*Week 5 byes: Miami (Ryan Tannehill), Oakland (Matt McGloin)
Well, it finally happened. We had a perfect QB2 streaming recommendations week.
It’s been mentioned before, but when recommending QB2 streaming candidates for 2-QB leagues the goal isn’t to suggest starting a fantasy signal caller that will finish in the QB2 tier. Rather, you want to recommend starting a fantasy quarterback that will make the leap from QB2 to QB1 for the week.
Week 4 is when everything clicked for this QB2 streaming recommendation series, as Eli Manning, Teddy Bridgewater, and Ben Roethlisberger, our three QB2 streamers from last week, each finished Week 4 as fantasy QB1s.
Eli was the highest scoring fantasy quarterback overall, putting up 32.10 standard fantasy points. Bridgwater came in at QB8 (23.38 fantasy points) and Ben Roethlisberger was QB10 (22.36 fantasy points).
Week 4 was a kind week to QB2 streamers, but that was last week. Now we focus our attention on Week 5 QB2 streaming candidates…
Week 5 QB2 Streaming Circle of Trust
Eli Manning
Eli Manning has been a popular name in fantasy circles the past couple of weeks. I mentioned him as a quarterback to target in trades before his Week 4 blow up to help you cover bye weeks, as you might have been able to steal him away from a dissatisfied 2-QB owner that focused too much on Week 1, rather than Week 2 and Week 3.
Week 4 continued Eli’s upward trend, as he went on to have the best fantasy scoring week of any quarterback. His final stat line vs. Washington: 28-of-39 (71.8 completion percentage), 300 passing yards, 4 passing touchdowns, one interception, and one rushing touchdown.
It seems the Ben McAdoo offense is starting to click in New York, as Eli has completed 71.2 percent of his passes in his last three games. From Week 2 to Week 4, Eli is also the fourth-highest scoring fantasy quarterback, trailing only Andrew Luck, Philip Rivers, and Eli Manning.
The good news for Manning is that he has a good shot at continuing his hot streak, with the Giants playing the Atlanta Falcons this week. In four games this season, Atlanta has allowed three quarterbacks to throw for at least 250 passing yards, with rookie Teddy Bridgewater going for 317 last week. Swept away in the blowout vs. Tampa Bay in Week 3 was Mike Glennon throwing 121 yards and 1 touchdown in a little over two quarters of play. Hopefully Eli’s strong play can continue into Week 5.
Austin Davis
Newly named Rams starting quarterback Austin Davis has a shot at putting up decent fantasy numbers versus an NFC East opponent for a second straight game. The undrafted quarterback out of Southern Mississippi acclimated himself well to the role of starting quarterback in Week 3 vs. Dallas, when he threw for 327 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. He wound up finishing as the QB6 in standard scoring leagues that week.
Fresh off a bye, Davis will now go up against the Philadelphia Eagles defense that has allowed the third-most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks (21.86) this season. Each quarterback to face the Eagles this year has finished the week as a QB1: Week 1-Chad Henne (QB11), Week 2-Andrew Luck (QB6), Week 3-Kirk Cousins (QB2), and Week 4-Colin Kaepernick (QB12).
In four games, the Eagles pass defense has given up 10 passing touchdowns, which is the second-most in league, training only Jacksonville’s 11. Their 1,030 passing yards allowed is also eight-worst in the NFL.
One other aspect to watch out for with Davis vs. Philadelphia is rushing yards. Andrew Luck tacked on 20 rushing yards in Week 2, and Colin Kaepernick had 58 yards rushing on the ground last week.
It might not be the first thing that comes to your mind when watching Davis play, as he hasn’t rushed much (4 carries, -1 rushing yard), but he does have some athleticism to his game.
During his four-year college career, Davis totaled 1,375 rushing yards and 25 rushing touchdowns. His athleticism score at PlayerProfiler.com is 100.9. According to their metrics, any score of 105 or more is “considered extraordinary for a quarterback.” Some cheap #KonamiCode points might be in play this week for Davis.
Carson Palmer/Drew Stanton
I’m listing both quarterbacks here, as we won’t know who will be the starting quarterbacks for the Cardinals this week when they face the Broncos. However, if you were forced to go with one over the other right now you would have to go with Drew Stanton.
Carson Palmer suffered a setback in his recovery and was excused from practice to see a specialist regarding his nerve issue. He also didn’t thrown on Thursday. That doesn’t sound like a quarterback who will be playing this week, or anytime soon.
Whoever takes starting quarterback snaps for Arizona this week will be doing so against a Broncos pass defense that has given up the second-most fantasy points/game (22.04) to opposing signal callers in 2014. Only the Jacksonville Jaguars are worse.
Taking a look under the hood, and you see the Jags gave up an average of 25.86 fantasy points to Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson, while only giving up 14.40 to Alex Smith. Those numbers will skew the data, and we’re more inclined to include Stanton in Smith’s tier, than we are to say he belongs in the same grouping as Luck and Wilson.
Still, Smith was able to score 14.40 fantasy points without throwing a touchdown or rushing for one, and he did threw for 255 yards, while adding 42 yards on the ground. In their three games this year, the Broncos have allowed an average of 294.3 passing yards and 33.7 rushing yards.
Just like with Austin Davis, Drew Stanton can also have the athletic label attached to him. Going back to the PlayerProfiler.com well, we see Stanton’s athleticism score is 100.6. In Week 3 he ran 6 times for 16 yards, and during his career he has 38 rushing attempts for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Game flow could see the Cardinals having to play catch up with the Broncos, as this game has the second-highest projected over/under for the week at 49 points.
Stanton might have to throw to keep up with Peyton Manning, but the Cardinals are only projected to score 20.75 of the 49 points. As our good friend and fellow XN scribe Rich Hribar has pointed out that’s not a recipe for success you want to bank on though.
*Stats used in this article courtesy of Pro Football Focus, Yahoo!, FantasyData, and Player Profiler.
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