Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
It’s time to catch up on all of the NFC North’s fantasy-based changes.
The 2022 fantasy football draft season is starting to heat up now that we’ve gone through the height of free agency and all of the chosen rookies have been assigned to their professional home cities.
The landscape has changed a great deal for many franchises after a whirlwind offseason, and our divisional preview series will help you stay on top of all of the changes to date.
The best receiver in football has a new home.
The football world is abuzz thanks to Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams being traded to the Las Vegas Raiders after the franchise-tagged star was unable to secure a long-term contract in Titletown.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter has the details:
đRaiders get Davante Adams.
đPackers get two 2022 picks, including the Raidersâ first-round pick, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 17, 2022
The Raiders immediately locked up their prized pass-catcher to a five-year, $141.5 million contract, per several media reports.
Adams is reunited with his collegiate teammate in quarterback Derek Carr, and the drop-off in production shouldn’t be drastic coming from Aaron Rodgers, the reigning MVP of two years running. The 29-year-old Fresno State receiver is coming off a career-high 123 catches, which almost certainly won’t be replicated. It was his third 110-plus catch season in the last four years, and Vegas didn’t acquire him to be an observer. Adams is a top-five receiver lock and likely will be in the top three of just about every format that rewards for catches.
Carr becomes a legitimate top-five quarterback contender with the likes of Adams, Hunter Renfrow and Darren Waller, which is about as dynamic of trio as the league has to offer. On the surface, Renfrow takes the biggest hit to his fantasy stock with the addition of Adams. A reception-dependent fantasy commodity, Renfrow may struggle to approach 80 grabs, let alone the 103 mark he set in 2021.
It’s a net positive for Waller’s outlook, since he’s no longer going to be the focus of nonstop double-teams. Adams draws so much attention that Waller’s athleticism and size will force defenses to pick their poison. He’s among the top two or three players at his position.
Running backs Josh Jacobs gets a significant boost, too, because even with all of the weapons, Josh McDaniels’ system emphasizes the ground game. Defenses now have to account for a number of dangerous aerial weapons around the goal line, which benefits Jacobs in an area where he’s at his best. He’s a low-end No. 1 back in most situations, but gamers should lock up Kenyan Drake as a handcuff given Jacobs’ injury history.
The obvious question is how does this team replace all that is Adams? The free-agent market is drying up as an injured Odell Beckham Jr. (knee), who’s expected miss roughly the first two months of the season, is the top remaining option. No one available is an immediate replacement, that’s for sure. The Packers are likely to invest a first-round pick on a wideout now that Aaron Rodgers is locked up.
Speaking of the $200 million man, Rodgers’ best weapon is gone, and there’s no easy way around it: This will hurt his fantasy stock. He’s still a midrange to low-end QB1, but gamers will have plenty of options with more going for them at this deep position.
Allen Lazard will stand to get the most notable boost in value, presuming the Pack cannot secure a legitimate WR1. For now, until the position fills out, he’s the de facto No. 1 target for Rodgers. There’s sound No. 2 PPR worth here if the position isn’t addressed beyond depth material, so we’ll revisit this as more is known.
We’ll see second-year receiver Amari Rodgers make his case for more targets. He’s far closer in style and stature to Randall Cobb than Adams, and there’s far too much yet to be resolved to make any kind of definitive proclamation about how these two will coexist from a target perspective. The younger Rodgers has far more upside, but he landed just four passes in his rookie season. Cobb is reliable over the middle and No. 12 loves him, though the veteran enters his age-32 season as a career-long injury liability. Neither is poised to be better than a third wideout at the moment.
WRs Juwann Winfree and Malik Taylor round out the current depth. Re-signing free-agent WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling may become a higher priority now, and the Packers also could work to get tight end Robert Tonyan under contract again to help keep some continuity intact.
To a degree, we’re probably going to see a shift in offensive philosophy that relies more on the talented tandem in the backfield and matriculates its way up the field with less explosiveness. Aaron Jones is fringe No. 1/RB2, whereas AJ Dillon is closer to flex/depth territory.
