Since joining the Los Angeles Rams and playing his first game in Week 10, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has continued to cement himself as a reliable fantasy football option. Beckham has scored a touchdown in each of his last three games. He’s become an important part of LA’s offense behind Cooper Kupp. After landing on the reserve/COVID list earlier this week, is Beckham playing tonight, or will the Rams need to rely even more on Kupp?
Is Odell Beckham Jr. playing tonight?
The Rams have spent most of the week dealing with one of the more intense COVID outbreaks in the NFL behind only the Washington Football Team and Cleveland Browns. The team went quickly from having five positive cases to over 30 players being impacted over the course of a few days.
“Whatever’s worse than mind-numbing,” head coach Sean McVay said Saturday when asked to assess the COVID situation. “I don’t know. It’s almost been hard to believe.”
Luckily, the NFL stepped in and decided to postpone LA’s game against the Seattle Seahawks to Tuesday night. This gave the team more time to test their players and hopefully get a few of them back for this matchup. In OBJ’s case, the extra time paid off as he tested negative on Friday.
Beckham was not the only one with positive news over the weekend. Running back Darrell Henderson, cornerback Donte Deayon, linebacker Justin Hollins, tight end Brycen Hopkins, and offensive lineman Alaric Jackson all came off the list. Thus, the Rams activated them to the roster.
Can Beckham find fantasy success against the Seahawks?
The Seattle defense has been a tough one to figure out this year. The Seahawks are last in the NFL in yards allowed per game (394.9). But they have been surprisingly good against WRs, ranking in the top 10 in fantasy points allowed to the position.
Where Seattle really seems to struggle is against tight ends. They’re bottom-five in the league in fantasy points allowed to TEs.
With Tyler Higbee out for this matchup, that should provide some extra targets to the WR position. I have a hard time believing that third-string TE Kendall Blanton will see the workload that someone like Beckham could.
Beckham has been boom-or-bust in fantasy this season and is very touchdown reliant. The 29-year-old is only the WR60. But in three games with the Rams, he’s been the WR9 (Week 12), WR33 (Week 13), and WR11 (Week 14). He should be in fantasy lineups in Week 15 as a WR3-floor, WR1-upside receiver.