Who Should I Start? Mike Evans or Cooper Kupp

Monday, March 4, 2:02 PM

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans agreed to a two-year, $52 million deal on Monday that includes $35 million guaranteed, according to his agent Deryk Gilmore. Evans now has a real chance to start and finish his career in Tampa. Evans hasn't really slowed down at all entering his age-31 season this fall, as he has yet to finish any one of his 10 seasons in the NFL with the Bucs under 1,000 yards receiving. He made his fifth Pro Bowl in 2023 and finished with 79 receptions (136 targets) for 1255 yards and a league-leading 13 touchdowns in 17 regular-season games to help quarterback Baker Mayfield to the best season of his career. While Evans is likely to regress in the TD department in 2024, there's no reason to believe he'll finish under 1,000 receiving yards as long as he stays healthy, especially if Tampa also re-signs Mayfield.

Saturday, June 29, 1:27 PM

ESPN's Sarah Barshop lists Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp as one of the team's most surprising offseason standouts, which even she admits is odd. Kupp, who was the 2021 receiving triple-crown winner, has played through significant injuries in each of the past two seasons. He finished 2023 with 59 catches for 737 yards and five touchdowns, his fewest receiving yards since 2018, when he played in only eight games. However, Kupp is healthy this offseason, and it showed on the practice field. Head coach Sean McVay said during organized team activities that he doesn't think "anyone really understands the amount of things [Kupp was] working through last season" with his injury and that the receiver has been able to build his body "from the ground up." Fantasy managers shouldn't be expecting the 2021 version of Kupp anymore, especially with Puka Nacua in the fold, but if he's healthy, he can still deliver value as a low-end WR2/high-end WR3 in 2024.