Amari Cooper Fantasy Value Could Fall With Injury Uncertainty

Amari Cooper had an incredibly disappointing start to the 2018 season with the Oakland Raiders, but once he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys he took off and posted some incredible numbers, positioning him very well for 2019.

Fantasy football drafters have reacted accordingly, and his average draft position (ADP) sits at WR13 (36th overall), placing him right at the end of the third round in 12-team leagues.

He's dealing with a foot injury this preseason, though, and recent updates are a huge red flag for his 2019 fantasy outlook.

The injury was originally written off as just a bruised heel, and the progressive worsening of the diagnosis is not a good sign. Considering the way updates have gone so far, it looks a lot more likely that he's going to be behind schedule rather than ahead of schedule.

With an apparent best-case scenario that he returns just in time for Week 1, we can't factor out the possibility that he misses some time to start the regular season. And on top of that, a foot injury is a huge concern for a wide receiver. If it lingers it could have a serious impact on his play even when he is back on the field.

When he's healthy Cooper is dynamic enough that we can't drop him too far down our fantasy football draft boards. If he isn't hampered by the injury, he could be a steal if he falls into the fourth or fifth rounds of drafts.

That's a big "if" at this point though. When you're drafting a wide receiver in the early rounds you're usually looking to get some safety — part of the appeal of going WR over RB is that they're less risky. Unless we see a serious increase in optimism around Cooper's health, you're going to want to avoid reaching to draft him.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.