Week 6 byes: Atlanta Falcons (Matt Ryan), Miami Dolphins (Ryan Tannehill)
Before we get into some potential 2-QB waiver wire quarterback options, let’s briefly discuss the current state of the quarterback situations in both Jacksonville and Philadelphia.
Chad Henne is starting again for the Jacksonville Jaguars, due to a Blaine Gabbert hamstring injury, and Michael Vick looks to miss at least this week’s game versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and maybe another game after that, leaving Nick Foles to earn his first start at quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles this season.
Plenty of people were waiting for Vick to succumb to injury this year, and even though we saw him take hit after hit, the injury that did him in was a pulled hamstring after running out of bounds. If you are an owner of Vick in 2-QB leagues, hopefully you stashed Foles on your bench, as his handcuff, in case of an emergency like this.
If you didn’t, and Foles is somehow still on your 2-QB league’s waiver wire, you need to make it a priority to pick him up. Foles does have a tough match-up versus Darrelle Revis and the Buccaneers this week, but there should be opportunities for Foles to put up fantasy points in Chip Kelly’s offense. Against a much less formidable New York Giants defense, when compared to that of the Buccaneers, Foles threw for nearly 200 yards and two touchdowns.
The worry that Vick owners in 2-QB leagues have is that Foles doesn’t give back the starting job to Vick, and that certainly could be the case. While Chip Kelly has said repeatedly that Vick is his quarterback he did mention that a permanent switch to Foles could be an option, “if someone [Foles] comes in and puts on an unbelievable show.”
The unbelievable part must be pretty unbelievable though, as Kelly also said that, “If Nick goes out there and goes 100-for-100 and throws 27 touchdown passes, then yeah.” Take what Kelly had to say with a grain salt, and don’t fret too much if you’re a 2-QB Vick owner.
As for Chad Henne, he may have been sitting on the waiver wire in your 2-QB league because he’s a Jaguars quarterback, and because Gabbert seems to be the man under center, no matter how bad he has looked this year, and his entire career, for that matter.
It’s unclear how long Gabbert will be sidelined for with his hamstring injury, but Henne has a chance to make Jaguars’ head coach Gus Bradley forget that Gabbert, who Bradley said “missed opportunities” in Week 5, is his starting quarterback.
A match-up versus the Denver Broncos, which has allowed an average of 18.64 fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks, is on the horizon in Week 6 for Henne and the Jaguars, and that’s followed up by a Week 7 showdown with the San Diego Chargers, who have given up the most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season.
Those two games should give Henne a couple of opportunities to show what he can do, both in fantasy football, and to Bradley. At the very worst, Henne becomes a QB2 streaming option, and somebody to pick up off the waiver wire if you’re desperate for quarterback help. In one start this year, Week 2 versus the Oakland Raiders, Henne did put up low-end QB2 numbers, as he was the 18th highest scoring fantasy quarterback in standard leagues that week.
With Henne and Foles talked to death about, let’s single out a few other quarterback waiver wire options in 2-QB leagues for Week 6…
Drew Stanton
Even though the Arizona Cardinals were able to pull out the victory over the Carolina Panthers in Week 5, and Carson Palmer managed to squeak out a passing touchdown near the end of the game, it was another performance to forget for Palmer.
His final stat line saw him go 19 for 28, for 175 passing yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. He was also sacked twice. For the year, Palmer has a completion percentage of 58.9, a quarterback rating of 67.01, 1,185 passing yards, five passing touchdowns, one fumble lost and nine interceptions. His fantasy points total in standard scoring leagues is 47.5, putting him at QB28. He’s also been sacked 12 times in four games.
There isn’t any indication that Palmer is on the verge of losing his starting quarterback job in Arizona, like there was with Josh Freeman in Tampa Bay, but you have to wonder how long Cardinals’ head coach Bruce Arians will sit back and let the passing game continue the way it is.
