To see how I view the quarterback position this week in fantasy football, make sure to take a look at my quarterback rankings for 2-QB fantasy football leagues.
The full rankings will give you an opportunity to determine which QB2 streamers you should start, if you don’t see me talk about them in great length in this article.
Before we delve into the Week 13 ‘QB2 Streaming Circle of Trust’ we should give a once over of last week’s results.
On the virtual pages of this website, three QB2 streaming options I recommended last week were Case Keenum, Mike Glennon, and Scott Tolzien.
We only hit on one of the three, as Glennon was a fraction of a point away from finishing the week in the QB1 tier.
Tolzien was benched for Matt Flynn, but if you combine their points total, they would have been QB2 for the week.
The dumpster fire that is known as the Houston Texans offense, as so eloquently put by C.D. Carter, derailed any hope we had for a good fantasy showing by Keenum in Week 12.
Many Keenum supporters had their daily league or fantasy playoff aspirations dashed because of Keenum’s Week 12 performance, and will never want to cross paths with Keenum again.
I’m not completely writing Keenum off, as he has been named this week’s starting quarterback for the Texans, but I’m no longer willing to consider him a starting 2-QB league option, until he puts up one good, complete game of production.
With that out of the way, time to move onto this week’s QB2 streaming options.
Week 13 QB2 Streaming Circle of Trust
Josh McCown
My trust in #TeamTrestman hasn’t wavered all season long, and for those of you in 2-QB leagues that missed out on drafting/owning Jay Cutler you were awarded to a free Chicago Bears pass throwing option in Josh McCown.
The Bears’ offense, and 2-QB fantasy football owners, haven’t missed a beat with McCown under center, and as PFF’s Mike Clay pointed out on Twitter, McCown is QB6 in scoring during the weeks he has started.
Week 9 against the St. Louis Rams was another QB1 performance from McCown, who wound up with a season high in pass attempts (47), pass completions (36), pass completion percentage (76.6), and passing yards (353).
A Week 11 match-up versus division rivals the Minnesota Vikings is on top for McCown, and on paper, it’s a dream match-up.
The Vikings can’t stop any signal caller, having allowed at least one passing touchdown in each of their games this year. The Vikings’ defense also hasn’t intercepted a pass in their past four games, and only have one interception in the last eight games they’ve played.
One added bonus of starting McCown, as evidenced by what transpired versus the Rams last week, is that the Bears do not have a good defense. In fact, it’s pretty bad, and if the opposing team can score a lot of points, in means McCown will have to play catch-up, and he did just that this past Sunday.
If McCown has to pass nearly 50 times again, he’ll be up for the challenge, and will have more opportunities to score fantasy points. He’s been very efficient this year, and prior to his interception on Sunday, he had gone 148 passes without throwing one.
Ryan Fitzpatrick
Since filling in for an injured Jake Locker on a permanent basis, Locker has finished in the Top-13 of fantasy quarterbacks three straight weeks, with two QB1, or Top-12 weekly quarterback performances. He also has a Week 7 QB1 finish to his name.
This week sees Fitzpatrick face the Colts, a team he already performed decently enough against in Week 11, going 22-of-28, for 222 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions. He also added 26 yards rushing that game.
Fitzpatrick has been a pleasant surprise in fantasy football this season, and he has a chance to put up low-end QB1 numbers agains this week, and for teams fighting to get into the playoffs, Fitzpatrick will be a quarterback helping many such teams get into the second season of their fantasy league.
EJ Manuel
EJ Manuel and the Buffalo Bills were on a bye Week 12, but before that, Manuel put up a QB1 performance in Week 11 versus the New York Jets.
It was a performance that showed promise, and with a match-up versus the Atlanta Falcons this week, Manuel has an opportunity to build on his Week 11 showing.
The Falcons are a mess on defense, and Manuel gets to face a defense allowing 266.6 passing yards/game on the year, and a defense that has forced only one quarterback to throw for less than two touchdowns against them this year.
That quarterback was Cam Newton, but in addition to his one passing touchdown, he also ran in for another score.
In the Falcons’ last three games since they faced Newton and the Carolina Panthers, the Falcons have given up six passing touchdowns, to go alongside zero interceptions.
Even Geno Smith threw three touchdowns in one game versus the Falcons this year, and Smith hasn’t thrown a single touchdown since Week 7.
Hopefully this week’s QB2 streaming options will fare much better than last week’s for you, and if you’re fighting for a playoff spot, may the odds forever be in your favor.
Stats used in this article are from FantasyData.com, and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
