Cowboys vs. Packers Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 6

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Cowboys vs. Packers Week 6 matchup on Sunday Night Football.

Find a breakdown of every Week 6 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Cowboys vs. Packers Fantasy Quarterback Preview

Dak Prescott (TRUST)

Prescott is coming off a subpar outing Thursday night against Tampa Bay.

He completed a season-low 57.1% of his passes (24 of 42) for 316 yards, throwing 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions (both dropped by Jake Ferguson).

Prescott has had a mild start overall.

He has one top-10 scoring week through five games, finishing in the back half of weekly scoring in three of five games.

He has 1 touchdown pass in each of the past three weeks.

The good news is that the Cowboys are still slinging it.

The Cowboys lead the league in pass rate over expectations (8.4%).

This game also has the potential to be high-scoring, which is why I would give Prescott more runway as an upside QB1.

These teams tied 40-40 last season.

That game was in the comfy confines of Dallas, but Prescott was the QB1 that week (31 points), completing 31 of 40 passes for 319 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus a rushing score.

Dallas was also without CeeDee Lamb that game.

Lamb is dealing with a quad injury heading into the week, but it is not considered serious.

We are still figuring out how good this Green Bay defense is.

The Packers are allowing 6.4 Y/A (8th) and a 3.8% touchdown rate (14th) to open the year.

However, Prescott is their first real test.

They have opened the season facing Carson Wentz, Geno Smith, Michael Penix, Jalon Daniels, and Tyson Bagent.

That's three backup quarterbacks.

They also lost Edgerrin Cooper and Javon Hargrave in back-to-back weeks.

Jordan Love (TRUST)

Love had his best game of the early season on Sunday, completing a season-high 80.6% (25 of 31) of his passes for 367 yards (11.8 Y/A) with 2 touchdowns.

Green Bay has addressed their issues up front by playing heavier personnel.

The past two weeks, the Packers have thrown out of 12 personnel 26.7% and 30.3% of the time.

They have thrown out of 13 personnel 16.7% and 12.1%.

On throws with multiple tight ends on the field the past two weeks, Love has connected on 23 of 27 passes (85.2%) for 386 yards (14.3 Y/A).

Dallas is matching 2+ TE sets with base defense 84% of the time (7th-highest rate).

In Week 4 against the Bucs, they worked around getting the ball out fast and near the line of scrimmage.

This past week against the Bears, they opened up the downfield passing and play-action game.

Over the past two weeks, Love has used play action on 30% and 45.2% of his dropbacks, both season highs at the time (further evidence you don't need to run the ball well to use play action).

Over the past two weeks, Love has hit on 20 of 23 play-action passes (87%) for 324 yards (14.1 Y/A).

Love was 6 of 8 for 258 yards with both scores on throws of 20 or more yards downfield.

That was the most completions of 20 or more air yards by anyone in a game this season.

Love was 5 for 6 on throws of 30 or more yards in the air.

No other passer has more than 3 completions of 30-plus air yards in a game this season.

This week, Love faces a Dallas defense that allows 17.3 passing points per game (26th) and ranks 31st in passing points allowed per attempt (0.63).

They allow a 72.4% completion rate (30th), 8.4 yards per pass attempt (30th), and a 7.3% touchdown rate (29th).

In last year's matchup, Love was the QB5 (26.3 points), throwing for 337 yards and 3 touchdowns.

The Cowboys do still have some moving parts defensively.

Dallas didn't have Joey Porter Jr. last week, and this week they brought in defensive assistant Mike Pettine to work with Christian Parker.

Cowboys vs. Packers Fantasy Running Back Preview

Javonte Williams

Williams had 14 touches for 62 yards and a score on Thursday night.

Williams has been getting by on touchdown production (7 touchdowns).

43.8% of his fantasy points come from touchdowns, the highest dependency in the league among top-24 backs.

To his credit, the Cowboys have one of the toughest rushing schedules to open the season.

Outside of the Week 3 debacle against the Falcons, the Packers have allowed 3.1 YPC to running backs, with a 72.6% success rate against backfield runs.

They allowed an explosive run on only 4.8% of those runs.

Those would be top-five rates in each department for the season.

But the Packers have also faced a run of low-level quarterbacks and underperforming offenses overall, which has helped their defense.

Injuries to Edgerrin Cooper and Javon Hargrave also factor into their run defense moving forward.

This matchup is a mixed bag, but it's the kind of game environment we want to fire all our fantasy torpedoes in.

Williams is a volume-based RB1 here with added upside should he run efficiently.

Even if Williams remains touchdown-dependent, this game should create scoring opportunities.

The Packers have also allowed 9 touchdowns to running backs, the second-most in the league.

Packers RBs

MarShawn Lloyd played 44.1% of the snaps on Sunday, handling 11 touches for 37 yards.

While the yardage was unremarkable, he scored twice, including putting Jaylon Johnson in the center of the Earth on his first touchdown run.

Pierre Strong took over Chris Brooks‘ vacated role.

Strong played 40.7% of the snaps with 8 touches for 18 yards.

Strong ran a position-high 15 routes, catching 3 of 4 targets for 11 yards.

Kaleb Johnson worked as relief.

Johnson had 7 touches (all runs) for 26 yards, all in the fourth quarter.

Things remain fluid here since this is still one of the NFL's most unproductive backfields, but if things stay static with Lloyd as the early-down back and Strong as the passing-down back, we can at least work around it.

That would make Lloyd a touchdown-dependent RB3 and Strong a low-ceiling FLEX in PPR formats.

Dallas does offer matchup appeal for this backfield if you are going to either of these guys as options for bye weeks or injuries.

