Green Bay Packers: 3 Matchups to watch in week seven

Jaire Alexander vs. Will Fuller

Jaire Alexander is a lockdown, shutdown, go home, don’t even try to throw at him, cornerback. In the last two weeks, he’s faced off against Calvin Ridley and Mike Evans, two of the best wide receivers in the NFL, and they had a grand total of one catch between them. If you have Will Fuller in fantasy football, bench him. (This is not official fantasy advice, and I take no responsibility for your fantasy losses if you take this advice).

With Hopkins gone, Fuller has had to expand his role this season after Hopkins’ departure. He’s had success for the most part and has gone over 100 yards receiving in three of the Texans’ first six games. He’s also scored a touchdown in each of their past four games and surpassed his touchdown total of three from last year. He’s averaging 75.8 yards per game and has shown to be a big play threat, averaging 16.3 yards per catch.

In this matchup, both guys are highly skilled, but for both of them, their speed may be their greatest asset. Speed is how Fuller often burns corners that dare not to give him a big cushion off the line of scrimmage. His 4.32 40-time is in the 99th percentile, and he loves to run straight past guys. He’ll be having trouble doing that against Alexander, however, as Jaire runs an almost equally impressive 4.38.

Fuller also has a two-inch height advantage over Alexander, but with Jaire’s ability to use his hands to knock out the ball, he doesn’t get beat over the top too often. If you want evidence of this, just look at 6’5″ Mike Evans, who couldn’t get anything going last week against a much smaller Alexander. Fuller has very little in the way of advantages over Jaire Alexander, and I expect this to be an important win all game long that will greatly limit the Texans’ passing attack.