Aaron Rodgers threw the ball 61 times in Sunday’s 18-16 loss to the Detroit Lions. You would have thought that would result in a fantasy bonanza for his receivers.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Davante Adams caught 10 balls and was targeted 21 times but managed only 79 yards and didn’t find the end zone. Randall Cobb grabbed five balls for 53 yards. Overall, four pass-catchers wound up between 53-58 yards, including the unheralded Justin Perillo. Having caught just two NFL passes before Sunday, Perillo caught five balls for 58 yards and a score.
Are we seeing the unseating of Richard Rodgers as the Packers‘ top tight end? Let’s take a look at their pass-catching situation and figure it all out from a fantasy perspective.
Randall Cobb
Cobb’s quietly been one of the most disappointing fantasy receivers in 2015. Expected to emerge as an All-Pro in Jordy Nelson‘s absence, Cobb’s instead on pace to have a significantly worse campaign than a year ago. He’s scored once since his three-touchdown outburst against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 28, and his 53-yard performance Sunday is actually his second-best yardage total in that time.
Some of this is the result of Rodgers not piling up the yardage and touchdowns. Still, James Jones entered the week as the Packers’ leading receiver despite barely having half as many receptions as Cobb. Jones and Cobb fill different roles within the offense, but Cobb has to start doing more with his chances to be much more than a WR2 in points-per-reception leagues.
In standard leagues, he’s a shaky flex play at this point.
Davante Adams
Bright side: The Davante Adams of the last two weeks is the one we expected when Nelson went down. He has 17 receptions for 172 yards in that time frame, making him a usable WR2 in PPR leagues and a flex play in standards.
Not-so-bright side: Rodgers has thrown 109 times over the last two weeks. In his first seven games, Rodgers didn’t throw more than 35 times once. This isn’t sustainable. It’s promising that Adams has seemingly usurped Jones as the offense’s co-star with Cobb, but it’s hard to trust him to keep up this production.
Adams is probably worth plugging into your starting roster at this point. Just don’t expect him to emerge as the Packers’ WR1 over the season’s second half. It’s pretty clear at this point Rodgers is going to spread the ball around.
Justin Perillo
Did Richard Rodgers’ legs fall off? Was there an upswing of fantasy leagues requiring two starting tight ends that I was previously unaware of? Are you a member of Justin Perillo’s family?
If the answer is “no” to all of those questions, there is no reason to consider Perillo a viable fantasy option. Sometimes weird things just happen, folks. This was one of ’em.
Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.
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