Fantasy Football Week 5 Wide Receiver Preview: If Cooper Kupp is active, start him and Puka Nacua

Cooper Kupp returned to observe this week, and is pushing to play in Week 5 towards the Philadelphia Eagles. If he does, I am beginning each Kupp and his teammate Puka Nacua. They each possess WR1 upside, and I am not leaving that on the bench. What’s extra attention-grabbing is what occurs remainder of season with the Rams duo.

There are a minimal of 3 ways I may see this taking part in out. Kupp may return and declare his 32% goal share, leaving everybody else to combat for the scraps. Or, Nacua might be a legitimately nice vast receiver who impacts Kupp’s goal share. And we’ve got to at the very least acknowledge the chance that Kupp is re-injured or by no means totally regains kind. Three is the best to diagnose, Nacua would stay a top-12 vast receiver for the foreseeable future. The opposite two are extra difficult.

• Week 5 Previews: RB | QB | TE

Within the state of affairs the place Kupp comes again as himself and dominates targets, he is again within the WR1 dialog, Stafford might be a low-end QB1, and Nacua is far more unstable. About 61% of the Rams targets have gone to vast receivers this yr, solely a slight downtick from final yr’s 64% mark. On this state of affairs there could be 29-32% left for Nacua to share with Tutu Atwell, Van Jefferson, and Ben Skowronek. That doubtless units a tough cap round 20% for Nacua, with a projected flooring round 15%. That is seven to eight targets every week, which most likely makes him a boom-bust WR3 on a weekly foundation.

What appears barely extra doubtless is that Kupp by no means will get again to 32% after what Nacua has proven. Kupp settling in round 25-27% may depart room for him to be a top-five Fantasy vast receiver whereas Nacua sticks within the prime 20 as nicely. We have seen that earlier than beneath Sean McVay, early in his time there with Kupp and Robert Woods. 

Whereas there are plenty of potential outcomes for Nacua, there are most likely solely two for Tutu Atwell. If Kupp and Nacua are each wholesome, it is laborious to see how Atwell will probably be something greater than a flex at greatest. 

Right here is the remainder of the Week 5 WR Preview:

Week 5 WR Preview

The next gamers aren’t being projected to play Week 5 right now. This is what it means:

• 38.2% — Regardless of leaving Week 5 for some time with a shoulder harm, Davante Adams nonetheless leads the NFL with a 38.2% goal share. He additionally leads the NFL with a 52.7% air yards share.
• 6 — Nico Collins leads all vast receivers with six damaged tackles. He is doing the whole lot nicely proper now.
• 1.3 — Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s 1.3 ADOT ranks lifeless final amongst vast receivers.
• 18 — Amari Cooper solely has 18 yards of YAC on the season, at the very least partially due to his huge 16.6 ADOT.
• 4.71 — Brandon Aiyuk leads the league with a monstrous 4.71 yards per route run. No different participant is above 4.
• 33.9% — Rashee Rice has been focused on 33.9% of the routes he is run. He;’s simply probably the most promising Chiefs vast receiver proper now.
• 24.5% — Christian Kirk leads the Jaguars with a 24.5% goal share on the season. Calvin Ridley ranks third, additionally behind Evan Engram.
• 26.8% — Wan’Dale Robinson leads the Giants with a 26.8% TPRR. His 1.49 YPRR can be the perfect on the crew, minimal 10 targets. If you wish to wager on one Giants vast receiver, he is the man to wager on.

My full set of Week 5 Fantasy football projections for each place are actually out there on SportsLine. Discover out which of my favourite performs are projected to attain increased than consensus rankings and which do not dwell as much as their draft hype, at the very least in Week 5. Projected stats for all beginning vast receivers can be found, so remember to try the total set of projections at SportsLine.