The Cowboys have allowed 139.2 yards from scrimmage per game to backs (26th), allowing 4.8 yards per touch (22nd) and 7 touchdowns to backs (28th).

Cowboys vs. Packers Fantasy Wide Receiver Preview

CeeDee Lamb

Lamb had a down game on Thursday night, catching 2 of 5 targets for 9 yards.

He also suffered a quad injury, limiting him to a season-low 56.7% of snaps.

Lamb's injury wasn't expected to be serious, and he practiced on Wednesday.

We will still follow his status this week to make sure he is up, but if everything checks out, then Lamb is right back in play as a WR1.

Green Bay is sixth in two-high coverages (62.1%).

Lamb leads the team with a target on 29.5% of his routes against those looks with 3.13 yards per route run.

The Packers haven't faced many good quarterbacks to date, but they have allowed big games to Justin Jefferson (8-92-2) and Drake London (9-194-0), as well as a solid outing to Garrett Wilson (5-57-1) in the rain.

George Pickens

It was only a matter of time before Pickens' production caught up to his usage, and Thursday night was the game.

Pickens caught 9 of 13 targets for 130 yards and a touchdown.

He got a boost from Lamb's injury, something that always spiked going back to last season.

With Lamb off the field on Thursday, Pickens had 5 catches for 67 yards and a touchdown, drawing a target on 33.3% of his routes.

Pickens is the WR8 in overall usage for the season, while Lamb is WR2, so both can coexist, even if Pickens is more volatile.

This is the kind of game where you are going in with all of the core pieces.

Pickens did have 8-134-2 in this matchup last year, but Lamb did not play.

The Packers haven't been overly challenged by strong passing games, but they rank 25th in points allowed to outside receivers (22.9 per game), allow 8.8 yards per target (18th), and a 4.9% touchdown rate (19th).

Christian Watson (TRUST)

Watson continued his stellar start on Sunday, catching 6 of 8 targets for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns.

He caught 42- and 53-yard touchdowns, the latter of which was poster quality.

Through five games, Watson already has 6 touchdowns, matching his total from last season.

He leads the NFL with 7 end-zone targets.

That scoring equity has helped Watson outproduce his opportunities a bit.

Only Jaxon Smith-Njigba has more points scored over expectations than Watson this season.

Watson is still the WR11 in expected points per game, so he still warrants WR1 consideration.

This is a great matchup to keep the momentum going.

We will see if Joey Porter Jr. changes the dynamics over time, but right now, Dallas ranks 29th in points allowed per target to wide receivers (2.01), 29th in yards per target (9.7), and 24th in touchdown rate (5.9%).

If Green Bay continues to use a high rate of play action, Watson gets 27.9% of the team's targets on play action (WR7) with 3.02 yards per route run.

Matthew Golden

Golden stayed hot on Sunday, catching 6 of 7 targets for 123 yards and a two-point conversion.

Five games in, Golden has 24 catches for 397 yards and 2 touchdowns on 44 targets.

As a rookie, he had 29 catches for 361 yards and zero touchdowns on 44 targets.

Golden has at least 95 yards or a touchdown in four of five games.

The increased rate of 12 personnel has further condensed this target tree.

The only wide receivers getting tangible targets are Golden and Watson.

These two accounted for 48.4% of the team targets and 92.3% of the air yards on Sunday.

Golden gets all of the matchup notes laid out above, putting him in play as a solid WR2 with matchup upside.

If Dallas starts deploying more man coverage with Porter, Golden will likely face it most, since Watson is playing more snaps in the slot (25.3%) than Golden is (15.2%).

Ryan Flournoy

Flournoy had 3 catches for a season-high 90 yards on Thursday night.

He has always gotten a lift when Lamb has missed action, and Lamb appears good to go for Sunday.

But if you're taking a flyer as a WR5/FLEX or in single-game DFS, and the game environment provides an outlet for points.

Flournoy has been on the field for 74.6% of dropbacks this season.

Take a grain of salt on the opposing quarterbacks they have faced, but the Packers have allowed a league-low 4.2 yards per target to slot receivers, and Flournoy has played 52.1% of his snaps inside.

Cowboys vs. Packers Fantasy Tight End Preview

Tucker Kraft

Kraft caught all five of his targets for 64 yards on Sunday, anchored by a 46-yard catch, his longest of the season.

Kraft is still being asked to block more due to the offensive line, which has limited his route-running opportunities.

He had a position-high 7 snaps in pass protection on Sunday, which lowered his route rate to 67.6% of dropbacks.

That said, he's had some added juice over the past two weeks, with 42 and 38 yards after the catch.

Over his first three games, Kraft had 19, 13, and 19 yards after the catch.

Getting back some YAC can improve his efficiency and offset some of the reduced route rates.

This is a spot to keep Kraft in as an upside TE1.

Dallas has allowed 8.3 yards per target (27th), an 89.7% catch rate (31st), and a 10.3% touchdown rate (26th) to tight ends.

One matchup note that could impact Dallas against tight ends is that they have moved Caleb Downs to free safety the past two games after he primarily played slot corner.

They've faced only Dalton Schultz and Cade Otton in the past two games, but they have allowed just 7.3 yards per target and no touchdowns to tight ends overall.

Jake Ferguson

Ferguson had a nightmare game on Thursday.

He caught only 3 of 6 targets for 19 yards, and 2 drops led to turnovers.

For the season, Ferguson has only 102 yards, making him a touchdown-dependent TE2.

He does see a spike near the end zone, with an 18.2% target share in the red zone compared to 10.4% outside it.

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