If you decided to go with a TNF double quarterback stack combination and start both Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers last night on StarStreet, you were rewarded with a combined stat line of 455 passing yards, four touchdowns and one interception.
Those numbers are basically the equivalent to Josh McCown’s single game Week 14 stat line, where he threw for 348 yards, four touchdowns, zero interceptions, and also ran for 16 yards, and scored a rushing touchdown.
Sometimes paying a premium for quarterbacks works to your advantage, like Peyton the two games prior to last night, and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s the fun/anxiety that comes with building daily fantasy football rosters.
Now that we’re done looking at last night’s quarterback performances, let us shift our attention to the remaining games.
The Sunday/MNF quarterback options on StarStreet for Week 15 range from Drew Brees at $15,300, to Matt McGloin at $8,500. With such a disparaging difference in price between the high end and low end quarterbacks, it gives us something to work with.
Below you’ll find a few StarStreet quarterbacks I’m targeting this week, and how I would go about constructing my roster by starting at the quarterback position first.
The Mega Powers Division (two high priced quarterbacks teamed together)
With Peyton Manning playing Thursday, the most expensive StarStreet quarterback remaining is Drew Brees at $15,300, and if you’re the type who likes to pay for quarterback production, and “safety”, ponying up your virtual StarStreet dollars for Brees could return positive yields on your investment.
Spending over 15 percent of your budget on any one player is always going to make building the rest of your roster difficult, but with Brees, you’re looking at a quarterback facing a St. Louis Rams defense which has given up an average of 312.25 passing yards in their last four games, while allowing five touchdowns and only intercepting the ball once during that four game span.
As recently as Week 12, Josh McCown went off on the Rams’ pass defense to the tune of 352 passing yards, two touchdowns, and one interception.
Brees is coming off a game where he torched the Panthers’ defense for 313 passing yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. This week’s game will be indoors in St. Louis, which makes the match-up even more appetizing for Brees.
If you’re planning on going ‘The Mega Powers’ route, you should consider Brees as your QB1.
As for the Macho Man Randy Savage QB2 to Brees’ Hulk Hogan QB1 in a Mega Powers StarStreet quarterback duo, you have a few options to consider, and the ones I would target would be:
Matthew Stafford – $13,900
Nick Foles – $13,600
Cam Newton – $13,500
After Peyton, and Brees, the three quarterbacks listed above are the next three highest priced starting quarterbacks on StarStreet for the week, and they each have good match-ups.
Stafford takes on a Baltimore Ravens defense which has given up 250+ passing yards, and two passing touchdowns, in each of their past two games to Ben Roethlisberger, and Matt Cassel, respectively. Neither quarterback turned the ball over in those two games either.
Foles might have the best match-up of any quarterback this week, as the Eagles take on a Vikings defense which has allowed the most touchdowns through the air this year, giving up 29 passing touchdowns on the season. The Vikings defense also allows the the third most passing yards per game, at a clip of 282 passing yards per game.
If you take a look at the weekly quarterback stat lines of opposing quarterbacks who have faced the Vikings this year, you will find only three quarterbacks who failed to score multiple passing touchdowns: Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, and Matt Flynn/Scott Tolzien.
Also, the Vikings have seen five quarterbacks throw for over 300 yards against them, with Josh McCown doing it as recently as Week 13.
Cam Newton might be coming off a disappointing Week 14 performance versus the New Orleans Saints, but disappointing might be overstating it. Sure, he finished outside of the QB1 tier, but his 160 passing yards, 48 rushing yards, and one passing touchdown still saw him put up 15.2 standard fantasy points.
This week Newton gets to go up against a New York Jets defense that is struggling against the pass in recent games, as they’re allowing a shade over 300 passing yards per game in their last six contests, while sporing a 14:6 passing touchdown to interception ratio during that run of games.
Each of the six quarterbacks in those past games have thrown for at least 245 passing yards, and multiple scores, minus Joe Flacco, who was only able to throw for one touchdown.
Again, The Mega Powers QB/QB route is only for those StarStreet daily players who like to pay for quarterback production. If you mix and match some of the above combos, the most you’ll spend is $28,800 on a Brees/Newton combo, with the lowest spending spree costing you $27,100 on a Foles/Newton combo.
