2020 fantasy football primer: Green Bay Packers

It sure doesn’t feel like football season.

Without the long grind of a four-game preseason schedule or countless stories about how Player X is in The Best Shape of His Life, it’s difficult for our sports brains to understand the fact that football is indeed right around the corner.

Luckily, in the tumultuous year of 2020, one consistency we can rely on is getting together with family and friends to trash talk about fantasy football.

We know your draft is coming up. So, where can you select your favorite Green Bay Packers players?

It should come as no surprise: If you want Davante Adams on your roster, you’ll need to act quickly. He’s flying off the board early as a WR1.

Adams is everything you’d want in a top fantasy receiver. His production is indisputable, having collected double-digit touchdowns in three consecutive years from 2016-18. Since 2016, no one has scored more receiving touchdowns than Adams (40).

The veteran also stays relatively healthy. Adams has appeared in 14+ contests in four of six seasons since he was selected in the second round of the 2014 draft.

And most importantly, quarterback Aaron Rodgers trusts him more than anyone. Despite missing four games in 2019, Adams finished eighth in the NFL in red-zone receptions (12) and 11th in red-zone targets (18). That’s an average of 1.5 targets inside the 20-yard line per game.

In a standard fantasy football league with 12 teams, Adams is projected to go early in the second round of drafts.

We looked at five leaders in the fantasy industry — ESPN, CBS, Yahoo Sports, Fantasy Football Calculator and Fantasy Pros — to search each site’s average draft position (ADP) assigned to Packers players, based on the opinions of experts and results of online drafts.

Aside from Adams, it appears there are seven other Packers players to keep an eye on as you build your teams through the annual snake draft.

And why wouldn’t he? Jones led the league in touchdowns last season (16) and ranked eighth with 1,558 total yards from scrimmage. Plus, head coach Matt LaFleur is adamant about sticking to the running game, shown again by the Packers not selecting a wide receiver in a deep 2020 draft class.

If you strike out on Jones, rookie A.J. Dillon should be available midway through the 13th round. Rookie running backs are always a gamble in fantasy football, especially so this year without having four preseason games to get accustomed to NFL game speed. But Dillon and his 6-foot-4, 247-pound frame should be able to adjust with no problem.

Jamaal Williams, who has shared duties in the backfield with Jones since 2017 but will likely have a lesser role this season, should be available in the last few rounds for some RB depth.

Is Aaron Rodgers a sleeper? That might sound silly, but ESPN ranks Rodgers as its 11th-best fantasy quarterback, even behind Buffalo’s Josh Allen. While Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes and reigning MVP Lamar Jackson are going in the first two rounds, Rodgers can be grabbed as late as the eighth.

According to those five sites, Allen Lazard is the only other Packers offensive player worth drafting in the first 15 rounds. The former undrafted free agent found a role in Green Bay’s offense midway through the 2019 season and, with the news of Devin Funchess opting out of the 2020 campaign, Lazard will likely be the No. 2 option in the passing game behind Adams.

If you miss on all other Packers players, Mason Crosby is always a nice pickup in the last round. At age 35, Crosby nailed 22 of 24 field-goal attempts last season, notching the best clip (91.7%) of his 13-year career.

Finally, the Packers defense isn’t projected to be a top-tier fantasy defense, but another campaign with the Smith Brothers should bring plenty of sacks.

Now that you know where to draft your favorite players, all that’s left is coming up with that perfect team name …