We’ll get a better scope the nuances of all things Packers offense once the dust of free agency settles as well as after incoming rookies are rostered. This situation will be examined in greater detail after the 2022 NFL Draft.
Fantasy football risers and fallers entering Week 7.
Every year when a team invests in a quarterback in the first round, there is one of two scenarios that tend to play out.
One is that they throw the guy in the first on Day 1 and take their chances. 2) Under ideal circumstances, the organization claims that it’s going to take time with the young quarterback and get him up to speed slowly.
That rarely happens. There were five quarterbacks taken in the first round this year and only two of them were slated to be starters right out of the gate â first overall pick Trevor Lawrence and second overall pick Zach Wilson. The other three were projected to be groomed.
That ended in New England with the surprise release of Cam Newton, ascending Mac Jones to the starting job for Week 1.
Then there were two.
The Andy Dalton Era in Chicago ended in Week 2 when he was injured and the job was given to rookie Justin Fields.
Then there was one.
The 49ers claimed that they intended to sit Trey Lance. He made is starting debut in Week 5 but is still nursing a calf injury coming out of the bye week, hindering his chance to stake a legitimate claim on the starting job from Jimmy Garoppolo.
If a quarterback (other than Jordan Love) is drafted in the first round, regardless of what a coach says, he becomes the starter sooner than projected and gets his chance to make his stand as a franchise guy â for better or worse.
If anything, that timeline is getting shorter all the time, but will it translate into seeing any of them enter upcoming editions of the Fantasy Football Market Report?
Being the primary running back in the Bears offense has been a pretty good gig this season. In the four games David Montgomery played before getting injured, he had a pair of 100-yard rushing games and scored three touchdowns. In the two games since he went down, Herbert has rushed 37 times for 172 yards and a touchdown. With injuries sidelining his in-house competition, Herbert could join the elite fantasy back by sheer production â 18 carries for 75 yards in Week 5 and 19 carries for 97 yards and a score last Sunday.
Everyone keeps referring to Brown as the third wide receiver with the Bucs behind Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, but that is in name only. Despite playing one fewer game that those two, Brown has 29 receptions (two behind Evans and five behind Godwin) and his 418 yards is second on the team (just two yards behind Evans). What makes Brown the more attractive option is that over the last three games is he leads the teams in targets (32), receptions (23), receiving yards (280) and touchdowns (3). He will still have stiff competition for receptions but has quickly become Tom Bradyâs most used target.
Hurts wasnât a player anyone outside of Philly would have considered to be a regular fantasy starter, but heâs been about as consistent as any QB in the league in terms of not having the kind of game that loses a week for a fantasy owner. Through six games, he has accounted for two or more touchdowns in five of them. He has a pair of 300-yard passing games and is the Eaglesâ leading rusher with 300 yards. At his current pace, he will rush for 850 yards and 14 touchdowns to go along with 23 touchdown passes. Most fantasy owners could live with those numbers, especially with the easiest part of his schedule coming up.
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The injury to Clyde Edwards-Helaire could be a boom for Williams. While he didnât post huge rushing numbers in his debut as the starter post-CEH, he rushed 21 times for 62 yards and scored two touchdowns. He accounted for 21 of the 24 rushing attempts for running backs for the Chiefs, and Andy Reid seems content to let him continue to be the primary (if not exclusive) running back in the system as long as Edwards-Helaire is out.
Lamb has always been considered to be the No. 2 guy in the Cowboys’ pass offense behind Amari Cooper, but he has been putting together some very impressive weekly numbers. He leads the team in targets (49), receptions (33), receiving yards (497), average per reception (15.1), and is tied for the lead in touchdowns (4). He has four games with more than 80 receiving yards and, in his last two games, has blown up for 13 catches for 233 yards and three scores. Cooper may still be viewed as the top dog among Dallas receivers, but Lamb is making a case for himself that is pretty persuasive.
