It’s a big Thursday Night Football matchup for 2-QB fantasy football owners, as two of the more keenly watched quarterbacks in the fantasy landscape square off this week, in Alex Smith and Michael Vick. Both quarterbacks have gotten off to good starts, and they’re both currently in the top ten of fantasy quarterback scoring, with Vick at QB3, and Smith at QB10.
Vick has taken the fantasy world by storm this short season, putting up massive performances, while leading the way in Chip Kelly’s uptempo offense. Smith has also been able to make due with what he has, and work around his inefficiencies—such as not being able to throw long bombs. A current 5.7 yards/attempt for Smith has him ranked 30th in that stat on the year. But Smith has been doing a perfect job as the Chiefs’ ring master. He also has 82 yards rushing, second best behind team leader Jamaal Charles and his 132 rushing yards.
The first true Thursday Night Football contest of the year last week wasn’t all that important, as there weren’t many second thoughts starting Tom Brady, and Geno Smith was probably on the bench of many fantasy rosters. Yes, even 2-QB rosters. We all saw what happened, as both Brady and Smith finished the week outside the Top-24 of fantasy quarterback scorers, putting them outside the realm of QB2 status.
It will be interesting to see how Vick and Smith owners go about playing them this week. For me, when it comes to Vick, he’s somebody I can’t bench. You can’t bench him after two back-to-back marvelous stat lines, which have cemented Vick in the QB1 tier. Smith is hard to bench this week as well, because of how bad and burnable the Eagles secondary is. There are few quarterbacks I’d want to start over Smith as my QB2 this week in 2-QB leagues, and if you have him on your team, you should start him.
Below you’ll find my current fantasy quarterback rankings for 2-QB leagues, followed by this week’s edition of the 2-QB Stock Report:
Week 3 QB Rankings for 2-QB Leagues:
1. Peyton Manning
2. Matthew Stafford
3. Aaron Rodgers
4. Michael Vick
5. Drew Brees
6. Robert Griffin III
7. Colin Kaepernick
8. Matt Ryan
9. Cam Newton
10. Tony Romo
11. Eli Manning
12. Russell Wilson
13. Alex Smith
14. Tom Brady
15. Andrew Luck
16. Carson Palmer
17. Ryan Tannehill
18. Andy Dalton
19. Matt Schaub
20. Sam Bradford
21. Jay Cutler
22. Philip Rivers
23. EJ Manuel
24. Terrelle Pryor
25. Joe Flacco
26. Josh Freeman
27. Jake Locker
28. Ben Roethlisberger
29. Brian Hoyer
30. Geno Smith
31. Christian Ponder
32. Chad Henne
Week 3 Quarterbacks on the Rise in 2-QB Leagues:
EJ Manuel
Rookie anythings in fantasy football tend to get shunned on draft day in the fantasy community, especially at the quarterback position, but Manuel has shown some real poise and promise in the pocket as the Bills’ starting quarterback. For a fantasy quarterback routinely drafted in the QB3 tier of 2-QB fantasy football drafts, Manuel has quietly strung together two back-to-back QB2 performances.
If you’re a Manuel owner, you probably acquired him on the cheap, and can keep watching his value soar, to the point you might be able to sell high on him, or trade your more heralded QB2 to fill holes elsewhere in your line-up, while then being able to insert Manuel at the QB2 slot.
Ryan Tannehill
Ryan Tannehill may not be lighting up the stat sheet, especially in the passing touchdown department, as he only has two, but he’s been playing fairly mistake free football and is trending upward. Keeping up with Andrew Luck and leading the Dolphins to a win over the Colts in Week 2, after passing for over 300 yards and a touchdown had to have been a confidence boost for Tannehill. It might also be the start of something big. If he can stay healthy.
Reports earlier this week revolved around a shoulder injury for the Dolphin’s franchise quarterback to his throwing shoulder, but it doesn’t seem like he’s in any real danger of missing time. For now, Tannehill is a solid QB2, and somebody you might be able to buy low on, if you’re dealing with a sleepy fantasy owner in your 2-QB league who doesn’t think Tannehill has what it takes to sustain his current production. Remember, last year Tannehill had more interceptions (13) than passing touchdowns (12), and barely crossed the 3,000 passing yards marker, yet he still finished the season as fantasy’s QB24.
Philip Rivers
All Philip Rivers has been able to do in two weeks is throw for 614 passing yards (QB11), 7 passing touchdowns (Tie-QB2), and score the 4th most standard fantasy points at the quarterback position. Not bad for a guy some in the fantasy community some have left for dead. It may be only two games, but if Rivers can keep this up, he could wind up a low-end fantasy QB1 or high-end fantasy QB2. If you own Rivers, now might be the time to cash in and sell high if you can. Or continue to ride him, and his relatively easy looking fantasy schedule the rest of the season.
Week 3 Quarterbacks on the Slide in 2-QB Leagues:
Brandon Weeden
Things weren’t looking good for Brandon Weeden to begin with this week, as he injured his right throwing thumb in Week 2. What made things even worse is that Browns head coach Rob Chudzinksi came out saying that Weeden’s not guaranteed his job back when he’s healthy. With the Browns trading Trent Richardson, it looks like the team may be in full on tank mode, and if Brian Hoyer can put up a respectable performance against a swarming Minnesota Vikings defense this weekend, that could spell doom for Weeden.
Josh Freeman
Josh Freeman was one of the lowlights of this section last week, and nothing has happened since to improve his fantasy stock. Reports had back-up Buccaneers quarterback Mike Glennon warming up during the pre-game Sunday, and with Freeman not really doing a whole lot to instil confidence in his skills, Glennon could get a crack at the starting quarterback job much sooner than anybody expected.
All you can do with Freeman for now is hope either his play improves, and the Bucs starting win games, or sell low on him to a team in desperate need of a quarterback, any quarterback, in your 2-QB league.
Ben Roethlisberger
This one hurts because I had pegged Roethlisberger as a potential QB1 in hiding this off-season, and was willing to ride him as my QB1, if I were to wait on the quarterback position in 2-QB drafts. But, man, it’s not been pretty watching the Steelers offense so far, and Roethlisberger currently sits at QB23 in standard leagues, with a measly 12.64 fantasy points.
JJ Zachariason of numberFire.com, a noted Steelers fan, said this week that Big Ben is droppable in 1-QB leagues, and I would have to agree with him there. However, I wouldn’t advocate dropping Roethlisberger in 2-QB leagues though, as you won’t be able to pick up anybody better. Your only real option is to hold steady, and hope the Steelers and Roethlisberger can turn things around.
The loss of Maurkice Pouncey for the year hurts, as that Steelers o-line was already in shambles. But Heath Miller will be back eventually, as too will Le’Veon Bell, hopefully, and maybe those two returns can help turn things around. If you can afford to leave Roethlisberger on your bench, waiting for things to get better, that would be advisable for now.
Stats used in this article from FantasyData.com
