Marquez Valdes-Scantling Fantasy Output Higher Than Davante Adams' Heading into Week 4

With a reputation for offense, the first three weeks to the 2019 season have been strange for the Green Bay Packers. They sit atop the NFC North at 3-0, but they've done it while scoring only 58 points — the ninth fewest in the NFL — and holding opponents to 35 points — the second fewest in the NFL.

In this surprisingly poor offensive start, top wideout Davante Adams has been held in check, with 15 receptions, 198 yards and no touchdowns. Producing at a slightly higher clip in fantasy football has been Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who was battling with Geronimo Allison for the team's No. 2 WR role heading into the season.

This weird start to the year does make sense when you look at the Packers schedule. Their first three opponents were the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos. All three ranked top-five in Football Outsiders' pass defense DVOA rankings in 2018.

Adams was dealing with some shutdown corners in this time too, including Xavier Rhodes and Chris Harris. That likely helped free up Valdes-Scantling, and both are sitting at 21 targets through two games.

The nature of their production has been different as well. While MVS' touchdown gives him the edge in fantasy numbers, Adams does have both more receptions (15 to 13) and more yards (198 to 170) on the same number of targets.

With double-digit touchdowns in each of the last three seasons, the scoring will come for Adams, and it's not likely that we've suddenly seen a changing of the guard at the top of the Packers' WR depth chart.

Even if he doesn't unseat Adams, this start to the year is incredibly encouraging for Valdes-Scantling's fantasy value, especially once the Packers' matchups start getting easier like they do in Week 4 against the Philadelphia Eagles on "Thursday Night Football."

Despite his slow start to the year, Adams sits sixth among WRs in our Week 4 fantasy football rankings. Valdes-Scantling barely misses the top 36, and if you're thin at WR he still makes for a solid WR3 or flex option this week.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.