What is up Karma Nation! Welcome back to another edition of my WR/CB Matchups Article. In this article, I will be breaking down three of the best and three of the worst matchups across Sunday’s main slate of games. We are excited to provide you with the amazing NFL DFS content you have gotten to know to love in order to help you become the most profitable DFS player possible. On top of the free articles, we have a FREE discord where we are always bouncing ideas off each other. Outside of all the FREE content, we offer paid subscriptions. Whether you are low on time or just want to know exactly what we are playing, the premium side of discord is always active, as we have subs continuously asking questions about how to build their lineups.
Last Week’s Results:
Best Matchups:
Davante Adams: 9 Targets, 8 receptions, 121 Yards
AJ Green: 6 Targets, 3 Receptions, 44 Yards, 1 Touchdown
Keenan Allen: 8 Targets, 4 Receptions, 108 Yards
Worst Matchups:
Devonta Smith: 7 Targets, 2 Targets, 16 Yards
Zach Pascal: 6 Targets, 5 Receptions, 32 Yards, 1 Touchdown
Laviska Shenault: 7 Targets, 2 Receptions, -3 Yards
Wide Receiver and Cornerback matchups are one of the staples of fantasy football. A lot of people will take a look at the overall matchup on defense. While that is important, it is also critical to take your research a step further and dive into the micro matchup between the WR and who he is lining up against the majority of the game.
Best Matchups:
Cooper Kupp vs Ross Cockrell
Cooper Kupp has been one of the best fantasy WRs in the league this season. Now he comes into week three with another amazing matchup to take advantage of as he looks to extend his league-leading 30.3 PPR points per game. Even though AC hates Kupp, he even says on The Cash Process “There’s frickin, Cooper Kupp third highest Karma Value god damn” I am here to reiterate that he is one of the best plays on the slate. Among WRs, Kupp is 6th in targets (20), first in receptions (16), third in yards (271), and one of only three WRs who has had 100 yards in both games to start the season. Kupp is also Stafford’s favorite redzone target, coming in at 6th in the league with six redzone targets and three endzone targets. Resulting in a league-high, among WRs, three receiving TDs.
Tampa Bay is someone I was looking to target in the slot all season before Sean Murphy-Bunting ended up hurting himself. Now they replace a bad slot corner with an even worse one. The Bucs have two of the best cornerbacks in the league on the outside combined with one of the best pass rushes in the league. This has led teams to funnel their offense through the slot. In week one the Cowboys had success targeting the slot, where they had 11 targets for 7 receptions and 82 yards. In week two the Falcons had less success targeting the slot, 8 targets for 7 receptions and 35 yards. Even though they were able to get the ball where they couldn’t get anything in terms of yards. Cockrell has allowed 9 receptions on 10 targets for 82 yards and two touchdowns so far this season. The number that really sticks out to me is the 4.3 snaps per target and 4.8 snaps per reception both ranked second-worst in the league. We should see plenty of targets for Kupp which should turn into another huge game from him.
DeAndre Hopkins vs C.J Henderson
DeAndre Hopkins is in another spot to dominate his matchup. Hopkins is currently WR 10 in PPR formats, but it comes in a way I would not have expected coming into the season. Through two games he is, 54th in targets (11), 29th in receptions (10), and 26th in yards (137). Where he has seen success is that he is first in the league with three touchdowns. This coming by catching all three of his RedZone targets. This gave him an 18.2% target share, this ranking him tied for second-most on his team. Something we did not expect coming into the season. Last season Hopkins had a 28.6% target share and accounted for 35.4% of the teams’ receiving yards. I expect this years’ numbers to regress back to those high numbers. Hopkins accounting for 18.2% of the teams’ targets and 19.8% of his team’s receiving yards is just way too low for the superstar WR.
This is a great spot for Hopkins to really ramp up his volume in this offense. Although, under a microscope, this is a weird matchup because the stats for this specific corner are not as bad as the team overall. Henderson has only allowed 63 yards with five receptions and six targets in the two games he has played this season. While those do sound like good stats the Jaguars as a team has allowed the number one WR for the team they are playing against to go off against them. Henderson and the other CBs don’t travel for the Jags so it all depends where the WR1 lines up. Brandin Cooks put up 132 yards with five receptions on seven targets. Courtland Sutton had similar success, putting up 159 yards with nine receptions on 12 targets. Expect another huge game for the Cardinals WR1, DeAndre Hopkins.