If you’re a Palmer owner, at the very least you need to keep Stanton on waiver wire speed dial in your 2-QB league, and hope that Palmer is able to find his groove in that passing offense.
T.J. Yates
Four straight games Matt Schaub has thrown a pick-six interception, which is an NFL record. That’s just a brutal stat, and one that may wind up contributing to Schaub’s demotion, be it for just one game, or longer.
Schaub was already benched during Week 5’s Sunday Night Football match-up versus the San Francisco 49ers, and the numbers, 19 for 35, 173 passing yards, zero touchdowns, three interceptions, warranted the benching.
Gary Kubiak hasn’t come out saying that Yates will start for Houston this week versus the St. Louis Rams, but he has hinted that it’s a possibility. Long time Texans beat writer John McClain said on Twitter that, “After listening to Kubiak’s news conference, it’s clear that he’s still considering a change at QB without saying so.”
Schaub has had his ups and downs this season, and while he has one more interception (9) than touchdowns (8), he sill finds himself in the QB2 fantasy discussion, nestled in at QB17 in standard scoring leagues. Still, those fantasy numbers don’t matter to Kubiak, and if a switch to Yates is made, it’s best to pick him up now in 2-QB leagues, rather than wait and watch somebody else do so. It’s especially more imperative you do so if you’re a Schaub owner.
Josh Freeman
The Josh Freeman soap opera in Tampa Bay ended with Freeman getting his release, and signing a contract with the Minnesota Vikings. It’s already been decided that Freeman won’t be starting for the Vikings in Week 6, and that should give him an extra week to learn the playbook in Minnesota.
Whether Leslie Frazier sticks with Christian Ponder or Matt Cassel as his starting quarterback for the remainder of the season remains to be seen, but the Vikings wouldn’t have signed Freeman if they were happy with their current quarterback situation.
NumberFire.com’s JJ Zachariason wrote an article about Freeman’s potential value in Minnesota, and it’s worth reading in its entirety. What we can take away from the Freeman signing is that he will more than likely get a chance to audition for the Vikings’ starting quarterback job, and if that happens, Freeman will be a QB2/QB3 streaming option, with a rest of season schedule that is generally favorable beginning Week 7 versus the New York Giants.
Most Freeman owners in 2-QB leagues didn’t drop him, as they believed he would find a new home, as he did, so he probably isn’t available in the majority of 2-QB leagues. If he is though, it’s worth looking into acquiring him, and adding him to your roster as a QB3 bench option, at minimum.
Brandon Weeden
The Brian Hoyer injury news was a tough one for fantasy owners that had bought into Hoyer this year, but now that he’s out for the year, that gives Weeden a chance to reclaim his spot atop the Browns’ quarterback depth chart.
Weeden’s a good QB3 bench stash for now, and could wind up being a multi-week QB2 streaming option this year. As long as the Browns don’t yank him for Jason Campbell, or any other quarterback they might bring in.
It’s nice having a fantasy quarterback who has two main pass catching weapons to throw to in Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron, as those two can make something happen on any play. Two match-ups versus the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers will give Weeden a chance to boost his confidence, and yours, if you start him.
Thaddeus Lewis
The other quarterback in Week 5’s Thursday Night Football was EJ Manuel, who suffered his own injury. There has been no official word as to the length of Manuel’s absence, with various reports having him miss as little as four weeks, but as many as eight. It’s going to be hard wasting a bench spot on a quarterback that might miss at least the next four weeks, and I recommend holding onto him only if your bench is deep enough, and you have no other pressing needs.
Thaddeus Lewis will get the start in Week 6 for the Bills, who face the Cincinnati Bengals, and that doesn’t come as a surprise after seeing how out of his element undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel was in relief of Manuel.
Any starting quarterback in 2-QB fantasy football leagues will have value, but Lewis isn’t somebody you should rush out to pick up. View Lewis as a QB4 in the meantime, until we get a chance to see what the former practice squad player with only one career NFL start to his name can do.
Stats used in this article from FantasyData.com, Rotoworld, and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
