Andrew Weber-US Presswire
In my third installment of overrated articles, we look to the north to the land of the frozen tundra, Lambeau Field.
Being a native from the land of the green gold, I truly love my Green Bay Packers, which is why this article is so difficult to write. The Packers are known to have one of the greatest receiving corps in all of the NFL, even with the loss of the recently-departed Greg Jennings to the Minnesota Vikings.
They bring into each game multiple talented players like Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson and James Jones. In terms of fantasy value, Cobb is expected to be the player who produces the biggest numbers for team owners who draft him.
However, don’t be so quick to jump on the back of the Cobb bandwagon.
The Packers have been a pass-heavy team throughout the past few seasons. This can be problematic in the fantasy football world. Aaron Rodgers spreads the ball around to multiple players, having no favorite target to look for down the field. Rodgers threw for 39 total touchdowns during the 2012 regular season. Only eight of those touchdowns were caught by Cobb.
Cobb is ranked as the eighth-best receiver in this year’s draft, sitting behind some big time NFL receivers including Calvin Johnson, Brandon Marshall and A.J. Green. Part of the reason Cobb is ranked so high may be due to the Packers’ recent loss of Jennings. The logic here is that without one of the Packers’ main receivers, Cobb will be targeted much more and play a bigger part in their offense.
The flaw found in this logic is that when Jennings was battling through injuries and only managed to start five games in 2012, Cobb came up short of the 1,000 yard mark and Rodgers still threw the ball to anyone on the field with two hands.
The Packers have recently announced that Cobb will have limited or no attempts at kickoff returns in the 2013 season. So for those of you who are in a league which includes kick return yards and/or touchdowns from kick returns, Cobb is not the man who will award you with those points.
Bringing all the pieces together on Cobb, we have a receiver who hasn’t topped the 1,000 yard mark, brought in only eight of the many touchdowns his team accumulated last season, and won’t be adding any kick return touchdowns to his stat column in the upcoming season.
Cobb is a great player to have on your roster but if you were thinking of using a high draft pick on him, think again. Consider yourself forewarned.
Check out Tristen’s Overrated Part One and Part Two for further fantasy draft advise.
Tristen Challe is a fantasy writer for Rantsports you can follow him on twitter @TristenChalle
