If you’re reading this article it means you survived one more week in your 2-QB fantasy football league, and are one week closer to winning it all.
Last week in the NFL saw our usually fantasy shenanigans and Shanahan-igans.
First, the shenanigans, as the usual non-usual suspects invaded the QB1 tier another week, with the likes of Jason Campbell, Andy Dalton, Ryan Tannehill, and even Geno Smith (!?) finishing the week as fantasy QB1s.
When choosing which quarterback to start and which quarterback to sit in 2-QB leagues you’re going to be faced with difficult decisions, as you might have to decide between a stud QB1 in a tough match-up, or a bench stash QB3 with a very favorable match-up.
C.D. Carter passed along some fantasy wisdom from FootballDieHards.com’s Bob Harris, who said you have to ‘divorce the name from the numbers.’
If you did that last week, then you might have rewarded yourself with benching a Russell Wilson, who was QB27 in Week 14, for a Joe Flacco, who was QB11 for the week.
If you didn’t, and you took the ‘never bench your studs’ mantra to heart, then you might have kept Flacco on your bench, and Wilson in your starting lineup, and lost out on almost ten fantasy points.
Hopefully such a decision didn’t cause you to lose your fantasy playoff match-up in Week 14, and you got to live another day.
Submitting line-ups during fantasy playoff season brings much more anxiety than we need, and every decision you make will be scrutinized by yourself over and over again.
To avoid driving yourself crazy during this time of the year make sure to trust your decision making skills, trust the fantasy people you take advice from, and trust the process that led you to your decision. Do all of that, and you’ll find yourself with less reasons to beat yourself up, if you end up losing this week.
Below you’ll find my quarterback rankings for 2-QB fantasy football leagues this week, followed by my weekly Stock Watch report. If you’re looking for a different set of quarterback rankings for 2-QB leagues, the crew over at TwoQBs.com have your back.
Good luck this week!
Week 15 Fantasy Quarterback Rankings for 2-QB Leagues:
1. Peyton Manning VS. San Diego
2. Nick Foles @ Minnesota
3. Drew Brees @ St. Louis
4. Cam Newton VS. New York Jets
5. Philip Rivers @ Denver
6. Matt Ryan VS. Washington
7. Matthew Stafford VS. Baltimore
8. Alex Smith @ Oakland
9. Russell Wilson @ New York Giants
10. Jason Campbell VS. Chicago
11. Jay Cutler @ Cleveland
12. Ryan Tannehill VS. New England
13. Tom Brady @ Miami
14. Colin Kaepernick @ Tampa Bay
15. Tony Romo VS. Green Bay
16. Kirk Cousins @ Atlanta
17. Andrew Luck VS. Houston
18. Ben Roethlisberger VS. Cincinnati
19. Joe Flacco @ Detroit
20. Andy Dalton @ Pittsburgh
21. Case Keenum @ Indianapolis
22. Ryan Fitzpatrick VS. Arizona
23. Carson Palmer @ Tennessee
24. Matt Flynn @ Dallas
25. EJ Manuel @ Jacksonville
26. Eli Manning VS. Seattle
27. Matt McGloin VS. Kansas City
28. Chad Henne VS. Buffalo
29. Matt Cassel VS. Philadelphia
30. Kellen Clemens VS. New Orleans
31. Geno Smith @ Carolina
32. Mike Glennon VS. San Francisco
33. Austin Davis VS. New Orleans
34. Tarvaris Jackson @ New York Giants
Week 15 Quarterbacks on the Rise in 2-QB Leagues:
Kirk Cousins
If you’re looking for a fantasy take on the RG3-Kirk Cousins-Mike Shanahan saga, you can check out this extended XN Sports article.
Aside from off the field issues between coach/general manager/franchise quarterback, the fact of the matter is that 2-QB fantasy owners have been presented with an interesting wrinkle to their line-ups this late in the season.
With plus match-ups versus the Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys the next two weeks, 2-QBers may have been presented with a potential fantasy playoff QB1 for the low, low, low price of free.
It’s hard to find such a commodity on the waiver wire of 2-QB leagues late in the season, and with Cousins now named the starting quarterback in Washington, it may have just happened.
Jason Campbell
Another start for Jason Campbell, and another QB1 performance, as he finished as Week 14’s fifth highest scoring standard fantasy quarterback.
