The bulletin popped early in the Monday Night Football game last night. How much time will Cooper Kupp miss, fantasy owners might be wondering? The early prognosis is 4-6 weeks, and considering how bad the Rams are, they could shut him down entirely.
Kupp only had three catches for minus-1 yard against the Cardinals as back-up quarterback John Wolford never looked his way (and angered the Fantasy Football universe in doing so). It was the fewest catches for Kupp since a Week 12 loss in 2020 to San Francisco.
The All-22 film isn’t posted yet, but Kupp appeared to be running a dig route on the second play of the fourth quarter. He turned toward the sidelines and Cardinals safety Marco Wilson either slipped (I bet he slipped) and went for Kupp’s legs. The pass was way too high (Thanks Wolford) and Wilson rolled right on Kupp’s right leg. Kupp was knocked over onto the sidelines and needed help getting to the bench.
Oh, and the whole play wouldn’t have counted anyway, since Rams offensive lineman Ty Nsekhe committed a penalty.
Offensive line play is actually the Rams biggest issue.
But what will the Rams do without Kupp? How long will he be out? Is there any replacing him?
The Kupp Offense
We’ve heard it a lot this year….Cooper Kupp IS the Rams offense. It’s true, he leads the team in catches, touchdowns, yards. For the season he has 75 catches for 812 yards and six scores.
But I wondered is Kupp an anomaly compared to other players in the league?
So I did research on every team in the NFC, how many total yards they have, who leads them in scrimmage yards and what percentage of the offense they represent.
The answer is Kupp is 33.9 percent of all the Rams offensive yards. That ranks him second in the NFC. Unfortunately, he’s the only player on this list who is hurt.
Here’s the full list from the NFC:
- Giants Total Yards 2932 – Saquon Barkley 1128 yards (38.4 percent of the offense)
- Rams Total Yards 2544 – Cooper Kupp 862 (33.9 percent)
- Vikings Total Yards 3202 – Justin Jefferson 1073 (33.5 percent)
- Packers Total Yards 3523 – Aaron Jones 966 (27.4 percent)
- Cowboys Total Yards 2998 – Tony Pollard 755 (25.1 percent)
- Eagles Total Yards 3128 – AJ Brown 718 (22.9 percent)
- Bucs Total Yards 3405 – Leonard Fournette 777 (22.8 percent)
- Panthers Total Yards 2942 – Christian McCaffrey 670 (22.8 percent)
- Bears Total Yards 3298 – Justin Fields 749 (22.7 percent)
- Saints Total Yards 3584 – Alvin Kamara 807 (22.5 percent)
- Commanders Total Yards 2911 – Terry McLaurin 620 (21.3 percent)
- Lions Total Yards 3341 – Jamaal Williams 661 (19.7 percent)
- Seahawks Total Yards 3521 – Kenneth Walker III 690 yards (19.6 percent)
- Niners Total Yards 3240 – Deebo Samuel 576 (17.7 percent)
- Falcons Total Yards 3172 – Tyler Allgeier 521 (16.4 percent)
- Cardinals Total Yards 3337 – Marquise Brown 485 (14.5 percent)
Two notes on this, the Justin Fields number is from running the ball, and how funny is it that Christian McCaffrey is still the most dominant player on the Panthers offense, even after being traded three weeks ago?
Who Replaces Cooper Kupp?
The Rams don’t have a lot of options here. The running game has been nonexistent, Kyren Williams did show burst on his one nine-yard carry against Arizona, but this is all the fault of an offensive line that has been decimated by injury and can’t get it together.
So running the ball more is out. Also, it’s just not in Sean McVay’s playbook to do that.
The good news is Van Jefferson finally had some catches against the Cardinals and showed he may be getting better. Allen Robinson II just has not meshed with the Rams offense, maybe he’s lost a step, you just can’t tell. The Rams next best option in the passing game is tight end Tyler Higbee. Expect him to get a lot more passes his way with Kupp out.
Here’s a couple of names for fantasy players, Lance McCutcheon had a great pre-season for the Rams, maybe he gets some time in four wide receiver sets. He doesn’t have a catch this year. Tutu Atwell was inactive against the Cardinals. He can’t catch, but maybe he’s going to get a shot.
If Stafford is out, do you even think about putting in Bryce Perkins at quarterback? He can make plays running the ball. One player isn’t going to replace Kupp, it will have to come from all over.
How Long Will Cooper Kupp Be Out?
Remember, NFL coaches don’t talk about injuries, and when they do, they aren’t honest. McVay abides by the same code, remember the “soft tissue” injuries for the Rams running backs in pre-season that were actual you know, tendon and ligament tears?
But when McVay said Sunday after the game that Kupp’s injury “didn’t sound good,” alarm bells should go off.
We can only go by what happened on the play and how Kupp was hit above the ankle, so when they say it’s a high ankle sprain, it certainly looks like. It could also be a broken fibula (but they’d never say that). Recovery on a high ankle sprain (and a broken fibula, which yours truly suffered playing football) is four to six weeks. Knowing Kupp, he will do everything he can to be back on the field in four weeks. The Rams play four games in an 18-day span before playing the Packers on Dec. 19. If Kupp is coming back, that’s the date I’d look for.
