Week 4 byes: Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers
No matter how prepared you might be in fantasy football, you had to have some sort of inside information to confidently start Tarvaris Jackson in your 2-QB league this past week. Or you had no other options.
Thinking that Jackson could see some garbage time was well thought out foresight, but it was doubtful that anybody could have predicted Jackson would finish the week as the 16th highest fantasy scoring quarterback, making him a viable 2-QB starting quarterback option.
Trying to point out quarterbacks like Jackson, and targeting them in your 2-QB waiver wire is the goal of this article, and hopefully all this ‘Waiver Wire Future Planning’ will have a positive impact at some point for you in your 2-QB league. Now, let us look at some waiver wire 2-QB options for Week 4…
Mike Glennon
This column might soon be sponsored by Josh Freeman, and officially have its title changed to The Mike Glennon Countdown.
In three starts, Freeman has produced the following fantasy points:
- Week One – 10.4 fantasy points (QB27)
- Week Two – 6.6 fantasy points (QB30)
- Week Three – 7.84 fantasy points (QB27)
Those fantasy numbers are not easy on the eyes whatsoever, and if you’ve been trotting out Freeman as your QB2 each week, you’ve been getting nothing but QB3 production.
Not only are the fantasy numbers not good for Freeman, but neither are some of his real life stats. A completion percentage average of 45.2, a QB rating average of 59.5, and a yards/attempt average of 6.1 aren’t going to quell any rumors of Freeman’s Tampa Bay demise. Nether will throwing more interceptions (3) than touchdowns (2).
An even uglier stat, courtesy of ESPN, is Freeman’s completion percentage when facing four pass rushers or less. That specific completion percentage is at 40.6, through three games. Not only is that a league worst, but it’s also the lowest completion percentage in that category since 2006, the year the stat was first tracked. The full season long record is held by JaMarcus Russell, at 51% in 2009.
The stats wouldn’t matter all that much if the Buccaneers were winning, but they’re 0-3. If the losing continues, the leash on Freeman will get tighter and shorter, freeing up Glennon to get his shot. Even if Glennon might not be ready to play yet.
One of the best qualities a 2-QB owner can have is planning for the future, and pouncing on an opportunity before it happens. If you can land Glennon from the waiver wire now, not only will you be getting a possible starting fantasy quarterback in a 2-QB league for free, but you also won’t have to worry about losing him to a prepared and well informed competing owner.
Brian Hoyer
There’s not much future planning with this pick, as Brian Hoyer’s a name that should have been mentioned more in last week’s column, but it wasn’t clear yet who the Cleveland Browns were going to insert into the starting line-up as the Browns dealt with Brandon Weeden‘s thumb injury.
If you did pick up Hoyer and started him, you were rewarded with a QB1 performance in 12-team 2-QB leagues, where he threw for 321 passing yards, and 3 passing touchdowns. That was the good. The bad was his three interceptions.
In two games, Weeden put up 19.34 fantasy points in standard leagues. In one game, Hoyer scored 18.64 fantasy points, and finished at QB12 for the week. Hoyer also had a returning Josh Gordon to throw to, which helped.
Whether Hoyer’s performance was enough to earn him the starting quarterback job in Cleveland full time remains to be seen, but he does have a chance to keep it. Browns head coach Rob Chudzinski is noncommittal when it comes to giving Weeden his job back when healthy, saying:
“I’m going to wait to make any determination on that until I have all of the information.”
There might be some people in your league skeptical of Hoyer’s future production, and if that’s the case, adding Hoyer now could pay off if he Wally Pipps Weeden out of a full-time job. It doesn’t hurt owning a fantasy quarterback that has Gordon and Jordan Cameron as pass catching options.
Matt Flynn/Matt McGloin
The Oakland Raiders quarterback situation isn’t here due to Terrelle Pryor‘s ineffectiveness. Far from it. In three weeks Pryor has proven to be an effective fantasy quarterback option, and has posted two QB1 performances, as well as a QB3 dud in Week 2.
The reason why the Matts, Flynn and McGloin, are mentioned this week is because Pryor had to leave the Raiders’ game versus the Denver Broncos late Monday Night after suffering a concussion. Pryor was going to be a great Week 4 fantasy option, with a juicy match-up versus the Washington Redskins, a team that has given up the most points to opposing fantasy quarterbacks this year.
If Pryor can’t go, and he will have to pass the concussion protocols first, in order to be approved for contact football, the only other options the Raiders have at quarterback are Flynn, the quarterback Pryor beat out for the Raiders’ starting quarterback job, and undrafted free agent McGloin. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and you’re only looking to pick up either of the two, if you need a one week fantasy starter in the event Pryor’s concussion is a lingering matter. Keep an eye on Pryor’s concussion recovery process, and the reports out of Raiders camp, to find out which quarterback will be starting for the team Week 4 versus the Redskins.
*Stats used in this article courtesy of ESPN.com and FantasyData.com