Spending a majority of your StarStreet dollars will force you to go dumpster diving at other positions, and a few low-mid priced offensive players to consider are: Chris Ogbonnaya ($8,700), Da’Rick Rogers ($8,000), Cordarrelle Patterson ($10,000, Pierre Thomas ($9,600), Jordan Todman ($9,000), Levine Toilolo ($5,000) and Delanie Walker ($9,100).
The New Age Outlaws Division (two low priced quarterbacks teamed together)
If you’re looking to save money at the quarterback position, so that you can spend all your money on the likes of LeSean McCoy, Jamaal Charles, Matt Forte, Calvin Johnson, and Jimmy Graham, your options will be limited.
A couple of the bottom priced quarterbacks, outside of the top tier, that caught my eye are Matt Ryan ($11,200), and Kirk Cousins ($10,200).
While Matt Ryan wouldn’t normally be considered a low priced quarterback, I think at $11,200, Ryan should be a strong consideration this week if you have no intention of ponying up the money for a true stud QB1 this week.
The Redskins-Falcons game is in Atlanta, which is a plus for Ryan this year.
The Falcons are playing a Redskins team that could be mailing the game in, after checking out early for the season, which is another plus.
Ryan also has a seemingly healthy Roddy White to throw to, which doesn’t hurt.
In his past four games, including a zero touchdown/zero interception performance versus the New Orleans Saints in Week 12, Ryan has thrown for five touchdowns, compared to three interceptions, and has averaged 265.75 passing yards during those four games.
Washington this season is in the bottom tier of passing yards allowed per game, total passing touchdowns allowed, and sacks, providing Ryan with a plus matchup for the week.
If looking for a middle of the pack-bottom priced quarterback this week on StarStreet, Ryan is a top choice for the QB1 slot, if you were to go with a New Age Outlaws QB/QB approach this week.
In that same Redskins-Falcons game, the quarterback on other side of the field, Kirk Cousins provides another intriguing option.
If you don’t believe the Redskins are dumpster fire offense in the making, Cousins could come in at a steal this week, going up against a Falcons defense that has given up at least two total touchdowns to every opposing quarterback they’ve faced this season, minus Matt Flynn.
The Falcons, just like the Redskins, have a hard time sacking the quarterback, and like to give up a lot of passing touchdowns.
A Ryan/Cousins New Age Outlaws combo net you a surprisingly high number of combined StarStreet fantasy points, just because each defense in that game is so bad.
At a combined price tag of $21,400, you’d be saving $7,400 if you went this route, instead of Brees/Newton for example.
That extra $7,400 could give you a little bit of wiggle room when trying to fit in a top offensive playmaker this week.
EJ Manuel at $10,000, and Matt Flynn at $9,900, are a couple of low priced quarterbacks with favorable match-ups to also consider, if you want rock bottom priced quarterbacks leading your StarStreet squad
The Rockers Division (one high priced quarterback teamed up with one lower priced quarterback)
You’ve seen the high priced quarterbacks, and you’ve seen the low priced quarterbacks, so you should hopefully have a decent amount of quarterback options to chose from, if you want to go “stud and dud” this week on StarStreet.
Pairing somebody like Foles with Ryan would be one route to take, and would account for 24.8 percent of your spending budget. The few extra thousand dollars you’d save by replacing Brees with Ryan, could be spent propping up the rest of your line-up, and gives you some flexibility.
If you play around with the quarterback duos, you should be able to settle on one dynamic duo, whether you want to splurge, save, or go conservative, and split the difference.
While I didn’t want to go over every single StarStreet quarterback, keep the following names in mind, when trying to figure out your StarStreet strategy for Week 15:
Russell Wilson – $12,700
Alex Smith – $12,000
Ryan Tannehill – $11,600
Jay Cutler – $11,500
Case Keenum – $11,400
Jason Campbell – $9,500
Good luck this week as you attempt to build your Week 15 StarStreet roster, from the quarterback position out.
*Stats used in this article from FantasyData.com, ESPN.com, and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
