By now you know the drill. Below is a spreadsheet with rest of season updated quarterback rankings for 2-QB leagues. These rankings are helpful with both start/sit questions rest of season, based on strength of schedule, and can also help you out when it comes to gauging trade values.
It’s that time of the year in 2-QB leagues, where trade talks pick up, and the playoff contenders separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
Whether you’re looking to strengthen your 2-QB team by trading for a quarterback, or trading away a quarterback, the chart below should give you some insight into the current landscape of the quarterback position.
As always, a huge thanks goes out to Patrick Thorman of Pro Football Focus Fantasy, who provided the strength of schedule of analysis.
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
Some notes on the above rankings:
-The QB1 tier has been a tricky one to rank all season long, and a few names (Kaepernick, Luck, Wilson, Brady) have been switching back and forth between the QB1 and QB2 tier. To be honest with you, after Robert Griffin III, and even he’s a bit iffy, I wouldn’t consider anybody else a true QB1.
Yet, the QB1 tier needs to be filled out, and I wouldn’t fault you for ranking certain quarterbacks higher or lower than I have them.
-If Nick Foles remains the Eagles’ starting quarterback for the rest of the season, I feel confident enough in him to be a low-end QB1, and would trade for him. The Cowboys game in Week 7 seems more like an anomaly than anything else, and the Eagles’ rest of season schedule is a dreamboat of a schedule for any quarterback.
On the season, Foles has a touchdown to interception ratio of 13:0, a completion percentage of 62.7, a yards per attempt average of 8.7, and a quarterback rating of 127.37.
-I’d consider a returning Jay Cutler a QB1, if fully healthy, but want to see what he does after returning earlier than expected from a groin injury.
-Case Keenum is going to be an interesting quarterback option in 2-QB leagues going forward. With the the run game in Houston going through changes because of the injures to Arian Foster and Ben Tate, and the passing game being opened up, thanks to Keenum’s willingness to throw deep, I would be okay with him as my QB2 every week.
Keenum has a yards per attempt average of 10.5, which might be unsustainable, but shows just how different of a quarterback he is than Matt Schaub. His trade value is hard to gauge on a small sample size, so it might be best to take the plunge now, and trade for him, rather than watching his value go up, if he has another big game versus the Colts this week.
-The Aaron Rodgers injury created a lot of disarray for many 2-QB owners, and if you owned Rodgers, and didn’t have a QB3 back-up, hopefully you were able to secure the services of Seneca Wallace, from the waiver wire. If another 2-QB owner beat you to the punch on Wallace, take a flier on Scott Tolzien, just in case Wallace stumbles, and the practice squader Tolzien gets called into action.
As for Rodgers, his collarbone injury could see him miss anywhere from 4-6 weeks, and you can’t just outright drop Rodgers in your 2-QB league. We were saying the same thing about Cutler, who was expected to miss around four weeks, as well, and look how quickly he came back.
Yes, the severity of their injures are different, but if Rodgers meets his expected return time table he’ll be back in time for the fantasy playoffs, and you don’t want to kick yourself for dropping him, and crushing your chances at a 2-QB fantasy title.
-If you’re trying to acquire a QB3 on the cheap, who you can plug-in for upcoming bye weeks, or play as a QB2 rest of the season, my money would be on Jason Campbell. In the two games Campbell started before the Browns’ Week 10 bye, he finished as QB8 in Week 8 and QB6 in Week 9. Two QB1 performances in standard scoring leagues, and an average of 22.95 standard fantasy points scored in those two games has put Campbell in the 2-QB crosshairs.
The Browns quarterback carrousel might have some 2-QBers wary of his production going forward, including his 2-QB owners, so it gives you a chance to acquire a QB2 at a fraction of the cost he should be going for.
Stats used in this article from FantasyData.com
