Thursday Night Preview-Week 8

It is Thursday Night Football time once again, and we should have a good one on our hands as the Packers head to Arizona to take on the Cardinals. We have two teams who have combined for 13 wins on the season, but the bad news is that the Packers will be without their top passing options in Davante Adams and Allen Lazard. This is a huge hit for Rodgers and the team, as he won’t be able to rely on Adams like he usually does, and he will have to find a different way to win.

The Cardinals have been red hot this season and they remain undefeated, but this is a matchup where they could finally get their first loss, even with Adams out. The Cardinals defense looks rock solid and they do get Chandler Jones back this week. Unfortunately, they will be without JJ Watt for the rest of the season. Even with Watt out, they have enough pieces coming back that they should be fine. They lucked out that they do not have to find a way to slow down Adams, which has proven troublesome for just about every team he’s faced.

Well, let us get the TE spot out of the way, which is what I like to do, since it’s usually the least interesting skill position to talk about. Zach Ertz had a great game last week in his introductory game for the Cardinals. He should be a fine play this week as well and should provide a safe floor. Although Ertz may not become that top 5 TE after the trade, his presence does hurt AJ Green, Christian Kirk, and Rondale Moore, as his targets have to come from somewhere, and they will be taken away from them. Now, I am not a fan of Robert Tonyan this season, but with all the WRs out this week, Tonyan should be forced more targets, especially in the red zone. The Cards have played great against TEs, so I still will not be surprised if he falls on his face.

The QBs in this should be fun to watch. We have the former MVP going up against an MVP favorite for this season. Murray looks as good as ever and he has so many weapons on that team that he can really go anywhere. So even if Nuk is never open down field, I wouldn’t worry. What Murray can do with his legs makes him a top 3 QB going forward, and you can expect another 20 plus point game this week. Rodgers is without his top weapons, but what we have learned about Rodgers is that it may not matter. If he is forced to throw a lot to keep up with the Cards, he will find a way to put up points regardless, and you may see a big game out of Aaron Jones in the passing game (I’ll talk about that later).

Now let’s talk about the Cardinals WRs. You of course are starting Hopkins without any question, even if he was limited in practice all week, but the other options are sort of a toss up. We have seen all three in Kirk, Green, and Moore have big games, but when one of them go off, the others do not do much. All three are hard to consider starting each week and I am fine if you do not start any of them. Again, the addition of Ertz will take targets away from them as well. If I had to pick one, I would pick Green, but all three are startable with you banking on them getting a TD.

As for the Packers WRs, I am not really sure what the hell is going on. Who do you trust? Who the hell is even going to play? Well, let’s figure that out. While writing this, I am now seeing that MVS, who we thought could be a nice dart throw tonight, will not be activated off IR. So there is another WR option Rodgers won’t have. Not a big MVS guy anyways, but he gives Rodgers that deep ball play once in a while and he could have used that tonight. The options for Rodgers tonight are shaping up to be Randall Cobb, Amari Rogers, Equanimeous St. Brown, & Juwann Winfree (just brought up from practice squad). I would like to not start any of them, but someone has to catch the ball and if I had to start one, it would be Randall Cobb. He has already had a big game this year and could be the target hog tonight. The other ones could pop off, but I am not risking my fantasy lineup and banking on that. You want to use these guys in DFS since they are dirt cheap, go for it, but keep them out of your fantasy lineups, besides Cobb.

As for the RBs tonight, you are starting Aaron Jones no matter what, even with a bad game last week. He could be the main focus of this offense and he should see a lot of targets as well with so many WRs out for the Packers. As for his backup AJ Dillon, I would not play him unless you are desperate and he really should only be on teams that own Aaron Jones as a handcuff. For the Cards, I do like Chase Edmonds a lot tonight coming off his highest carry total last week. He has yet to score a TD, but I would bet (I actually am betting this) that he gets his first TD of the season tonight. James Conner has been a fine play all season and one of the biggest surprises so far, so he can be viewed as a flex play. Please stop taking TDs away from Edmonds will ya?!

Well there you have it. Will Aaron Rodgers be able to give the Cardinals their first loss without his top weapons? Or will the Cardinals and Kyler exploit that and shove it down their throats? This should be a good one and we usually don’t have many good TNF games, so enjoy!

Take your Thursday Night players out of your flex spots, and as always… Stay Fluid, Stay Loose!