The NFL Draft has come and gone, free agency has slowed to a crawl, and OTA’s and mandatory minicamps have wrapped. With the lull in activity, it’s the perfect time to step back, breathe, and take stock of where teams stand in terms of fantasy value. There’s still plenty to learn for fantasy managers. Whether you’re gearing up for a Dynasty rookie draft or just can’t wait until mid-July when training camps open, Belly Up Fantasy Sports has you covered. Let’s get started with our look at the 2022 Green Bay Packers, position-by-position.

Note: All 2021 fantasy point totals and rankings are PPR unless otherwise noted.

2022 Green Bay Packers Fantasy Preview: Quarterback

The offseason drama that plagued the Packers in 2021 received a quick and merciful death when Aaron Rodgers agreed to a contract extension that keeps him in Titletown at least for the 2022 season, if not the foreseeable future. With that, the Jordan Love era was delayed once again, and Cheeseheads everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.

Or rather, they should have.

30-plus years of Hall of Fame-caliber quarterback play have spoiled Packer fans. There’ve been many more ups than downs, many more wins than losses. Under Rodgers, there’ve also been many, MANY more touchdowns than interceptions. While every other NFL team NOT based in Foxboro, Massachusetts has cycled through a seemingly endless stream of starting quarterbacks, the Packers have been blessed with remarkable stability at perhaps the most important position in team sports. That stability and success have translated well to the fantasy world. While Brett Favre was generally a volatile gamble due to his penchant for throwing interceptions, Rodgers has been historically adept at protecting the football, meaning fantasy managers have – more often than not – reaped the full benefits of his offensive prowess.

Quarterback Bottom Line

Despite all this, the fantasy world is downgrading Rodgers this season. The surprising loss of his top target Davante Adams and the relative lack of star power in the Packers’ receiving room will be kryptonite for the Green Bay Superman. At least, that’s the narrative.

Well, since 2015, Rodgers has had a 112.7 passer rating in 11 games without Adams. His stats in those games extrapolate to about 4,320 yards, 37 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions for a full 17-game season. The yardage total would exceed his 2021 stats. The 37 touchdowns would match last year’s total. 112.7 would not only best his 2021 rating (111.9), but would be the 15th-best season of all time. Rodgers shows no signs of physical decline. If improving on an MVP season and delivering the 15th-best season in history is a downgrade, I’ll gladly pay the discount for it. Reports of Rodgers’s fantasy demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Packers Fantasy Preview: Running Back

Ah, the enigma that is the Packer backfield. For years, fantasy managers screamed for the Packers to use Aaron Jones to his full potential. They got their wish, and Jones got the bag.

And then the Packers did what the Packers do, and gave the fantasy community something else to scream about when they drafted AJ Dillon. Dillon gifted the Packers and his fantasy managers with a very productive year on the ground. As a pleasant surprise, he also proved himself to be very capable and efficient in the passing game. Suddenly, Green Bay has not one, but two very good all-purpose backs. While that is a great prospect for the Packer offense, it has some in the fantasy world terrified. Is this – *GASP* – a committee!?!?

Running Back Bottom Line

Jones and Dillon finished last season as RB11 and RB23 overall, respectively. In theory, if all you had was the two Packer backs on your roster, you still had an RB1 and an RB2. You could’ve done way worse. Even if you want to classify this as a committee backfield, this is a committee that’s getting things done. No pointless meetings that could’ve been an email. Likewise, no self-congratulatory “Old Business” minutes while putting off the decisions for next time. No watching Brenda do all the work only for Scott to get all the credit, even though his only job was to bring in donuts three weeks ago and he COULDN’T EVEN DO THAT. No, this committee is much closer to Cleveland’s Nick Chubb/Kareem Hunt committee than your office safety committee or a Bill Belichick or Mike Shanahan fantasy disaster.

There should be plenty of opportunities for both Jones and Dillon to produce. Add to that the rumblings that Jones may take on more of a Christian McCaffrey role, splitting out wide and running downfield routes. We know there are targets available in this offense thanks to the wide receiver losses. Even if Dillon takes over as the primary early-down back (not a given), more opportunities for Jones as a Swiss-Army knife would help offset that change in dynamics. Unlike some others, I’m not ready to put Dillon ahead of Jones in the rankings just yet, barring further developments. If you can end up with either as your RB2 or a FLEX option, you should see a good return on that investment. You might even get Jones at a slight discount in light of Dillon’s recent fantasy-darling status.

