Leading up to a huge Week 8 Thursday night game with the Cardinals, Davante Adams’ availability is now in serious question. He was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Monday, and we’ve seen numerous players declared inactive over the past two seasons for this reason. So, is Adams playing in Week 8? We’ll have the latest updates below, as well as how fantasy rankings, waiver pickups, and start ’em, sit ’em decisions will be affected by a possible Adams’ absence.
We’ll continue to update this post with the latest news on Adams as more information rolls in For all the latest fantasy updates, follow us on Twitter @SN_Fantasy.
MORE TNF: FD lineup | DK lineup | Start ’em, sit ’em | MVS injury update
Is Davante Adams playing in Week 8?
UPDATE: Adams reportedly did not travel with the Packers to Arizona, which is as sure of a sign as anything he will not be playing on Thursday night.
UPDATE 2: Both Adams and Lazard are officially OUT for Thursday’s game.
To be available for Week 8, Adams has to turn in two negative tests 24 hours apart. Since the Packers play the Cardinals on Thursday night, it feels rather unlikely that he’ll be able to do just that. That’s not to say it’s impossible, but Adams’ owners need to be ready for a backup plan. This is undoubtedly a huge hit to fantasy lineups, as Adams was a first-round pick in drafts and is a top-three WR in fantasy this season.
WEEK 8 STANDARD RANKINGS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker
In his presumed absence, Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb will likely serve as the No. 1 and No. 2 WRs for Aaron Rodgers. There has been no buzz around the return of Marquez Valdes-Scantling (hamstring), so we’ll assume he won’t make come off the IR this week. We moved Lazard into a fringe WR2 ranking, but truth be told, his ceiling is high but his floor is low. It’s tough to know how the target competition will play out. The talent gap between Adams and any other Packers’ WR is astronomical, so we can’t expect any of them to draw anything close to the number of targets he does week in and week out.
UPDATE: Lazard has also been placed on the COVID list, so it’s likely Cobb and Equimineous St. Brown (and possibly Marquez Valdes-Scantling) are the top wide receivers for the Packers against the Cardinals. (Update: After initially looking like he would play, recent reports suggest MVS is highly unlikely to come off the IR this week. St. Brown and Amari Rodgers are the primary wide receivers after Cobb.)
WEEK 8 PPR RANKINGS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker
That said, the ball does have to go somewhere — and one of the best QBs of all time is throwing it — so Lazard and Cobb have flex value, at the very least. Your best bet might be to grab someone we’ve identified in our best waiver pickups for Week 8 unless you already have depth at the position.
The Packers could opt to just run more or use their TEs and RBs more in the passing game. Either way, Rodgers drops a few spots and is squarely on the start-sit bubble, and Robert Tonyan is a little too volatile to trust in most leagues.
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