Los Angeles Rams WR Cooper Kupp was on pace to set a career high in receptions through his first eight games of last season. Will Kupp produce one more WR1 overall fantasy season at the age of 30? Let’s take a closer look.
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Cooper Kupp’s Fantasy Outlook for the 2023 NFL Season
Kupp was the WR1 overall off the board in many fantasy drafts last year after leading the league in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving TDs in 2022.
To be fair, Kupp didn’t disappoint fantasy managers who selected him in the first round to start the season.
Through his first eight games, Kupp averaged over 26 fantasy points per game in PPR formats. Stafford absolutely peppered Kupp with targets during that span, targeting Kupp 93 times through the first eight games.
Unfortunately, Kupp was one of the few bright spots on a Rams offense that really struggled in 2022.
When he suffered a high ankle sprain against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 10, the team decided to shut him down for the season, which left a gaping hole in fantasy rosters heading into the fantasy playoffs.
While it is unfortunate Kupp didn’t complete his 2022 season, he showed absolutely no signs of slowing down when he was on the field.
His average of nine receptions on 11 targets for 101 yards on a per-game basis — which would’ve equaled 153 receptions for 1,727 yards over an entire 17-game season — proved Kupp was still a fantasy force when on the football field.
Unfortunately, the injury bug bit Kupp early in training camp in the form of a tweaked hamstring, which doesn’t exactly put anyone’s mind at ease when investing their first-round pick in a player…
Cooper Kupp walked off the field with trainers midway through practice. Sean McVay said Kupp pulled up during a red zone play. This could be the play here. pic.twitter.com/tfEWhAdMUG
— Eric Williams (@eric_d_williams)
Luckily, it looks like Kupp will return to practice well in advance of the team’s season opener and should be good to go for Week 1 if no setbacks occur.
Is Kupp a Good Fantasy Pick?
When looking ahead to 2023, the real question becomes has anything drastically changed on the Rams’ roster that should drastically impact the fantasy value of Kupp?
The stable of veteran WRs behind Kupp include Van Jefferson, Tutu Atwell, Ben Skowronek, Puka Nacua, Demarcus Robinson, and Lance McCutcheon. With all due respect to the rest of the Rams WRs, none of them are a threat to steal a significant amount of looks away from Kupp this season.
Whether you believe the Rams will be a good football team or not in 2023, we should all objectively be able to admit that Kupp is going to be the engine for this Rams offense.
The injury concerns for an aging WR are valid, which means I wouldn’t blame any manager one bit if they decide to go in a different direction with their first-round pick this fantasy season.
However, Kupp has such a high fantasy floor with QB Matthew Stafford under center — which spans over a season and a half — it would be easy to make a case for him being the WR1 overall off the board.
MORE: Fantasy Football Draft Strategy
Is 200 targets this season within the range of outcomes? Yes.
Since he is one of the very few WRs you can reasonably say that for, he is worth a selection in the first round of your fantasy draft.
- PFN Consensus Rankings: 13th overall
- ADP: seventh overall
