Green Bay Packers Week 6 Fantasy profile
By Kenn Korb
TE – Richard Rodgers
Week 5 Statistics:
Rodgers – 1 catch, 6 receiving yards; 0.60 fantasy points
With Jared Cook still out with an injury, Green Bay has only one tight end option worth even considering looking towards in the other Rodgers.
This isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, of course.
Rodgers has only 6 catches all season, after all, and is pretty far from being a dynamic option (few things in the NFL are the lock that is Rodgers going down on first contact).
Regardless, this matchup is enticing for a number of reasons.
Part of this starts with the Green Bay offense. The passing game has continued to struggle despite the litany of options at their disposal, and it remains to be seen if the coaches are willing to give some of their under-utilized wideouts.
Even when he isn’t getting targets, Rodgers is going to see snaps — especially without Cook around. Case in point: in the past couple weeks (with Cook getting hurt during the Detroit game), Rodgers has been on the field for over 85% of the team’s offensive snaps.
Putting him out there on routes guarantees nothing in terms of production, but he has a chance if he can find an open space in a zone or a size mismatch.
Another part — and perhaps the more important one — is the matchup itself.
Dallas has not been great against the pass as a whole, but are even worse against tight ends in particular: the Cowboys rank dead last in Defensive DVOA against this position (by a pretty large margin.
Adding to this point, they’ve allowed at least five catches to tight ends in the past four weeks — and they aren’t exactly a murderer’s row of opposition; while one was Jordan Reed of Washington (#10 TE in Pro Football Focus’ rankings), the others were Chicago’s Zach Miller (#15), and Cincinnati’s C.J. Uzomah (#19), and San Francisco’s Garrett Celek (#47).
Rodgers isn’t going to dominate any matchup, but there should be opportunities for him, especially around the end zone and in short-yardage. If you find yourself needing a one-week option at tight end, he might be worth a look.