Fantasy Stock Report, Week 5: Which NFL Stars Are Rising?
Stock Up
Cooper Kupp: What a return for Cooper Kupp on Sunday against the Eagles. I was skeptical of his return from hamstring injury as we were getting reports of him possibly suffering from a nerve issue. He jumped right back into action with eight catches for 118 yards on 12 targets.
His chemistry with Stafford hasn’t been lost at all and I’m extremely encouraged at how explosive and precise his routes were right out of the gate. Depending on when you drafted, you could’ve drafted Kupp 4th overall all the way down to the 4th round. If you bit the bullet and drafted him after the injury news you have to be ecstatic right now. If you took him in the first it looks like you won’t be totally dead in the water from here on out as long as your playoff hopes aren’t already tanked. Look for Kupp to produce like his old self barring another injury.
DJ Moore: Some narrative pushing here since I wrote up DJ Moore over 800.5 yards in my season-long prop bet article but well deserved for Moore. He absolutely destroyed the Commanders on Thursday night for 230 yards on eight catches and three touchdowns which gives him back-to-back 100-yard games and three total on the year. He’s already at 531 yards and the Bears are clearly funneling their passing game through him. Moore is the WR3(.5 ppr) on the season already and with a terrible defense, the Bears should find themselves in positive game scripts for passing. He is proving to be an absolute home run in the 4th round.
Sam LaPorta: If you had told me that Sam LaPorta would be THE TE1 after five weeks I would’ve assumed that you were watching football on interdimensional cable with Rick and Morty yet here we are. He has looked absolutely phenomenal to start the year. It has been a down fantasy year for tight ends to start but LaPorta was a 15th-round pick! I ultimately think someone tops him for the top tight end spot but at this rate I wouldn’t be surprised if he held on. He’s getting solid volume and plays on a good Lions offense. It’s insane to see a rookie tight end produce so well and so quickly that you can’t deny that he’s here to stay. LaPorta very well could be the value pick in the draft who finds himself on a ton of championship teams.
Stock Down
Rhamondre Stevenson: I was really high on Rhamondre coming into the season. He’s a good runner, gets volume, and catches passes. Even though the Patriots signed Ezekiel Elliot it was late into training camp and it seemed like he would be used situationally. I thought the Patriots would at least be a solid team who were in games by running the ball and playing good defense. Bill Belichick just suffered his worst two losses of his career in back-to-back weeks which has people thinking he may have his sights set on Caleb Williams. How could you blame him after watching Mac Jones? I wanted to write up Mac here because he’s been truly awful but the likelihood of people putting large amounts of fantasy stock in him is about as likely as R. Jay Soward suiting up for the Jags again. Poor Rhamondre. He’s victim to one of the worst offenses in the league without much hope moving forward. Stevenson will still pop a few games off but he’s not going to provide the season-long return of a late 2nd, early 3rd round pick.
Daniel Jones: After a Blake Bortles-esque 2022 season the Giants handed the bag to Jones. Whoops. Now, I’m not convinced the majority of people out there agree with the decision or think Jones is actually a good quarterback, but he carried a lot of offseason hype in fantasy. Drafted around the 7th round and QB10, many believed his second year under Brian Daboll, the team adding Darren Waller in free agency, and his rushing upside would propel him to the next level for fantasy. It hasn’t. He stinks. Plain and simple. In week two vs. the Cardinals he had a terrible first half but somehow rallied the troops for a victory. He hit 30 fantasy points! It stops there though because he has yet to hit double-digit points in any other game. Help isn’t walking through that door.
Miles Sanders: Miles Sanders signed a four-year deal with the Panthers to help aid their rebuild with Bryce Young and things have not gone as planned. Like Daniel Jones, Sanders has reached double-digit fantasy points only once. If you take away week one, his highest scrimmage yardage output is 62. He’s hardly averaging 3.0 yards per carry on the season and has only found the end zone once. Bryce Young doesn’t look promising leading this offense and Sanders is losing snaps to Chuba Hubbard the last few weeks. Things don’t look good for a guy drafted at the 4th/5th round turn.
