Green Bay Packers: Week 7 fantasy football profile
By Kenn Korb
RB – Knile Davis, Don Jackson
Week 6 Statistics:
Davis – 0 carries, 0 rushing yards; 0.00 fantasy points
Jackson – 0 carries, 0 rushing yards; 0.00 fantasy points
This position has seen a dramatic turnover in the past couple weeks.
Leading into last week, Eddie Lacy was a hardly a lock to play due to an ankle injury, but then we came to find out that James Starks was going to be missing the game — and as it turns out, multiple weeks — due to his own injury.
Now, we have been hearing many conflicting thoughts around Lacy again. The past few days I’ve seen the news on Lacy traverse in so many directions: he’s playing, he’s missing the game, he’s likely missing multiple games, he needs to go on IR, no wait he might actually be playing, oh nevermind he’s out. It’s hit every box on the possibility checklist. Due to what else has come to fruition this week though, I’m inclined to believe the third and sixth notes are the ones to take stock in for right now.
A couple days ago, we saw something that hasn’t happened since 2010: an in-season trade by Ted Thompson! He gave up a conditional draft pick with the Chiefs for Davis, who now looks to be the immediate starter. With him is practice-squad call-up Jackson to form one of the more unknown backfield duos we’ve had in a long time.
Though the lack of time with the team probably doesn’t bode well for fantasy production, I think there will be opportunities on the ground: Chicago ranks #20 in Run Defense DVOA so far this year, and will likely try enticing the Packers to run the ball with this new group rather than risk giving Rodgers an opportunity to find himself (though I expect that part to fail them regardless).
If he is actually given a decent amount of usage right off the bat, I think Davis could have a decent day. It’s really hard to discern at this point who will be the focus of the backfield (right now, there are four guys — Davis and Jackson, plus wideouts Cobb and Montgomery — all could/should see chances in the backfield), but it would seem things are lining up well for Davis to get first crack at it.
If he does, Davis had shown to be productive in spurts with the Chiefs (four games with 75+ yards — including two 100+ yard games — and a total of 14 TDs in limited action across 2013-2015) and could possibly do so again. The only worry would be his penchant for fumbles dating back to college (in the pros: 6 fumbles — 3 lost), which is probably a major reason he was overtaken by Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West on the Kansas City depth chart and was even available in the first place.
Should this unfortunate fumbling trend rear its ugly head again, Jackson could see a larger role in this game. If it doesn’t, he should still get a handful of opportunities anyway — Green Bay doesn’t really have many other choices for runners right now — and could make a decent impact.
Something to watch for: outside of Rodgers on scrambles, Green Bay doesn’t yet have a single rushing TD. Those trends don’t tend to hold up this long, and against a defense likely to mostly ignore the running game I wouldn’t be surprised to see somebody carry the ball over the goal line.