On Target: Devaluing Davante

This article is part of our On Target series.

Overall Targets
(Click to sort)

Red Zone Conversion Percentage
(Click to sort)

Scott Chandler is the most recent man to attain fantasy relevance as the result of a New England Patriots offensive skill position player injury. At this point, I'm basically expecting them to have to bring back Moss and Troy Brown. They've lost Dion Lewis, Julian Edelman and now Rob Gronkowski, which constitutes their three best offensive players. I'm not sure how Tom Brady and the Patriots offense will look the rest of the way. Brady is great but his numbers without Gronk the last two seasons have not been as great as you'd want them to be (he's about 30 percent better than his mid-sevens adjusted yards per attempt when throwing to Gronk). Chandler proved himself to be a capable player while in Buffalo and has done so again thus far in the young season. I don't have a good sense if the Gronk injury will impact the number of two-TE sets the Patriots run but Chandler has done a good bit of work basically splitting wide and playing as a wide receiver. I think there is a chance this could be similar to the magical year when Dallas Clark got injured and Jacob Tamme scored a touchdown per game for the rest of the season. The Pats are dangerously thin on bodies and we know that Brady looks for him in the red zone.

Finally, I want to talk about how bad Davante Adams has played. He's now risen over 60 targets without a touchdown and is honestly bringing the entire Green Bay offense down with his presence. The former Fresno State stud just doesn't appear to have what it takes to run with NFL corners. He's taking stupid penalties like lining up offside (on offense! How do you do that?) and has on his own, created interceptions by getting blocked off from the ball. I was never on the Adams hype train after Jordy Nelson got injured but I did believe he would return value, relatively, just being in an offense with Aaron Rodgers. It turns out, replacing Nelson with a below-replacement level player makes an offense struggle. This is the worst that Rodgers has looked in years and I have a real solution. You guys cannot laugh, because it's actually gotten to the point that this is the best idea for the Packers, not just people yelling on the internet. Jeff Janis HAS to play. Adams isn't fast, Randall Cobb only ran a 4.5 despite being short, James Starks and Eddie Lacy aren't fast, and James Jones certainly isn't fast. Who takes the top off? Who makes the safeties creep back a yard or two? Who makes the cornerbacks nervous of being burnt? Not one of these guys does that. Janis, in his short time on the field, has drawn a DPI 50 yards down the field and gone 90 yards on three NFL targets. I know Mike McCarthy is an avid Rotowire fan so I hope he takes these words to heart: Pedigree doesn't matter once you don't perform. Adams will likely score a touchdown or two this season just based on regression but I am off of him for fantasy purposes for awhile. He's simply not working in what is a historically efficient offense.