Green Bay Packers: Week 8 fantasy football profile
By Kenn Korb
TE – Richard Rodgers
Week 7 Statistics:
Rodgers – 1 catch (1 target), 7 receiving yards; 0.70 fantasy points
Another week, another virtually non-existant showing from Green Bay’s tight end position — and it isn’t likely to end anytime soon.
Jared Cook was asked earlier this week about if he would be returning to practice soon. His answer: “I wish.”
If Cook were able to get on the field, his presence alone might be enough to allow the offense to do some new things and take some decent shots downfield. Without him, all we are left with at tight end is Rodgers, who has a grand total of 17 targets, 9 catches, 84 yards, and 1 TD through six games.
Last week had plenty of good signs for the offense as a whole, but one of my favorites is probably a lower usage of this ever-underwhelming tight end position. Out of the 87 offensive snaps (huge amount, by the way) available, Rodgers was only on the field for 48 of them (55%).
I would expect that number stays somewhere around that percentage, if only to keep an extra big body for expected running plays (though that’s still not a great idea either; Rodgers is 58th in PFF’s run blocking grades for TEs) and a few passes (surprisingly he ranks #9 in pass blocking for tight ends by their metrics, though that says more about the state of pass blocking for the tight end spot — not a single qualified player even grades out above a 79 — than his actual ability in this regard).
While it would be nice to see the Hail Mary Hero have a decent showing again for once, it seems more likely a unicorn will be catching passes over the middle with regularity than Rodgers being a worthy play on your fantasy team anytime soon.