Week 10 byes: Cleveland Browns (Jason Campbell), Kansas City Chiefs (Alex Smith), New England Patriots (Tom Brady), and New York Jets (Geno Smith)
Week 9 began with Nick Foles throwing seven passing touchdowns and over 400 yards of passing offense, en route to becoming the highest scoring fantasy player for the week, and it ended with Aaron Rodgers suffering a broken collarbone, which will sideline him anywhere from 4-6 weeks.
Unpredictability has been a theme preached all season long, and Week 9 did not disappoint in that regard. Here we are, in Week 10 of the 2013 NFL season, and the quarterback position in fantasy football is still one big roller coaster ride.
Tom Brady finally played like the Tom Brady 2-QB owners expected when they drafted him, Ben Roethlisberger made his way into the QB1 tier and unheralded and unknown quarterbacks such as Jason Campbell, Josh McCown, and Case Keenum joined the fray.
It’s been an interesting season when it comes to ranking quarterbacks, but just because we might get a few rankings wrong here and there, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying. Just like how you shouldn’t give up on your 2-QB fantasy squad, no matter how dire the situation may be.
Below you’ll find my Week 10 rankings for 2-QB leagues, followed by my weekly Stock Watch report.
Week 10 Fantasy Quarterback Rankings for 2-QB Leagues:
1. Peyton Manning @ San Diego
2. Drew Brees VS. Dallas
3. Nick Foles @ Green Bay
4. Philip Rivers vs. Denver
5. Matthew Stafford @ Chicago
6. Russell Wilson @ Atlanta
7. Robert Griffin III @ Minnesota
8. Cam Newton @ San Francisco
9. Tony Romo @ New Orleans
10. Terrelle Pryor @ New York Giants
11. Jay Cutler VS. Detroit
12. Christian Ponder VS. Washington
13. Jake Locker VS. Jacksonville
14. Andrew Luck VS. St. Louis
15. Case Keenum @ Arizona
16. Colin Kaepernick VS. Carolina
17. Eli Manning VS. Oakland
18. Mike Glennon VS. Miami
19. Ben Roethlisberger VS. Buffalo
20. Seneca Wallace VS. Philadelphia
21. Andy Dalton @ Baltimore
22. Ryan Tannehill @ Tampa Bay
23. EJ Manuel @ Pittsburgh
24. Matt Ryan VS. Seattle
25. Carson Palmer VS. Houston
26. Joe Flacco VS. Cincinnati
27. Chad Henne @ Tennessee
28. Kellen Clemens @ Indianapolis
29. Brock Osweiler @ San Diego
30. Scott Tolzien VS. Philadelphia
Week 10 Quarterbacks on the Rise in 2-QB Leagues:
Nick Foles
If you predicted Foles’ historic Week 9 outing hopefully you played the lottery last week because you’d probably be a millionaire right now.
It’s been a soap opera like saga at the quarterback position for the Philadelphia Eagles, and the drama of Foles versus Vick is similar to the Ross and Rachel love story on Friends. Chip Kelly has two quarterbacks to chose from, and if they were both healthy, the decision might be easy for him.
But they’re not, but not only that, Kelly now has to give Foles actual consideration as a rest of season starter at quarterback for his team, no matter how Vick’s hamstrings eventually feel. That’s just how good Foles has been this season, minus his Week 7 dud.
When the third quarter of Week 9’s blowout versus the Oakland Raiders came to a close, Foles had thrown two more touchdowns than Vick had all season long.
Foles’ touchdown to interception ratio for the season is 13:0, including one rushing touchdown. While Vick sits at 5:3, with his own rushing touchdown. The biggest advantage Vick has, and what keeps luring Kelly back, is his rushing ability, as Vick has out rushed Foles 308 to 34 this season.
At some point though the allure of Vick’s potential in Kelly’s offense will take a backseat to Foles’ actual production, which will force Vick to take a permanent backseat on the bench.
