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Week 1 is in the books for the Green Bay Packers and it was a rollercoaster of emotion. It was hard to care about fantasy football during that long hour that we thought Rodger’s season was over before it even began. Instead of having the season collapse all around us, we saw perhaps Rodgers’ greatest feat yet and got some great fantasy scoring to cap it off.
After falling into a 20-point hole, the game needed to become an air raid for the Packers to get back into it. The wide receiver mainstays were the beneficiary of this and hope to carry this momentum into a tough matchup against Minnesota next week.
Stock Up
Aaron Rodgers, QB/Deity
The headline is not hyperbole. Despite missing a few series with a knee injury, Aaron Rodgers came back into the game after halftime and proceeded to crush Bears fans’ dreams. He wasn’t able to move around and scramble like we’re used to seeing, but he still erased a 20-0 deficit by throwing 3 TDs in the second half. Not being able to put a whole lot of weight on your lead leg in your throwing motion would cripple any other QB’s performance, but Rodgers was still deadly accurate and dropping dimes.
In standard PPR, Rodgers scored the 5th-most points for quarterbacks on Sunday and said he should be good to go next week against Minnesota. The Packers season is still alive, and so is your fantasy team.
Randall Cobb, WR
This might be the comeback season for Cobb. Admittedly, I’ve been low on Cobb for quite a while now and would still be hesitant to start him next week. But in a contract year, Cobb proved to be a valuable weapon in the Packers’ comeback — getting the go-ahead score on a 75-yard touchdown scamper. This could be an outlier performance, but Cobb led the team in targets with 10 so that kind of attention is intriguing.
Leading the team in fantasy scoring, Cobb grabbed 9 of those targets for 142 yards and a touchdown.
Davante Adams, WR
Adams was quiet in the first half and it didn’t help that Rodgers missed time with injury. The entire offense was sputtering before QB1 went out and it looked like at one point Adams tweaked his leg in the first quarter. Like Rodgers, though, I can only assume that they brought both players into the shop at half and replaced some parts. Adams finished the day tearing up corners with shifty moves and finding the endzone.
Last season, Adams only played one game against the Vikings, but came away with five catches, 54 yards and one touchdown for a 16-point fantasy day. And that was with mostly Brett Hundley. Adams is still a safe start.
Stock Down
Jamaal Williams, RB
Williams’ best play last night came on a blitz pickup to help keep the pocket clean late in the game. There wasn’t much happening for the running back and his 15 attempts only yielded 47 yards. Not that there were wide running lanes for the BYU product, but Williams isn’t a back who can turn nothing into something. His fantasy value at this point is pretty dependent on him finding the endzone.
Next weekend against the Vikings will be a tougher look for him. The door is still open for Aaron Jones to take the lead back spot back when he returns from suspension.
Jimmy Graham, TE
Graham was largely absent in his regular season debut, only getting four targets. The Bears made it difficult for Graham to get a clean release off the line of scrimmage, but it also looked slightly like Rodgers was going back to the classics when the comeback was on (Cobb, Adams and Geronimo Allison).
It should be noted that of the three touchdown passes from the Packers on Sunday night, only one of those (to Adams) was from within the red zone. Graham will be most valuable in the red zone until he builds that connection with Rodgers.