It’s been a long fantasy football season for DeAndre Hopkins owners, and one that might just be over with if you drafted Hopkins. He’s been one of the biggest busts of the year, going as the eighth overall player in drafts on average, and the fourth wide receiver off the board. The thought went, “Brian Hoyer/Ryan Mallett/TJ Yates were pretty bad last year and Nuk feasted, how bad could Brock Osweiler be?” The answer, unfortunately for Hopkins owners is really bad. He has regressed completely as a quarterback, and his free agent contract is an albatross around the neck of the franchise, and albatross that is bringing the entirety of the Houston fantasy football production down with him.
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So far this season, Hopkins has done nothing to live up to that potential, getting double-digit fantasy points just two times since the third week of the season. He is averaging just 7.24 fantasy points per game on the season in standard scoring leagues. While none of this is really his fault, it doesn’t matter to those who spent a first-round pick on him (and maybe eschewed Ezekiel Elliott in the process). If Hopkins owners are still alive, it means they were incredibly crafty on the waiver wire this year, overcoming a first-round pick who has fewer than two fantasy points more than Quincy Enunwa, Adam Thielen and fewer fantasy points than Pierre Garcon. He’s been dismal this year, and has to be reclassified as a good matchup play only in WR3 territory.
Unfortunately for Hopkins owners, this isn’t going to be one of those weeks where he is going up against a tough matchup. You wouldn’t know it for their reputation or all the much ballyhooed regression of Blake Bortles, but the Jacksonville defense has been surprisingly stifling, especially against the opposing wide receivers. This year they give up the sixth-fewest fantasy points to wide receivers, and have allowed just one double-digit fantasy point game to the position since week nine (last week to Adam Thielen). They’ve crushed opposing fantasy wide receivers.
Hopkins was supposed to be the centerpiece of your roster when you drafted him back in August. Unfortunately for those that did, he has been a complete dud. If you have him on your roster and survived this far, congratulations. The complete uselessness of your first-round pick has only been counteracted by your primo roster management. He’s fallen back into unreliable matchup play territory, and this week is a terrible matchup for Hopkins. You’re going to have to keep him on your bench if you want to make it to the next round of your fantasy playoffs.