It’s been an interesting season so far in fantasy football when it comes to the quarterback position. We already knew going into the season that the quarterback position was deep, and there were going to be plenty of weekly fantasy quarterback performances not from the standard QB1 tier group.
However, going into the season, it was highly doubtful that anybody would have been able to predict that a third-string quarterback, in this case, Brian Hoyer, would put up a Top-12 fantasy quarterback performance in his first start of the year. That’s exactly what happened in Week 3 though.
It’s quarterbacks like that, the unheralded ones, the ones sitting on the real life benches of actual NFL franchises, not just the benches of fantasy football teams, that 2-QBers are on the lookout for.
Bye week fill-ins and trade bait are the two main purposes of carrying a QB3 on your 2-QB team, and when a viable one becomes available on the waiver wire, for free, you have to pounce on such a rare opportunity. Even if it is just for one week. Will Hoyer put up another QB1 performance this week or this year? Who knows. But that’s the 2-QB life we’re about.
Hoyer’s probably been picked up off the waiver wire of your 2-QB league by now, and if that’s the case, it’s time to focus your attention on newly named starting quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and figure out his potential in 2-QB leagues.
If you’ve been reading the 2-QB Waiver Wire Future Planning series that I’ve been penning for XN Sports, you already know that Glennon was a name I featured regularly.
It was easy to pinpoint Glennon as a fantasy quarterback target in 2-QB leagues because of what was happening in Tampa Bay. Incumbent starting quarterback Josh Freeman wasn’t getting the job done and his inconsistency lead to head coach Greg Schiano making an easy decision when it came to benching Freeman and naming Glennon the Bucs’ new starter at quarterback.
That’s one positive for Glennon in 2-QB fantasy football leagues but he hasn’t even played a regular season down of football yet and now we have to decide what exactly to do with him. If you plucked Glennon from your 2-QB waiver wire, you either did so because you needed a QB3 or you wanted to hoard an extra fantasy quarterback on your bench in order to facilitate a trade.
Having a starting quarterback on your 2-QB team’s bench is a valuable asset to have, and if you looked over the quarterback situations of your fellow 2-QB league mates, hopefully you were able to target at least one team and enter into trade talks with them.
The only problem with attempting to trade Glennon is that is we don’t know what Glennon’s trade value is or how he will perform in the NFL. The unknown helps a little in a case like this, because we have no bad data to go off, other than his pre-season stats. Based on the PFF grading system, Glennon was the 86th ranked pre-season QB, out of a 102 rated quarterbacks. As for college, here are Glennon’s final college season stats: 17 interceptions (worst in the NCAA), 4,031 passing yards (9th in the NCAA), 58.5 completion percentage (79th in the NCAA), and 31 touchdowns (tied for 12th in the NCAA). One good scouting report nugget that was harped upon on Twitter the moment Glennon was named starter was his strong arm, which should be put to plenty of use in vertical play packages run by Bucs’ offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan.
If Glennon comes out guns blazing, pulling a Week 3 Brian Hoyer, his trade value will go up. If Glennon does his best Josh Freeman impression, you won’t have many trade inquiries. At least not good ones. Your best bet is to trade Glennon now and get something that will help your team, like a WR or RB flex type player. You could also try tacking Glennon as an add-on in a 2-1 trade package offer.
For now, Schiano has thrown his support behind Glennon, so he shouldn’t get the hook anytime soon. Even if Glennon’s debut NFL start in Week 4 is a bust, he should hopefully get more chances to learn the Tampa Bay offense and grow as a starting NFL quarterback. Arizona’s not the greatest defense to make your debut against in 2013, but they’re a little banged up at the LB position, which should make things a tad easier for Glennon.
It also doesn’t hurt Glennon that he’s playing behind a good offensive line, one that has given up 17 hurries and six sacks in three games. The offensive line in Tampa Bay is the 4th best pass block unit in the league, according to PFF grades. Not to mention that Glennon will have the pleasant fortune of playing alongside playmakers such as Vincent Jackson, Mike Williams, and Doug Martin.
One other thing working in Glennon’s favor is the Bucs’ rest of the season schedule. After the Tampa’s Week 5 bye, there’s no overly tough match-up for Glennon from weeks 6-14. Weeks 15 and 16 see back-to-back match-ups against the San Francisco 49ers and St. Louis Rams though. The hope in Tampa Bay is that Glennon will be able to help the win column increase, while the hope in 2-QB fantasy football leagues is that he provides more fantasy points than Freeman, who sits at QB30 in standard scoring leagues, having scored 6.20 fantasy points more than Brian Hoyer did against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3.
As for Freeman, if you own him, you can’t just outright drop him unless you really need the bench real estate he’s taking up. Waiting to see if the Bucs can trade Freeman to another team, where he would come in and be that new team’s starter, would be the advisable move. It seems unlikely that Freeman gets traded though, and even if he does, it might not be the best situation for him, but at least he’d be out of Tampa Bay and on a team that would give him a chance. Maybe. Freeman’s current trade value is at zero, so it’s either keep him or drop him at this point.
For those of you unable to trade Glennon, stash him on your bench for now and hope that he plays himself into a valuable 2-QB fantasy commodity that will net you something of worth in return. You more than likely picked him up off the waiver wire, so your investment in him was minimal. Just make sure you temper your expectations though, as Glennon might not be anything more than a low-end QB2 this season.
*Stats used in this article from sports-reference.com, Pro Football Focus, and FantasyData.com
