CAPTAIN KIRK
Cardinals receiver likely to get post-Hopkins bump
DeANDRE Hopkins wasn’t the fantasy force we expected him to be this season, but he was still solid when he played — having averaged 14.7 PPR points per game. That put him just outside the top 20 wide receivers — good for a back-end WR2 or strong Flex option.
He is now out for the rest of the regular season with a knee injury. There is never a good time to lose a fantasy starter, but right before the playoffs start certainly ranks among the worst times.
Hopkins missed three games earlier this year, so hopefully anyone who had him on their roster figured out a solution during that span. But if not, or if you pieced it together week-by-week, or if you had to bail on the temporary fill-in to address another roster spot since his return, well, now you’re looking again.
Of the waiver options that were most widely available this week, our favorite was a fellow Cardinals — Christian Kirk. He actually leads the team in receptions — in large part because Hopkins missed time. Kirk’s 53 catches are two more than Rondale Moore.
Nevertheless, 22 or Moore’s have come in three games — the first two of the year and one 11-catch game in Week 11. In his other 10 games, he has averaged 2.9 receptions per game. Plus, Moore has just one touchdown and his yards per catch is pathetic — just 8.4, on par with a running back.
That type of minimal yardage and low TD yield don’t foretell a huge bump in use.
Perhaps they go to A.J. Green? Certainly, we expect Green to absorb a big chunk of red-zone targets — particularly corner, jump-ball routes. But Green isn’t as explosive as he once was, and his background of brittleness is worrisome.
Running back Chase Edmonds is expected back, but he will eat into James Conner’s work and perhaps infringe on Moore’s touches near the line of scrimmage, rather than inherit Hopkins targets.
That leaves us with Kirk. His yards per catch (13.5) is on par with Hopkins’ (13.6). He has six career TDs of 30 yards or more. He also had six from inside the 10-yard line, so he doesn’t disappear near the goal line.
Now, Kirk isn’t going to assume an automatic spot in our starting lineup. We’re not going to play him ahead of, say, Michael Pittman Jr., Hunter Renfrow, Tee Higgins, Brandon Aiyuk or the like. But if our next-best option is, for example, Darnell Mooney, Michael Gallup, Jerry Jeudy, even Julio Jones, then we’ll take our chances with Kirk.
But wait. Did you think Kirk is the only one we think will see a bump? Nope, there is one other whose prospects we think will improve, though not as much as Kirk’s.
Tight end Zach Ertz could get some extra looks. Since his Week 7 debut in Arizona, he has averaged 5.4 targets per game, and that should tick up now.
So crank up some Kirk if you need, and go boldly where no one thought you would need to go before.