Packers Fantasy Preview: Wide Receivers

To those looking for some clarity on the Packers’ receiving situation, I offer this sage advice: get back to me around week five. Gone are the days of Davante Adams and his 27.6 percent cumulative target share over the past four seasons. Gone is last year’s nominal WR2 in the person of Marquez Valdes-Scantling. Allen Lazard will now attempt to take on WR1 duties for Rodgers. Sammy Watkins will try (and fail) once again to play up to the level his name recognition suggests. Randall Cobb will do his best to be relevant for more than one game every month. A host of rookies will vie for Rodgers’s trust and a healthy share of the targets left behind by the aforementioned exiles. And Packer fans will continue to watch the contract situations of Julio Jones and Odell Beckham (all the while forgetting that it’s not 2016 anymore.)

Wide Receiver Bottom Line

At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to who will ultimately rise to the top of the Green Bay receiving corps. Cobb has Rodgers’s all-important trust. Watkins has a recognizable name (and a fifth different jersey in nine seasons). The rookies have all the tools (per Rodgers’s own words.) But Lazard has something none of them do (for the moment): his name next to “WR1” on the depth chart. And he is about as under-the-radar as a guy can get as the WR1 for the 2022 Green Bay Packers.

Of the top 50 scoring wide receivers in fantasy for 2021, only four players scored more fantasy points per target than Lazard. The top scorer in that respect, Deebo Samuel, did so largely on the back of eight rushing touchdowns, greatly inflating his ranking for that stat. In that same group of 50 receivers, however, only Cedrick Wilson had fewer targets per game. There are over 200 targets available in this offense. Lazard has Rodgers’s trust. And he’s a 6’5″, 227-pound red zone target on a team with a starting tight end questionable to return for the start of the season. He’s currently going around the 11th to the 13th rounds as WR47 or worse by ADP. At that value, Lazard is a league-winner type selection. Grab Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson in Dynasty (in that order, value-wise), but don’t sleep on #13 in 2022.

Packers Fantasy Preview: Tight End

For whatever reason, tight end just has not been a fantasy-friendly position for the Packers in the Aaron Rodgers era. There’ve been plenty of talented individuals line up there for Green Bay. Every other year or so, the Packers make a signing that gets the fantasy world buzzing. Lance Kendricks, Martellus Bennett, Jared Cook, Jimmy Graham. Yet outside of Robert Tonyan and an impossibly efficient 2020 season, no Packer tight end has had a top-10 finish since Jermichael Finley was TE9 in 2011. Marcedes Lewis will continue as an offensive tackle capable of red zone targets. Tyler Davis will continue living the dream on special teams and scout offense.

Tight End Bottom Line

The two tight ends worth discussing on the 2022 Green Bay Packers roster are Tonyan and Josiah Deguara. We touched on Tonyan’s 2020 season. He caught over 88 percent of his targets and scored a touchdown on better than one-in-five receptions. That kind of efficiency cannot hold. Indeed, before his season-ending 2021 injury, Tonyan’s efficiency had dropped markedly. The Packers are hoping to have him back for the start of the regular season. Recent reports, however, have a stint on the PUP list to start the season as a real possibility.

When he finally does return, Tonyan appears to be the TE1 in this offense, for what that’s worth. Deguara, though, played well as a receiver in his place last year. Lewis is almost exclusively a blocker at this point in his career, but Deguara proved to be a reliable option last season. He would figure to be the biggest beneficiary among tight ends if Tonyan misses time. Deguara caught balls at over a 75 percent clip in 2021 and proved to have some explosive ability. On the year, only Valdes-Scantling had a longer reception than Deguara’s 62-yard touchdown in Week 18 against Detroit. While I’m not taking or recommending either in redraft formats, they will be on my radar as the season progresses. Deguara is definitely worth the add in Dynasty formats, as he should be available for cheap either off the wire or for minimal trade capital.

Green Bay Packers Fantasy Preview: Peripherals

At some point, perhaps the entire fantasy world will move past kickers and team defense/special teams, but not this day. For the record, I’m neither here nor there on this issue. Are kickers and defenses almost impossible to reliably, and consistently evaluate from a fantasy standpoint? Yes. Should they only ever be taken in the last two rounds of your draft? Yes. Do you need to roster a backup for either? No. Is your energy better spent elsewhere for the most part? Yes. But many leagues still use them for standard roster construction, so we will talk (ever-so-briefly) about them here.

Peripherals Bottom Line

Mason Crosby is coming off his second-worst season in terms of field-goal percentage. To counter that, he attempted his fourth-most extra point attempts last season and can still be effective from 50+. He’s not a top-flight kicker (fantasy or otherwise) anymore, but he’s a usable option. If your league allows leaving the draft without a kicker, you can do worse than Crosby as a Sunday morning plug-in to be roster compliant. Defensively, the 2022 Green Bay Packers look to be a mid-to-upper-level fantasy defense with a good pass rush and a secondary capable of turnovers. The addition of Rich Bisaccia as Special Teams coach should help this unit improve. They’re not a set-and-forget DST, but again, you can do worse. Play the match-ups, as they get both New York teams and Washington in addition to four games against Chicago and Detroit.

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