Jerick McKinnon, Aaron Rodgers offer best opportunity for fantasy owners in Packers-Vikings

The Week 12 matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings could shape up to be yet another fiesta for the boys in green and gold. We've got the fantasy projections for you courtesy of numberFire.

Let's just keep it real, nobody is stopping quarterback Aaron Rodgers right now. He's got 656 yards and nine touchdowns in the last two games and everyone in the fantasy community can sense that he's not about to come crashing back down to earth like the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger anytime. Rodgers literally laughed in the faces of the Philadelphia Eagles last week. Beating up the Chicago Bears the week before was great, but to do it against the Eagles, who have played well most of the season, should put everyone on notice that the Packers and Rodgers are both the real deal this year.

Don't expect wide receiver Jordy Nelson to have a problem with that. He's been the biggest beneficiary of Rodgers' hot play of late. He has 261 receiving yards to go with three touchdowns in the last two weeks. Those are the kind of numbers you'd expect from a premier wide receiver catching passes from one of the game's best quarterbacks. While the Vikings have contained some elite receivers this year, including Nelson, it would still be a surprise if they did it this time around.

In a recent interview with USA Today, running back Adrian Peterson admitted that maybe it's best for him to get a fresh start somewhere else in 2015. The NFL has already decided to suspend him for the rest of the season, which means that rookie Jerrick McKinnon and teammate Matt Asiata will continue to carry the load on the ground game for the team. It'll be interesting to see how many carries each of them gets before Sunday's game is out of hand, but McKinnon is probably the better bet in fantasy leagues since his production isn't touchdown dependent and the Vikings likely won't score a lot against the Packers. Perhaps both have some fantasy value due to potential garbage time points.

As for Minnesota's passing game, no one has been more consistent than veteran Greg Jennings, but with his status up in the air due to a rib injury, it could mean good things for Cordarrelle Patterson. He's been very quiet since catching six passes for 86 yards in Week 8, but he will likely be heavily targeted against the Packers when the Vikings are playing catch-up, especially if Jennings is not in play. He is still raw even though Patterson is in his second NFL season, but the man is electric and should get plenty of opportunity to rack up meaningless points on the field that actually translate into a ton of meaning in fantasy leagues.