Fantasy Football Player Notes

Fuller pulled a disappearing act last week, which makes him a very difficult lineup decision in this matchup. As long as all the practice reports come back fine, Fuller can be rolled out as a low-end WR3 that you'll simply have to deal with the potential range of outcomes with.

It was good to see Cooks on the field in a full-time role, as his connection grew stronger with Deshaun Watson. He caught 5-of-8 targets for 95 yards, leading the team in a brutal matchup against the Ravens secondary. The Steelers aren't slouches either, as they've allowed just 16 receivers to score more than 11.2 PPR points against them since the start of last year. Why is that number significant? It's the average number of points it took to finish as a top-36 receiver in 2019. That's what you're looking for when starting any wide receiver, a top-36 performance. Cooks tends to do well against slower cornerbacks, and the Steelers duo of Joe Haden and Steven Nelson kind of fit in that group. Nelson ran a 4.49 when coming into the NFL while Haden ran a 4.52, though both are slower than they were when they came into the league. It's not a great matchup, but we'd give Cooks a solid bump if Fuller can't go or is limited throughout the week. For now, we'll assume Fuller plays after being limited in practice. Cooks should be in the high-end WR4 conversation whose arrow is trending up.

We saw Cobb a lot more involved in the offense in Week 2, though it took a zero-target game from Will Fuller to get there. He caught 5-of-6 targets for 59 yards, though he did have the best matchup on the field. He actually does once again this week against Mike Hilton, though it's not a smash spot or anything. In his four years with the Steelers, Hilton has allowed a pedestrian 66.1 percent catch-rate (this is decent for a slot cornerback) and 10.4 yards per reception with a touchdown every 31 targets. The Steelers biggest weakness is over the middle of the field, but the only receivers who've truly capitalized on that saw seven-plus targets and had a big role in their offense (Tyler Boyd, Tyler Lockett, Christian Kirk, Julian Edelman, and Jarvis Landry). Those are the slot receivers who finished top-36 against the Steelers. If Fuller is inactive, there's a chance, but I don't think Cobb should be considered anything more than a WR5 in fantasy right now.