Case Keenum
No matter what happens the rest of the season with Keenum, it’s hard to say he’s not doing everything in his power to keep Matt Schaub on the bench. After not imploding versus the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7, fantasy footballers were awaiting Keenum’s second act versus the Indianapolis Colts in Week 9, and Keenum didn’t disappoint.
Keenum throw for 350 yards, three touchdowns, and completed nearly 59 percent of his passes, and also added 26 yards on the ground. In standard scoring leagues Keenum finished the week as the third highest scoring fantasy quarterback, behind Foles and Tom Brady.
There’s a sense of optimism in Houston with Keenum taking snaps under center, and it has to do with how he’s brought back the vertical passing dimension, and deep ball to the offense. In a small two game sample size Keenum has a yards per attempt average of 10.53, while Schaub was averaging 6.6 yards per attempt this year.
As long as Keenum keeps it up, and plays competently, the hungry undrafted quarterback will force Schaub to continue his paid vacation on the bench, and 2-QB owners that got in on the #FreeCaseKeenum train early will continue to benefit.
Jason Campbell
In two starts this season Campbell has produced like a QB1, finishing in the Top-8 of fantasy scoring quarterbacks the past two weeks. Looked at as no more than a desperation 2-QB league bye week fill-in starter, Campbell has rewarded owners who picked him up with a viable streaming option, and more, in 2-QB leagues.
The Cleveland Browns have a bye this week, but there’s no going back to Brandon Weeden in Cleveland, and Campbell will at least be a QB2 streaming candidate for the rest of the season.
Week 10 Quarterbacks on the Slide in 2-QB Leagues:
Josh McCown
This one stings.
In almost two games of play, McCown has shown to be more than an adept back-up quarterback, and shown he could lead the Chicago Bears’ offense if Jay Cutler were to miss an extended period of time.
Sadly, the jig is up, and Cutler is expected to start this week versus division rivals the Detroit Lions. If you were one of the many 2-QB league owners of McCown, thinking he could be a QB1 streamer for you while Cutler was out the dream is over.
Don’t go dropping McCown yet, as McCown could re-aggravate his groin, forcing him out of game action, after healing up so quickly. Wait to see how Cutler performs this Sunday to determine whether McCown is droppable or not.
Alex Smith
It took nine weeks of NFL action, but the Fantasy Coalition Against Alex Smith were finally proven right, as Smith had his worst performance of the season in Week 9 versus the Buffalo Bills.
A season low in passing attempts, and rushing yards, and the second worst pass completions and yards per attempts did Smith in. It was also the fourth time this year Smith didn’t have a passing touchdown.
Add it all up, and Smith finished the week with a puny 5.66 standard fantasy points. It was a major disappointment to see Smith throw zero touchdowns, as the Bills’ defense had allowed at least one passing touchdown every game this year, and 11 in its last three.
Smith still is the 12th highest scoring fantasy quarterback on the season in standard scoring leagues though, and he looks to out-produce his 2-QB draft day ADP.
Andy Dalton
We kind of figured the hot streak Andy Dalton was on would come to an end eventually, and Week 9 was the date he had to turn in his ruby red cleats.
The passing yardage total was still there for Dalton, as he had his fourth straight game of at least 300 passing yards, throwing for 388. However, not much other offense was generated by Dalton, as he threw zero touchdowns, and three interceptions. He did have a long bomb touchdown pass to Marvin Jones called back though, which would have elevated his final fantasy state line.
It’ll be interesting to see how Dalton responds in Week 10 versus the Baltimore Ravens, who just gave up 262 yards passing and three passing touchdowns to Jason Campbell.
Dalton finds himself in a situation where his stock can go back up in the matter of one short week.
Stats used in this article from FantasyData.com, Rotoworld, and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports. If you’re interested to see 2-QB league quarterback rankings from a different angle, TwoQBs.com is the place to go.
