A Tempest In A Tea Kupp – Fantasy Games Won (FGW) Week 10 Update

What is FGW? Go back to the shadows, I mean Go Back To Week 1.

Let’s freak out for a second.

What if Cooper Kupp is done for the season? With the way that the injuries have gone with fellow (albeit older) receivers Keenan Allen and Michael Thomas, it’s not too hard to imagine a scenario where Kupp’s usefulness for 2022 has come to an end.

Kupp’s FGW for 2022 currently sits at 1.0. If he misses the rest of the fantasy regular season he’ll be at around 0.85, if you assume a -0.03 “replacement” factor.

Last year, an FGW of 0.85 would have landed Kupp in a tie with Joe Mixon for 11th overall after 15 weeks:

If the Tea Kupp has, in fact, been tipped over and poured out, those that drafted Kupp had a “decent” first round pick, rather than a “good” or “bad” one. After all, only 5 of the players on the above list were 1st rounders last year (Taylor, Ekeler, Henry, Adams, and Mixon). Only 5 first rounders are in the top 12 so far this year (Ekeler, Jefferson, Henry, Kupp, and McCaffrey), though it’s a much more balance top 12 this annum.

Kupp owners are likely averaging a record of 6-4 right now and are looking at a record of 8.35-6.65 at season’s end. So you don’t need to panic completely.

If you also lost Ertz or Goedert on top of that, though, maybe upgrade the panic level from “not completely” to “all of it”. “All off the panic”.

Who Won The Week?

• I was on a podcast this week! At some point in there I asked host of the Fantom Fantasy Sports podcast Branden Timm if he would rather have Justin Jefferson or Stefon Diggs. He said Diggs, which surprised me a bit. I thought for a second I called him Jordan Jefferson again. Nonetheless, with Kupp injured, WR1 ROS is probably Jefferson, Diggs, or Tyreek.
• After how this season started, Justin Fields owners feel like parents that see their C student suddenly start coming home with A’s left and right. Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy, but are you sure you’re not just copying off of Erwin again? It’s too good to be true…
• Still waiting on the first “Captain Kirk” reference for Christian Kirk. Maybe they can get on the Monday Night Football slate next year and get a Star Trek animation? (If you didn’t know, the MNFgifs subreddit is amazing.)
• Starting with Week 1 of this year, Saquon Barkley wasn’t supposed to accumulate this many fantasy points until at least 2024. We’re statistically past what should have been major knee injury and a Lisfranc fracture.
• An old guy getting takeout at my local pizza place though Tony Pollard should take over for Zeke. I think he’s right. But he also though the Jets were done without Breece Hall, and when the worked behind the counter pointed out they traded for Robinson, the old guy thought it was the Robinson “with holes in his leg”. Which is at least the wrong Robinson. Nonetheless, this old guy is at least as deserving as me to be on a podcast.
• Miles Sanders looking more like his 2021 self. Same with the rest of the Eagles. Including 2021 non-Eagle AJ Brown.
• Does Detroit count as a home game or a road game for Amari Cooper? I don’t mean technically, I mean in his mind:

Leaderboard Updates

• Travis Kelce, TE, #1 Fantasy Asset of 2022 from weeks 1-10. How about that. Also “Catching Kelce” should have followed the Doogie Howser, MD model and been titled Travis Kelce, TE.
• So if you drafted a Patrick Mahomes/Travis Kelce stack, you’re averaging a record of 7.7-2.3 so far. Wow.
• I just keep thinking of burgers whenever I talk about stacks. Remember Wendy’s Stack Attack, circa 2007?
• Talking Tight Ends a bit more, Mark Andrews is still a top 20 value despite not really doing anything since Week 6.
• DJ Moore just keeps getting runs in fantasy lineups, and keeps performing like he has the runs on the field. Kinda funny that his Week 8 is the only dark green cell on the whole chart.
• Earlier this year I talked about how if you had the 1st overall pick, you were basically stuck with Jonathan Taylor. In a similar vein, if you drafted Kyle Pitts, you’re somewhat stuck starting him over the Foster Moreau-types. It hurts more mentally when your 3rd round pick performs like the 20th ranked TE of the week.

• The long, slow climb from the basement begins for Jonathan Taylor. If Najee is Gollum, Jonathan Taylor is Frodo, and Najee just bit off his finger before falling into the lava of Mount Doom.

Website Exclusives

• Tua passes Goff for #2 on the Wasted Value list (FGW lost due to low % started numbers). The fact that he has more wasted value despite a higher % start basically shows that…Tua is better than Goff. How insightful, Byron.
• Jamaal Williams is the Junior Varsity RB1, barely over Khalil Herbert.
• Fields and Kmet is the stack that nobody tried. Are they the DQ Signature Stackburger?

• Despite the injury, Cooper Kupp is unlikely to lose his top spot in the “All-Time-Starting-In-2021” FGW Rankings.
• Note to self: CEH has taken enough hits this year, we don’t need to also chop off the last 2 letters of his name.

The Full List

• So I realized during the starter intros of the Sunday Night game that we have a Pokemon-style evolution line of Andre (Roberts) > Rhamondre (Stevenson) > Deommondre (Lenoir). This is the best evolution line that I can think of since Michael (Crabtree) > Jermichael (Finley) > Jerricho (Cotchery).

Whelp, gotta go, there’s a Gamer’s Garage Sale that I have to figure out how to peruse with a spastic 2-year-old in tow. If you’ve been a bit spastic in your attempts to replace Cooper Kupp in your lineup, just remember that we’re all going down in this ship together. It’s been a privilege and an honor.

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