Kirk Cousins

King of garbage time? That may be the case for Captain Kirk in Week 8 in a tough matchup with Green Bay. This squad has been much better against the pass than against the run, and Minnesota will likely lean on Dalvin Cook. If Green Bay builds an early lead, however, Cousins could be in line for some garbage time scoring. Hey, points are points, right?

Cousins has not looked stellar the past few weeks, but he's getting it done for fantasy football with garbage time production. This should be another high-scoring matchup, which puts Cousins in the streaming conversation. It might not be pretty, but he should do enough to finish as a high-end QB2 against Green Bay.

It wasn't pretty, but in the end, Cousins came through with 23.7 fantasy points against the Falcons in Week 6, living up to the streamer we'd hoped he'd be. It's been an odd year for Cousins, who already has 10 interceptions through six games. Over the previous 31 games, he had just 16 interceptions. The Vikings have him pushing the ball down the field, and the defense is continually putting them in a bad spot. It's not going to change as the Vikings have apparently started the rebuild process, so we should continue to see Cousins playing from behind. That's what happened the first time they played the Packers this year, though they only ran 52 offensive plays in that game. If they can stay on the field a bit longer, it would help. The Packers have faced just 60.0 plays per game, which ranks as the fifth-lowest in the NFL, but from an efficiency standpoint, they allow the sixth-most fantasy points per offensive play. Quarterbacks have completed 71.0 percent of their passes against them, which ranks fourth behind only the Falcons, Jaguars, and Jets. If the Packers were to face more volume, they'd be in trouble. That's where the issues lie, though. The Vikings have averaged just 59.3 plays per game, which is the third-lowest number in football, so when you combine that with the Packers 60.0 plays per game allowed, it presents a much lower floor than we'd like. It's also why we've seen a limited ceiling for opposing quarterbacks against them, though 5-of-6 quarterbacks have thrown multiple touchdowns. Cousins should be considered a middling QB2 for this game who'd outperform expectations if the Vikings could run 60-plus plays.