Wentz was drafted to either be a starter or in a platoon for someone who didnât make a huge investment to land one of the top quarterbacks. However, he is starting to look much more like a game manager than a bona fide fantasy quarterback. He has thrown for more than 251 yards just once in six games and hasnât accounted for more than two touchdowns in any game. At a time when QBs that can get you points with their legs and their arms, Wentz is a one-trick pony who doesnât have a great trick. Over the last four games, he has rushed just nine times for 14 yards and hasnât scored a rushing touchdown this season. If 240 passing yards, no rushing yards and two touchdowns are what you want from a quarterback, heâs your guy.
Big things were expected of Swift this season and, while he hasnât been awful, he hasnât shown any explosiveness. He leads the team with 34 receptions and has 295 receiving yards and one touchdown, so he brings value there. What is troubling is that he in a time share with Jamaal Williams at running back and appears to be losing that battle. Williams is averaging a full yard more per carry (4.3) than Swift (3.3). Over 65 carries, Swift has had a single carry of more than 16 yards. His four touchdowns in six games has been his saving grace, but when 51 yards is your high-water mark for any rushing in a game, thatâs a problem that will be worse if the touchdowns start to dry up.
Rodgers isnât having a bad season, but he was taken in drafts and auctions much higher this year than he was last year, because he was consistently dominant in 2020 on his way to the MVP. Last season, he threw for 280 or more yards 10 times and had three or more TD passes 12 times. Through six games, he has topped 280 yards just once and has three or more TD passes in just one game. Again, he is posting solid numbers (12 TD passes and two TD runs in six games). But, he just isnât living up to the kind of expectations fantasy owners had coming off his brilliant 2020 season.
Gordon was brought onto rosters to start more weeks than not, and it just hasnât worked out with him. He is averaging fewer than 12 carries a game, has more than 60 rushing yards just once (in Week 1), and a long run of just 14 yards in the last five games. Over the last three weeks, Javonte Williams has had a carry of 30 yards or more in each game â the kind of production that gets you more opportunities. Those will come at the expense of Gordon, who has done little as a receiver with just 13 catches for 119 yards and no TDs in six games.
Mayfield has been nothing short of a bust most of the season. He has thrown just six passing touchdowns in six games, has four games with 246 or fewer passing yards, and has 11 or fewer rushing yards in five of six games. Granted, his top two receivers (Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry) have both missed time with injuries, but Mayfieldâs production has fallen off hard after a strong finish to the 2020 season. He doesnât look like a guy you want in your lineup every week with the expectation of winning, especially now that heâs nursing a shoulder injury.
Fantasy football risers and fallers entering Week 2.
I was involved in a football roundtable discussion leading up to the start of Week 1 and the moderator asked, âWhat preposterous statement can you make about the 2021 season?â
I offered to go first.
âAll four teams from the NFC West will make the playoffs.â
The rest were in unanimous agreement that my idea was preposterous. Last year was the first time such a concept was possible, but these are four teams built to win now. Russell Wilson has never had a losing season. Many project Seattle to finish last in the division. San Francisco has the personnel on both sides of the ball to make a Super Bowl run â their betting odds to make it show that. The Los Angeles Rams like to go all-in for a short-term run and felt all that was missing was a QB and traded for Matt Stafford. Arizona won eight games last year and is viewed by many as the trendy team to make the next big jump to relevance and dominance.
The new playoff format has four division champions and three wild cards in each conference. It can logically be assumed that Tampa Bay and Green Bay will be the prohibitive favorites to win their divisions. Someone has to win the NFC East crown. Beyond two-and-a-half teams, what team would you take right now over any of the four teams in the NFC West to make the playoffs in a head-to-head bet?
In Week 1, none of them played each other and they went 4-0. Three were on the road. Three were against 2020 playoff teams. And they won them all.
Thanks to the expanded schedule, what you do in the division has less of an impact if you have four quality teams than it ever has. Only six of the 17 games are played against division rivals. The other 44 games they collectively play will be against teams from other divisions (4-0 to start that slate), including the NFC North and AFC South.
