We’ve made it to Week 9 of the NFL season, and by this point you know where your 2-QB fantasy football team stands. Either you’re in a clear cut position to make the playoffs, your season is done, leaving you to play for nothing than your pride and an “anything but last” position, or you’re stuck in the middle.
Regardless of where your 2-QB team currently ranks in the standings, what matters is how you attack your fantasy football managerial style going forward. For instance, you might be in the playoff hunt, but your starting quarterback duo consists of Tom Brady and Eli Manning, both on the downswing in the fantasy football quarterback landscape.
Brady and Manning are currently ranked at QB20 and QB21, respectively, in standard scoring leagues, but they were both drafted within the top 13 of fantasy quarterbacks, based on 2-QB August ADP.
It’ll be hard to continue to make a playoff push if Brady and Manning are your top quarterback options in 2-QBs, and now is the time to determine whether or not making a trade for a quarterback is worth it, and which quarterback(s) to target.
The purpose of rest of season quarterback rankings in 2-QB leagues is to gauge the quarterback landscape, to see where quarterbacks stand, and how they might perform the rest of the season. In some leagues, a quarterback like Philip Rivers might not be properly valued, and now’s the time to trade for him, before his owners wise up.
That’s just one example. Hopefully the rankings you’ll see below, which are aided by strength of schedule analysis from Pro Football Focus Fantasy’s Patrick Thorman, will give you a good read on the quarterback position, and help you figure how to attack the quarterback in potential trades, or weekly start/sit conundrums.
Here is the color coding legend for the chart:
RED=Avoid/Bye Week
ORANGE=Tough match-up/Avoid if possible
YELLOW=Potentially bad match-up
WHITE=Neutral
LIGHT GREEN=Good match-up
DARK GREEN=Must start match-up
A few notes on the rankings:
-The Eagles quarterback situation is a hard one to predict going forward. It’s clear that Chip Kelly would prefer a healthy Michael Vick at quarterback for his offense, but he’s just not getting it right now.
Nick Foles yet again has a chance to steal the starting job from Vick, but now we have to wonder which Foles we’ll be getting? The Week 6 Foles that destroyed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense? Or the one that couldn’t muster any offense in Week 7 versus the Cowboys?
If Foles were the guaranteed starter rest of season, I’d pencil him at QB14, mainly because of how easy the Eagles schedule is rest of season. If Vick comes back early enough, and is somewhat healthy, he’d flirt with the QB1 tier.
-Whatever you do, don’t drop Jay Cutler. When healthy, he’s performed as a QB1, and once he comes back, he should resume his QB1 play. We’ll get a chance to see what Josh McCown can do in Cutler’s absence, but if Cutler were to be out for longer than his initial four week timetable, McCown would have a shot at being an every week QB2 in that offense, playing with those offensive playmakers (Forte, Marshall, Jeffrey, Bennett), and playing under Marc Trestman.
-There’s not a whole lot separating Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees. Like years past, they have establish themselves as the true elite tier of fantasy quarterbacks.
The reason Rodgers is ranked ahead of Peyton is because the Packers have already had their bye week, and Peyton faces the Kansas City Chiefs twice. If you own Peyton, now’s a good time to find out what the owners in your 2-QB league, especially the desperate ones, are willing to pay for Peyton. You might find the price too good to pass up.
-Two names to acquire in trades right now would be Terrelle Pryor and Jake Locker.
It’s time to consider Pryor part of the QB1 tier, and his weekly finishes this year have been: QB12, QB28, QB11, DNP-injury, QB8, QB21, DNP-BYE, QB11. Out of six starts, Pryor has finished as a QB1 four times, and his rest of season schedule has plus match-ups versus the Eagles, Giants, Cowboys, and Chargers.
Locker might be a tad underrated at the moment because of his injury concerns, but even though he’s missed three games (two to injury, and one to bye), he’s currently the 25th highest scoring fantasy quarterback. On the season, Locker has one QB2 finish, and in his last three games he has finished in the QB1 tier. He also has a nice looking schedule ahead, and still has two plus match-ups versus the Jaguars to play.
-You’ll notice the QB4 tier is made up of injured quarterbacks and quarterbacks currently in muddled waters. We’ve discussed the Cutler and Vick stations earlier, but I wanted to briefly discuss a few others listed in the QB4 tier.
In Buffalo, the Bills have had to rely on Thaddeus Lewis, and so far, the returns have been greater than expected. If/when EJ Manuel returns, he’ll have a case for low end QB2 status, but will need to prove he’s fully healthy again.
Houston Texans’ head coach Gary Kubiak has said Matt Schaub is his quarterback, but he still decided to start Case Keenum instead this week. If Keenum can perform well enough versus the Colts this week to prove Kubiak he’s worthy of starting in Houston, Schaub might not be the Texans’ quarterback for long. Keenum’s an interesting QB2 case study, and has shown enough flashes of potential to feel comfortable starting him as QB2, if need be.
-Kellen Clemens is the lowest ranked current starting quarterback, and he’s going to stay there until he proves he doesn’t belong there. Clemens is a career back-up, and shouldn’t be starting for the Rams, and might not, if he continues to perform the way he did versus the Seattle Seahawks Monday night. If Clemens were to get benched, Austin Davis would presumably be next in line.
A big thank you goes out to Patrick Thorman of Pro Football Focus Fantasy in helping with the strength of schedule portion of the spreadsheet. Stats used in this article from FantasyData.com
