Early Look at Rodgers’ & Grant’s Fantasy Values

Posted by Danny Goldin on June 1, 2010   Jump To Comments

You’ll come to know me as the “fantasy” guy for this blog. This will become much more apparent once the season approaches and gets underway, as I’ll provide some more in-depth-type-shiz when that happens. Basically, I’m the big d-bag at the bar that will be seen cheering after witnessing Chris Johnson just get me his fourth touchdown of the day, only to get evil stares from everyone else after realizing that I completely missed the fact that Mason Crosby just missed a 34-yard field goal.

Missed field goals by Mason Crosby become a lot more bearable when you aren't watching them. This process can save many remotes from being thrown across the room.

Anyway, here’s an early look at where the two most demanded Packers stack up in the fantasy ranks. Key word here is “early”, as things will could change based on training camp, preseason and whatnot. I’ll touch on the rest of the Packers in a later post.

Aaron Rodgers – I discussed Rodgers’ “real-life” rank in one of my previous posts, coming to the conclusion that he was the fourth-best overall quarterback after the Big 3 of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees. When it comes to fantasy, however, the consensus seems to be that he’s No. 2 behind only Brees, based on most of the prominent experts’ rankings right now. He and Brees are probably the only two QBs you  can consider in the first round, and honestly, I wouldn’t be at all scared to take Rodgers ahead of Brees as the No. 1 quarterback off the board (though I personally like to go running back early, so I probably won’t end up with either on any of my teams this year).

Rodgers was the top point scorer among quarterbacks last season, and actually by a considerable margin. His ability to gain yards on the run, and score on the ground, gives him an edge over all the other top fantasy gunslingers (Brees, Brady, P. Manning, Rivers and Schaub). I don’t see Rodgers regressing anywhere statistically, and if anything, he could improve in his third season under center. Feel free to take him as the first quarterback off the board, and don’t feel like you’re being too much of a homer when you do it. Hey, the more reason to root for Rodgers, the better!

With many teams going to two or three-back systems, Ryan Grant is one of the few backs that doesn't have to worry much about sharing carries.

Ryan Grant – I have a secret, and hopefully this doesn’t result in a Danny Goldin Brent Favre blog banishment: I don’t think that Grant is a very good real-life running back. He’s not all that strong, doesn’t always hit the hole hard, is far from elusive/shifty and has good-but-not-great speed.

Still, that doesn’t stop him from being a bonafide fantasy back, because he has two major things going his way: a lack of competition for carries (both between the 20s and at the goal line) and a high-scoring offense to move the chains. That lack of competition has allowed him to surpass 1,200 rushing yards each of the past two seasons despite a mediocre 4.1 yards per carry over the two combined years. There are a number of backs with much more upside, but when you consider the two aforementioned factors, along with the fact that he’s quite durable, there are few safer picks at the halfback position. Add it all up, and he should be a mid-to-late second-round pick (which obviously depends on how many teams are in your league, but whatever) and somewhere between the 10^th to 15^th running back off the board.

You can e-mail Danny at dgoldin@brentfavre.com