Injuries may derail one of them, but it canât derail all of them. Pay attention to the non-division games the NFC West plays this year. The only reason we wonât see more 4-0 weeks is that theyâre going to start playing each other. Itâs too early to be flying the âMission Accomplishedâ banner, but we may be witnessing history that will be hard to replicate.
Here is the Week 2 Fantasy Football Market Report.
Injuries help make careers and the 49ers have made their share in recent years at running back because of injury. Mitchell, a sixth-round rookie, was supposed to be an afterthought on the practice squad. However, an injury to Jeff Wilson and a healthy scratch of third-round rookie Trey Sermon, left Mitchell as the next man up. He responded with 19 carries for 104 yards and a touchdown and made a case that he should be in the mix at a minimum and the lead dog at a maximum considering Raheem Mostert is out an expected eight weeks.
With so many weapons missing from the New Orleans offense, itâs insane that Winston threw just 20 passes in his debut as the front man for the Saints. He completed 14 of them and, of those, five went for touchdowns. While one game doesnât a fantasy starter make, one thing seems certain: Putting the boots to Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers has earned Winston the designation as the unquestioned starter â something that wasnât a guarantee heading into Week 1. Winston was on the field for 60 of the Saints 62 offensive plays. Heâs the starter â for better or worse and can be had on the waiver wire.
There were a couple other mid- to late-round fantasy receivers I considered here (Deebo Samuel and JaâMarr Chase), but Davis was a player who, despite being handed the No. 1 receiver job with the Jets, was an extremely modest acquisition for a fantasy owner. In his debut, Zach Wilson spent most of the day running for his life. Most of his completions were of the short slant variety, but Davis caught five passes for 97 yards (a 19.4-yard average) and two touchdowns. The Jets didnât win, and Wilson didnât look great, but it was obvious Davis is the clear-cut No. 1 guy for Wilson. Theyâre only going to get more comfortable with each other as the year goes by.
There are certain guys I seemed to end up with every year. One who comes to mind is Frank Gore of Indy vintage. He would be my third or even fourth running back because everyone else projected him to hit the wall. He didnât ⌠until about seven years after that chatter started. He was a draft-and-trade guy in late September. Iâve always loved Ingram. He was ready to bust out before Alvin Kamara showed up in the Big Easy, and they meshed nicely â although cutting into each otherâs value. In Baltimore, he showed out before he was quietly shown the door. Any running back for Houston is a problem because theyâre going to be behind a lot this year. But, in Week 1, he had 26 carries â 11 in the first half and 15 in the second half. Granted, he only had 85 yards (3.3 a carry), but scored a touchdown. When youâre looking for depth, heâs not going to maintain that workload, but itâs nice to know itâs there. At worse, heâs a 1-yard belly flop for a touchdown late. If Ingram played Jacksonville every week, heâd be a starter every week, but there is value here.
I will be the first to admit that Iâm not a big fan of Hurts â he strikes me as a poor manâs combo of Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield. However, the Eagles thought enough of him to cut bait on Carson Wentz and stick with cribbage buddies Joe Flacco and Gardner Minshew. A lot of quarterbacks fatten their stats against Atlanta, but Hurts had arguably the best game of his career, all things considered. He completed 27 of 35 passes for 264 yards and three touchdowns. He had an incredible target share for the seven players to whom he threw. He had three TD passes to three different guys and no interceptions. And he ran seven times for 62 yards. He hasnât reached the point that you bench a pedigreed starter to put him in, but heâs getting closer.
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What makes Week 1 so troubling for those who used a first-round pick on Elliott was that the Cowboys were never in deep hole. Yet the Cowboys dropped back to pass 63 times and Elliott had 11 carries. Whether that was a one-game anomaly or not against a dominant run defense, it sure looked like an offense fully prepared to pass 50 times like it did when Dak Prescott was lighting up the NFL in September 2020. The fact Elliott had 11 carries for 33 yards and two receptions for six speaks unseemly toward his consistent role. The one takeaway was that, although the Cowboys had a chance to win Thursday night, they lost. That may have changed the tempo had they given Zeke a chance to do what he does.
