Who Should I Start? Randall Cobb or DeAndre Hopkins

Thursday, July 18, 2:13 PM

Veteran wide receiver Randall Cobb is hanging up his cleats and will join the SEC Network as a college football studio analyst this year. Although Cobb hasn't officially retired, it's unlikely we'll see him again on an NFL field after he caught just five of 17 targets for 39 yards and one touchdown in 11 games (one start) in 2023 for the New York Jets. The 33-year-old was a healthy scratch for most of the second half last season. Ten of Cobb's 13 years in the NFL came with the Green Bay Packers, who selected him in the second round (64th overall) in the 2011 NFL draft out of Kentucky. If this is indeed the end of the road for the 33-year-old pass-catcher, he'll finish his career in the NFL with 630 catches on 912 targets for 7,624 yards and 54 touchdowns in 166 regular-season games (88 starts) with the Packers, Jets, Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans.

Saturday, September 13, 7:47 AM

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins proved why he's a three-time All-Pro with an amazing one-handed grab against the Buffalo Bills for a touchdown. While his days of 100+ targets per season are in the rearview mirror, he can still play that outlet role whenever called upon. The biggest issue for fantasy managers is that it's nearly impossible to predict which games he'll be more involved in compared to the others. In Week 2, he'll go up against the Cleveland Browns, who do have a better and more aggressive defensive unit. Hopkins might be viable in very deep leagues, but he likely won't receive more targets than Mark Andrews again, which would leave him around fourth in the target pecking order. So managers in 12-team leagues can safely leave him on the bench.