Jakobi Meyers vs PJ Williams
Jakobi Meyers has been the sneaky play all season. He continues to be one of the most used slot WRs in the league over the last two games. Meyers is currently second in the league in slot targets with 13, with 86.7% of his targets coming out of the slot. Although, he only comes in at 26th in the league in slot yards. Mainly due to his extremely low 5.3 aDOT and 3.9 yards after catch per reception.
The Saints have been a tale of two games. Their defense showed up against one of the best offenses in the league, the Green Bay Packers, but on the flip side, struggled against the Carolina Panthers. One key difference I saw was the presence of PJ Williams back as the slot corner for this team. Williams lined up in the slot for 19 routes covered. He allowed 4 receptions on 4 targets for 28 yards and 25 yards after catch. While that does not sound like amazing numbers, his receptions per snap would rank him second-worst in the league tied with another guy I am targeting Ross Cockrell. Williams just hasn’t had to deal with a slot WR as good as Meyers yet this season. He went up against a WR barely used this season, Terrance Marshall. I expect the Patriots to target Meyers early and often as they don’t have many other options out wide to throw to.
Worst Matchups:
Jets’ Slot WR vs Bryce Callahan
I mention this as the Jets slot WR instead of naming the WR outright because since I am writing this article early in the week, I have no idea if it is going to be Jamison Crowder or Braxton Berrios. This all depends on the health of Crowder entering week three. Last season when Crowder was active, he played 75% of his snaps in the slot. This in turn led to 70% of his targets occurring in the slot. Which ranks tenth highest percentage out of qualifying receivers. Berrios has been a great sub for Crowder which is why I include him as a tough matchup even though he is not a big name in the NFL he has been a formidable fill-in for Crowder.
Callahan is someone you will probably see every week in my article. He is far and away the best slot cornerback in the league and I don’t expect anyone to surpass him. Last week we saw Shenault struggle putting up -3 yards hauling in two of seven targets. This happening after Shepard struggled when he lined up in the slot. Where he had two receptions for 17 yards on three targets. Across the league, Callahan is ranked third in snaps per target with 8.1 and second in the league in snaps per receptions with 21.7 snaps per reception. Across the league, Callahan has lined up to guard a slot receiver 65 times which ranks third in the league. So, he is getting plenty of reps while playing two heavily used slot WRs. With another game going up against a team that uses their slot WR heavily this should make the Jets struggle to get their offense going.
Chris Godwin vs Jalen Ramsey
Although this is a tough matchup for Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown just entered the Covid list. This means even with the tough matchup Godwin could still be in store for a good game. Before Brown joined the Bucs Godwin played a lot more snaps outside than he did with Brown in the lineup. This could lead to more favorable matchups for Godwin in this game if Brown is not able to go.
Jalen Ramsey is another slot corner that may make an appearance in a lot of my articles. There are just certain guys I never want to target. Ramsey is showing similar stats to what Callahan is posting as well. We have plenty of sample size for Ramsey who has lined up in slot coverage on 48 coverage snaps. He has allowed only 3 receptions and 13 yards on 6 targets this season in the slot. 13 yards ranks fewest yards in the slot that has covered at least 30 slot snaps. He has allowed a target on every eight snaps ranking 4th and a reception every 16 snaps ranking 3rd. Both numbers are right behind Bryce Callahan.
Robert Woods vs Carleton Davis
Woods has slid away from the slot a ton this season. Going from 40% of his snaps in the slot compared to 35% this season and 29% last game. This is trending towards the Kupp as the main slot WR on this team, which is why I wrote him up in this article as a top play. Woods has seemed like an afterthought in this offense compared to Kupp. He is average four fewer targets, four fewer receptions, and 90 fewer yards per game. That should even out a little bit as of now this is Kupp’s offense and this weekend shouldn’t change things as Woods will be lined up against one of the league’s best corners for the majority of the game, Carleton Davis.
One noticeable issue with this matchup is that TB corners are forced into coverage far more often than most teams due to game script. Davis has dropped back into coverage 120 times, only three other teams have had a corner who dropped back into coverage 100 times. This has led to Davis allowing the 4th most targets and 9th most receptions in the league among corners. Although even though the volume is there, he doesn’t allow many yards. He has allowed 68 yards over these two games which ranks him 48th in the league. As well as, 6th least amount of yards per reception.
Individual WR/CB Matchup Chart
