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Joseph Hutchins | Archive | Email |
Staff Writer


The Shot Caller's Report - Wide Receivers
Your Guide To Fantasy Lineups: Week 11
11/16/17
QBs | RBs | WRs

Bye Weeks: Carolina, Indianapolis, N.Y. Jets, San Francisco

Brandin Cooks

The Raiders have given up two 100-yard games to WRs this season - Mike Wallace and TyFreak Hill.


Grab a Helmet

Brandin Cooks v. OAK (in Mexico City): New England is desperately short of WRs, as mentioned over in the running backs section, but they still have the most explosive of the bunch healthy and active in Mr. Cooks. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Coach B and Josh McDaniel, it’s that they’re fully content to take what opponents give them on a weekly basis. Here’s what Oakland gives opponents: non-stop completions and no threat of passing game takeaways. The Raiders are allowing opposing passers to complete over 70% of passes and, astonishingly, have ZERO interceptions through 10 weeks. ZERO! If that doesn’t sound like a setup for Tom Terrific and the lightning-quick Cooks to make some sweet música in Mexico City, I don’t know what does. Brady hurt Denver with a steady diet of TE/RB targets but still threw it Cooks’ way 11 times. Expect more than that Sunday.

Tyreek Hill @ NYG: The Giants reportedly held a clear-the-air film session this week wherein embattled coach Ben McAdoo laid bare a disturbing lack of effort by his charges. The most notable offender/defender appears to have been Janoris Jenkins, New York’s gifted but controversial corner who was suspended for violating team rules the week prior. That spells trouble with KC coming to town, especially if Coach Mac and Co. deem Jenkins’ pathetic Week 10 effort demotion-worthy (and they should). With Jenkins standing on the sidelines or in street clothes, New York’s defense will be ill equipped to handle the league’s most dangerous vertical threat, Mr. Hill. Moreover, there’s no telling how the rest of the seemingly checked-out G-Men will respond to their coach’s risky gambit. Another embarrassing afternoon could very well be in the offing so get Hill in your lineups. He likely blows the top off a no-longer-fearsome Giants secondary.

Larry Fitzgerald @ HOU: Bruce Arians says he’s never felt more confident in a third-string quarterback than he does in Blaine Gabbert against the Texans this Sunday. His reasoning? Gabbert is a talented winger who’s had the simple misfortune of playing for “really sh*tty teams.” Ha! Gotta love Bruce Arians, even if this little bit of coachspeak doesn’t pass the smell test. Gabbert isn’t a good quarterback and the Cardinals are, arguably, just as “sh*tty” as those teams he used to play for. Nevertheless, he’s got one of the game’s best battery mates lining up with him and the Texans are having boatloads of trouble defending WRs of late. In fact, nobody’s been worse the past five weeks against the position (33.3 pts/game). I wouldn’t trust Gabbert himself and I don’t have enough faith in the other Cardinals receivers, but I think Fitz is a safe enough play this weekend.

Grab Some Wood

DeAndre Hopkins v. ARZ:
Those who were worried about Hopkins’ value in the wake of Deshaun Watson’s season-ending ACL tear needn’t have been so concerned, it turns out. The league’s most valuable fantasy receiver has actually received 50% more targets with Tom Savage at the helm (Weeks 1, 9, and 10), and even if his per-target production is down in those games, the added volume keeps him very much in the WR1 conversation. Here’s what takes him out of that conversation this week: Patrick Peterson. Arizona’s lockdown stud has been murder on WR1s this season (Hilton, Bryant, Jeffery, Watkins) and that’s because he shadows elite opponents more than any cornerback in the game. With Will Fuller slated to miss this matchup and Hopkins the only reliable target left for Savage, the numbers for Houston’s main man could be depressing. You probably won’t sit him, but beware he could really disappoint.

Corey Coleman v. JAX: Ironically enough, Arizona’s secondary allows all kinds of points to opposing WRs (24.0 per game), despite Peterson’s shadow game heroics. That’s more than double what Jacksonville’s league-leading bunch – comprising Jalen Ramsey, A.J. Bouye, Tayshaun Gipson, and Barry Church – is allowing down in Florida (11.8 per game). The Jags have faced many big-name receivers this year (Hopkins, Brown, Watkins, Hilton, Green, and Allen), but have still only allowed a SINGLE touchdown to the position in 10 weeks of football. The guy who scored it is the guy we just talked about and he did it way back in Week 1. Impressive, huh? That certainly doesn’t bode well for Cleveland’s No.1 wideout, especially as he’s returning from a prolonged absence (broken hand). You’ve waited weeks for Coleman to return to action, so you should be willing to wait one week more, right? He’s must-sit material this coming Sunday.

Sammy Watkins @ MIN: I’ve referred to Watkins twice now as a WR1, but he only loosely fits that description. Despite being the ostensible star of the league’s second most productive receiving corps (27.0 points/game), the former Bill has only scored the most WR points for the Rams a single time this year, back in the Week 3 shootout against San Francisco. That probably stands to reason when you consider he isn’t even close to being the most targeted Rams receiver. Robert Woods leads the group with 59 targets and Cooper Kupp is next with 54. Watkins is a distant third with a mere 34. For perspective, Keelan Cole has also been targeted 34 times in 2017 and I didn’t even know who Keelan Cole played for until I looked that up. Watkins has great natural ability, but until we see it translated into great fantasy stats, he’s mostly ignorable.

Good luck, folks, and have a great weekend!

Quarterbacks | Running Backs | Wide Receivers