooper Kupp has broken record after record this season, becoming the first player to record 14 games of 90-plus yards in a season and setting the Rams’ record for the most receptions. But he’s still in pursuit of one mark that no one has touched since it was set in 2012.

Of course, it’s Calvin Johnson’s single-season receiving record. He put up 1,964 yards in 2012 with the Lions, catching passes from Kupp’s current quarterback, Matthew Stafford. Julio Jones came close to breaking it in 2015 when he had 1,871 yards, but Kupp is trying to become the one who tops Megatron.

He has an extra game to do so thanks to the NFL expanding the season to 17 games, but that doesn’t diminish the season he’s had. And the way he’s playing right now, it’s possible he’ll break it in 16 games.

Cooper Kupp calls it ’embarrassing’ to watch film from his rookie year

Cooper Kupp explains what’s gone into his improvement every year after being embarrassed by the film he put together as a rookie in 2017

Cooper Kupp is having a historic campaign in 2021 that has him on the path of potentially breaking Calvin Johnson’s single-season receiving yards record. The standout wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams has 1,734 yards with two weeks remaining (putting him 233 yards behind Johnson’s record) and he’s only 18 receptions away from surpassing Michael Thomas for the most receptions in a season in NFL history.

Kupp has been special this year, with media pundits and fans now labeling him as one of the best wideouts that the game has to offer. While Kupp will certainly receive his first All-Pro nod this offseason, the former third-round pick told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer that he is embarrassed to watch his film from when he was a rookie, pinpointing that as a reason why he’s worked relentlessly to improve his game.

“I’m not sure I can put my finger on one specific thing,” he told Breer after Sunday’s win. “I look back at my rookie year, and it’s embarrassing watching the tape of what my rookie year was. And I’d like to think that at the end of every year, as I watched the full season and tried to reflect on what the year was, what kind of things I saw from myself, I’d just try to just improve the things that [were] most important to improve. And I just take that mentality year after year, try to get better and better and better. Never get comfortable being at whatever I’m at. Never believing that I’ve arrived. So I have taken that mentality, but I don’t know if I can put my finger on one specific thing that’s changed as much. I’ve been hanging out with some really good football players and having a few more opportunities to have the ball in my hands, and I think it really just comes down to those things.”

When Kupp was a rookie in 2017 — Sean McVay’s first year at the helm — he was decently productive with 62 receptions, 869 yards, and five touchdowns. But before this season, Kupp wasn’t looked at as the so-called ‘Alpha’ on the Rams with Robert Woods on the other side of the field.

That has changed this season as defenses are now well aware of where No. 10 is on the field at all times. Despite the attention he receives, Kupp continues to make play after play, becoming Matthew Stafford’s go-to weapon in an offense that now features Odell Beckham Jr. and Van Jefferson.

Even before Woods went down with an unfortunate season-ending injury, Kupp was putting up gaudy numbers for the Rams. And as Kupp’s historic season nears a conclusion, it’s impressive to see how much he’s improved in each facet of his game since 2017.

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Cooper Kupp became the first player in NFL history to accomplish this feat

Cooper Kupp set an NFL record with his 14th game of 90-plus yards, becoming the first player ever to do it.

Cooper Kupp has put together a historic season with the Rams this year, setting all kinds of franchise and NFL records. He’s been a model of consistency, stepping up for Los Angeles all season long.

He continued to rack up the receptions and yards on Sunday against the Vikings, helping lead the Rams to a 30-23 win. Kupp caught 10 passes for 109 yards on 13 targets, pushing closer to Calvin Johnson’s single-season receiving record that was set in 2012.

Kupp set a record of his own by topping 90 yards once again, the 14th time he’s done it this year. Kupp broke a tie with Antonio Brown and Michael Irvin for the most 90-yard games in a season, hitting that number 14 times in 15 games.

He’s only had one game where he didn’t go for at least 90 yards receiving and now has four straight 100-yard games. He’s topped 90 yards in 11 straight games, as well, with his only subpar performance coming in Week 4 against the Cardinals when he had five catches for 64 yards.

Kupp now has 1,734 yards on the year, which leads the NFL and is only 230 yards shy of tying Johnson’s single-season record.

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