The thing the separates great quarterbacks from good ones and good one from bad ones is the regularity with which they have an absolutely garbage game. Donning a man bun and looking almost disinterested, Aaron Rodgers had one of the worst games of his career against New Orleans. Considering it was his first game after his redemptive MVP award, he couldnât have looked worse. He completed just 15 passes on 28 attempts for 133 yards, no touchdowns — throwing two picks — for a passer rating of 36.8. Nobody who has him is going to bench him, but it least it has to creep into consideration if anything close to this continues.
Often when Minnesota struggles, it is because they donât get the ball in Cookâs hands often enough. That wasnât the case in Week 1. He had 26 touches, which, for Cook, should translate into 150 total yards and a couple of touchdowns. He had 20 carries for 61 yards (3.1 per carry) and had six catches for 43 yards (7.2 yards per). The problem isnât Cook. He still managed 100 total yards and a touchdown. But, his offensive line is hideous â maybe the worst in the league. Things arenât going to get appreciably better until they have a starting five they can live with â and the left tackle (when he plays) is a rookie. Injuries kill fantasy players and sub-standard starters donât do much better.
In his debut with the Titans, of the 36 passes targeted to receivers, only six came Julioâs ways. Two that he caught each went for 10 yards. One went for nine. And he got called out by his new coach for a stupid penalty. There is no questioning that Jones is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he is out of his comfort zone for the first time in his career. The early returns are brutal, which could lend to making a low-ball offer of magic beans to a Jones owner because things will get better, but he is known for lapses in production that string together. He will be benched more this week than perhaps any time in his career.
When CEH was drafted by the Chiefs, the dreams of huge things were running through Andy Reidâs head. Edwards-Helaireâs rookie season was supposed to be the making of legend. It wasnât. In 13 games, he had three outings with 70 or more rushing yards and two games with more than 40 receiving yards. That was with LeâVeon Bell and Darrel Williams cutting into his time. He didnât lack for opportunity in his second act. He had 14 of the 16 running back carries and had three receptions. They accounted for 72 yards â 43 rushing, 29 receiving. A trend becomes a trend when it continues.
Analyzing Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers’ 2021 fantasy football ADP and where you should target him in your drafts.
Having joined the Green Bay Packers at training camp after uncertainty loomed large this offseason, QB Aaron Rodgers, the 2020 NFL MVP, is set for another big-time season. Below, we look at Aaron Rodgers‘ 2021 fantasy football average draft position (ADP) and where you should draft him.
Rodgers clearly isn’t happy with the Packers organization, but, for now, that doesn’t matter. He’s set to play and there should be little uncertainty regarding his immediate future.
Having led the league in completion percentage, interception rate, and touchdowns last season, Rodgers, despite being 37 years old, is still playing at an elite level.
(ADP data courtesy of MyFantasyLeague.com)
Rodgers’ current position is an embarrassment, considering how good of a player he is. Rodgers is being taken 13th among quarterbacks, just ahead of Tennessee Titans QB Ryan Tannehill.
Rodgers’ ADP equates to him being taken 94th. The drafts include dynasty and keeper leagues, which explains a bit of his drastically low ADP. The fact that some leagues drafted before Rodgers joined training camp is also a factor.
He’s being taken as the fourth Packers off the board, behind RB Aaron Jones, WR Davante Adams and WR Amari Rodgers.
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Games: 16
Passing yards: 4,299
Touchdowns: 48
Interceptions: 5
Rodgers is a much better actual quarterback than he is a fantasy quarterback. Most of his fantasy weakness comes from him not being much of a rusher, yet he’s coming off the best season of his career.
Last season, Rodgers finished with the third-most fantasy points and fourth-most points per game among quarterbacks. The Packers brought back Jones for the star quarterback and they still have Adams.
There’s no reason to think Rodgers’ production will take a hit. Feel great about getting Rodgers as your QB1. If he’s on the board in the sixth round, easily snag the three-time MVP.
He’s looking more like a second-wave quarterback despite his strong 2020. In almost every league the fifth or the sixth round is where he should be taken off the board.
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