Fantasy Football Player Notes

There were six running backs who totaled at least 20 carries against the Packers last year. The only one who scored fewer than 16.4 PPR points was Adrian Peterson, who still tallied 76 yards and a touchdown. Cook was one of the running backs who crushed him when he ripped off 154 yards and a touchdown in their Week 2 meeting. That set the tone for the season with the Packers, as they allowed a massive 4.86 yards per carry on the season, which ranked as the fourth most in the league, behind only the Panthers, Jaguars, and Browns. The Packers have to be expecting a run-heavy attack from the Vikings, though that didn't seem to matter last year. Among the nine running backs who totaled at least 15 carries against them last year, none of them averaged less than 3.80 yards per carry, and six of them scored at least one rushing touchdown. This tells us that Cook's floor is extremely high in the matchup. Prior to his injury he suffered in Week 11, Cook had tallied at least 20 carries in 7-of-10 games. That's not even factoring in his receiving upside, which is obviously high in Cousins' first game without Stefon Diggs. Cook should be started as a high-end RB1 and can be placed in cash game lineups as one of the true gamescript-proof running backs.

After an injury-plagued 2019 season, Thielen returns to the lineup as the clear-cut target hog in this offense. Even with Stefon Diggs on the team back in 2017 and 2018, Thielen averaged 9.3 targets per game. Now dealing with a rookie (Justin Jefferson) who missed training camp, as well as a newly-acquired wide receiver (Tajae Sharpe). The defense has taken a step back after losing five starters, so we're going to see more pass attempts this season. The Packers have Jaire Alexander sticking at left cornerback most of the time, but you have to wonder if they have him shadow Thielen considering the lack of surrounding talent on the Vikings wide receiver depth chart. Thielen moves all over the formation and won't be at one position more than 40 percent of the time, but Alexander is a solid cornerback who's constantly improving in his young career. He's not untouchable, though. He allowed 8.22 yards per target last year while allowing a touchdown every 20.8 targets in his coverage. This game has the potential to go upside down for the Vikings, which would leave Thielen with plenty of opportunities. He should see a minimum of eight targets, with a ceiling well into the double digits. The matchup isn't great, but it's not bad enough to move Thielen out of the low-end WR1/high-end WR2 territory this week.

Jefferson is going to be the slot receiver in this offense, which means that he isn't going to be on the field as much as we would like to see right away. Jefferson should still see 4-5 targets in this game, but that simply won't be enough to be relevant for fantasy football.

With Rudolph on the roster, it's unlikely that Smith ever sees enough volume to be start-worthy in fantasy football this season.

Mattison was fantastic when called upon last year, but let's not pretend he was getting nearly enough touches to be relied upon in a fantasy lineup. With Cook healthy, there were just three games all season where he saw double-digit carries, and the Vikings won each of those games by double-digits. I don't see that happening this week, making Mattison an RB4/5-type option.

Johnson is reportedly the WR2 on this Vikings team, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's someone worth starting for fantasy football. He certainly has the opportunity in front of him to prove the doubters wrong, but he has to do it first before we can consider plugging him into our fantasy football lineups.