It was the third time Campbell penetrated the QB1 tier this season, and the first time it happened since Week 9.
Week 15 presents another opportunity for Campbell to join the QB1 tier, as he faces off against a Chicago Bears’ defense that is allowing an average of almost 240 passing yards, and 1.5 passing touchdowns per game.
If you take a look at the opposing fantasy quarterbacks that have faced the Bears recently you’ll notice not too many big fantasy stat lines were produced.
The most passing yards allowed since RG3’s 298 was 243 to Matt Cassel, but there have been two three-touchdown games from Matthew Stafford and Tony Romo during that span.
The run game is what has been killing the Bears’ defense this year, with nine different 100+ rushing yard games allowed by Chicago this season.
That might sound bad for Campbell owners, as the more rushing attempts, the less passing attempts, but the Browns are potentially trotting out a Chris Ogbonnaya-Fozzy Whitaker running back tandem this week.
If Campbell can keep up his high volume passing numbers, where he has averaged 48 pass attempts in his four full games as a starter, a QB1 type of day versus Chicago isn’t out of the question this week.
Andy Dalton
We haven’t seen hot streaky Andy Dalton since his three game hot stretch during Weeks 6-8, where he was averaging 27.89 standard fantasy points per game, but his Week 14 fantasy day might see him back just in time for the fantasy playoffs.
Against the Indianapolis Colts last week, Dalton threw for 275 yards, and one touchdown, while adding a score on the ground.
Week 15 sees a division showdown versus the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Ben Roethlisberger, who has thrown 16 touchdown in last six games, including two four-touchdown games.
If Roethlisberger and Dalton decide to throw down this week, it might rain passing touchdowns, and last week, Roethlisberger and Ryan Tannehill combined for six passing touchdowns.
Week 15 Quarterbacks on the Slide in 2-QB Leagues:
Robert Griffin III
The flip side of the equation when it comes to finding a potential QB1 for the playoffs on the waiver wire in Kirk Cousins, is that it came at the expensive of the former Washington starting quarterback, Robert Griffin III.
A look at cumulative data, which doesn’t always tell us the whole story, shows RG3 was sitting at QB12 on the season, in standard scoring fantasy leagues.
Depending on where you drafted him, RG3 either outproduced his 2-QB ADP, or was a disappointment.
The rushing stats from last year weren’t there for RG3 this year, dragging down his big fantasy game performances down. Last season, RG3 had four games where he scored 29 fantasy points or more, but this year he had no such games, with a Week7 26.32 fantasy day as his ceiling.
There’s not much else we can say about RG3’s fantasy potential this season, as it looks like he’ll be deactivated for the rest of the season, meaning his 2-QB stock can’t get any lower.
EJ Manuel
After posting back-to-back 18.7 standard fantasy point days, Manuel’s momentum took a bit of a hit, as he only scored 2.26 standard fantasy points versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week.
It was a horrible showing for Manuel, as he completed only 54.5 percent of his passes, and threw for under 200 yards, while tacking on four interceptions to zero touchdowns.
Manuel has a chance to redeem himself this week, as the Bills face a much improved Jacksonville Jaguars defense, but they can still be thrown on.
Subtract Case Keenum’s Week 12 game, and combine Keenum and Matt Schaub’s fantasy numbers from last week, and the Jaguars have given up 20+ fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks in five of their past six games.
The Jaguars strength on defense has been their run stopping skills, which might force Manuel to take on more of a focal point of the Bills’ offense, and which might bring him back into fantasy relevance for the second week of the fantasy playoffs.
Eli Manning
The most standard fantasy points Eli Manning has put up this year, after his 28.8 fantasy day opening week performance, is 15.36 fantasy points back in Week 5 versus the Philadelphia Eagles.
On five occasions Eli has scored under ten fantasy points, which isn’t something you want out of a quarterback who was being drafted as a high-end QB2 in 2-QB leagues this off-season.
Next up for Eli is a match-up versus the Seattle Seahawks, a team which has given up only one touchdown in each of their last five games, while also allowing no signal caller to throw for more than 200 yards against them, unless you combine Matt Cassel and Christian Ponder’s total from Week 11 (207).
It looks like another week where Eli sits on your bench, and provides no help to you during the fantasy playoffs.
*Stats used in this article from FantasyData.com, and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
