Is Davante Adams playing Week 8 after being placed on COVID list? Fantasy injury update ahead of Packers-Cardinals Thursday night matchup

Leading up to a huge Week 8 Thursday night game with the Cardinals, Davante Adams’ availability is now in serious question. He was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Monday, and we’ve seen numerous players declared inactive over the past two seasons for this reason. So, is Adams playing in Week 8? We’ll have the latest updates below, as well as how fantasy rankings, waiver pickups, and start ’em, sit ’em decisions will be affected by a possible Adams’ absence.

We’ll continue to update this post with the latest news on Adams as more information rolls in For all the latest fantasy updates, follow us on Twitter @SN_Fantasy. 

Is Davante Adams playing in Week 8?

To be available for Week 8, Adams has to turn in two negative tests 24 hours apart. Since the Packers play the Cardinals on Thursday night, it feels rather unlikely that he’ll be able to do just that. That’s not to say it’s impossible, but Adams’ owners need to be ready for a backup plan. This is undoubtedly a huge hit to fantasy lineups, as Adams was a first-round pick in drafts and is a top-three WR in fantasy this season.

WEEK 8 STANDARD RANKINGS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker

In his presumed absence, Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb will likely serve as the No. 1 and No. 2 WRs for Aaron Rodgers. There has been no buzz around the return of Marquez Valdes-Scantling (hamstring), so we’ll assume he won’t make come off the IR this week. We moved Lazard into a fringe WR2 ranking, but truth be told, his ceiling is high but his floor is low. It’s tough to know how the target competition will play out. The talent gap between Adams and any other Packers’ WR is astronomical, so we can’t expect any of them to draw anything close to the number of targets he does week in and week out.

WEEK 8 PPR RANKINGS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker

That said, the ball does have to go somewhere — and one of the best QBs of all time is throwing it — so Lazard and Cobb have flex value, at the very least. Your best bet might be to grab someone we’ve identified in our best waiver pickups for Week 8 unless you already have depth at the position.

The Packers could opt to just run more or use their TEs and RBs more in the passing game. Either way, Rodgers drops a few spots and is squarely on the start-sit bubble, and Robert Tonyan is a little too volatile to trust in most leagues.