• Josh Jacobs leads the Green Bay Packers to victory: The Packers scored touchdowns on their first three drives, methodically moving the ball down the field with the help of their star running back.
• Injuries take their toll on the New Orleans Saints: The Saints’ top player in passing yards and top two players in rushing yards, as well as six of their top nine players in receiving yards this season, were not playing due to injuries.
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Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.
New Orleans Saints @ Green Bay Packers
- Josh Jacobs: 13 carries, 69 yards, 1 touchdown, 4 receptions, 38 receiving yards
- Emanuel Wilson: 11 carries, 52 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 reception, 4 receiving yards
Kendre Miller starts for the Saints: Alvin Kamara was inactive this week with a groin injury.
Miller had been active for only four other games this season, but he was the clear lead backup in each of them. Miller was the lead running back on the first three drives, playing 11 of a possible 15 snaps and running five times. He gained two first downs on those carries but didn’t rack up many yards.
The Packers scored touchdowns on their first three long drives, while the Saints had two punts and a turnover. Although the Saints trusted Miller on multiple third-and-long plays, they didn’t view him as a two-minute drill back this week, even though he took the two-minute drill to end last week.
Luckily, the Saints recommitted to getting Miller the ball to start the second half — providing him two carries and two receptions. However, the Saints quickly had to revert to an offense entirely focused on the passing game.
The Saints have a much more favorable matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders next week. If Kamara misses another week, Miller should have more success. Despite the relatively quiet game, he would still be a borderline fantasy starter.
Saints dig very deep down the wide receiver depth chart: Marquez Valdes-Scantling was inactive this week due to a chest injury and an illness.
The Saints started the season with Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, Bub Means and A.T. Perry as their top wide receivers. The team released Perry, and the other three ended up on injured reserve. Valdes-Scantling was brought in after the Buffalo Bills released him, and he had been New Orleans’ clear top wide receiver. His 352 receiving yards are the second most by a receiver on the team, even though he has caught only 14 passes.
This left the Saints with Cedrick Wilson Jr., Dante Pettis, Kevin Austin Jr. and Mason Tipton at wide receiver. Wilson is the only player the Saints have made any kind of investment in, signing him to a two-year, $5.75 million contract. Pettis joined the team’s practice squad in October, Austin spent the first 10 weeks on the practice squad and Tipton was an undrafted rookie who was a healthy inactive each of the past four games.
They combined for one reception over the first 40 minutes of the game. Typically, any wide receivers with significant playing time are worth some consideration in fantasy football, but these are all players to avoid.
Monitor Christian Watson’s health: Watson was dealing with a knee injury and didn’t play at the end of the game.
Watson started the game by playing 23 of the first 31 snaps. He had played less than 75% of snaps in each of the first 12 weeks. He played more in Weeks 13 and 14 with Romeo Doubs out and stayed above 75% last week when everyone was healthy, thanks to his generally strong play. This would have been another game with a high snap rate for Watson.
He initially suffered the injury in the middle of the second quarter. He returned for a few plays to end the first half, as well as the start of the third quarter. However, he was shown on the sideline getting his knee worked on, and the team officially declared him questionable. The Packers were up by 24 points at this point of the game and were already starting to rotate out other players who were fully healthy, so even a healthy Watson would have stopped playing around this time.
The Packers play the Minnesota Vikings next week. The Vikings have allowed the most fantasy points to wide receivers this season, letting up at least 170 receiving yards to wide receivers in five of their past six games. They’ve also allowed 17 touchdowns to wide receivers in their past 12 games. Whichever wide receivers are healthy should have big games. Romeo Doubs was already the top waiver-wire option of the week, but Dontayvion Wicks also joins the waiver-wire options in case Watson needs to miss a game due to injury. Wicks has been the clear replacement anytime Doubs or Watson have missed time this season, and that remained true in this game.
Luke Musgrave returns to the Packers: Musgrave has been on injured reserve since Week 5 with an ankle sprain.
Musgrave and Tucker Kraft were both early 2023 NFL Draft picks. Musgrave was the primary tight end when healthy last season and had the better ADP of the two heading into this year. However, it was apparent in Week 1 that Kraft was the top tight end on the Packers’ depth chart. Kraft has played at least 82% of offensive snaps in all but three games this season. Two of those outings were when Musgrave was healthy, and the other was in a 28-point blowout.
Kraft was the team’s clear top tight end in this game and made three big plays for 63 total yards. Musgrave was eased into action. Typically, it was John FitzPatrick on the field when the Packers used a two-tight end set. Musgrave’s snaps typically occurred when Kraft was off the field.
Musgrave’s return shouldn’t scare anyone off from starting Kraft next week if you were already planning on starting him. However, we could see Musgrave’s snaps ramp up a little more next week — and even more beyond next week. How snaps are distributed between the two tight ends in Week 18 and the NFL playoffs could determine how early Kraft is drafted in fantasy in 2025.
Miscellaneous Notes
• Saints wide receiver Chris Olave was designated to return earlier in the week. He was limited in practice all week and not activated for this game. If he’s available in your league, it’s worth picking him up in case he plays next week.
• Saints wide receiver Bub Means was designated to return 19 days ago. While he practiced early during the practice period, he hasn’t been practicing recently. It seems unlikely he will get activated to the 53-man roster. The Saints will need to decide on Means by Wednesday.
• The Packers started rotating backups more frequently as early as the third drive of the game — and significantly by the middle of the third quarter. There should be no concerns about Josh Jacobs, Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed or Tucker Kraft based on their playing time in this game.
• Packers wide receiver Malik Heath was a healthy inactive for a second straight week.
Table Notes
• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.
• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver while this data will not.
• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.
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