Man, what a week for injuries in the NFL.
Notable names out for the season include Brian Cushing, Reggie Wayne, Doug Martin (maybe), and Sam Bradford. Those are some tough losses for each of the teams the respective names play for, but the bad injury news didn’t stop there.
At the quarterback position, on top of Bradford being lost for the season, the Chicago Bears are also going to be without the services of Jay Cutler, for at least the next four weeks, and the Eagles also lost replacement quarterback Nick Foles to a concussion.
Those are three impactful injuries for both real life and fantasy football purposes.
Both Cutler and Bradford were playing like QB1s before their injuries, and Bradford will still finish in the QB1 range after Week 7 is completed. Nick Foles, in his one start this year, finished as the second highest scoring fantasy quarterback for the week, and many 2-QBers turned to his services the last two weeks.
The Foles injury is somewhat tempered with the expected return of Michael Vick to the Eagles’ line-up, and if you were rostering both Vick and Foles, hopefully you held onto Vick, while awaiting to see if Foles would steal the starting quarterback job away from Vick in Philadelphia.
It’s safe to say that Vick will be back under center for the Eagles, after Foles’ concussion issue, and his dreadful Week 7 showing versus the Cowboys. In what was supposed to be a dream matchup for Foles, he wasn’t able to muster up much production of any kind, going 11-of-29 for 80 yards, and he also added 25 yards rushing.
Since Foles will more than likely be replaced by Vick, who was already replaced by Foles, it’s time to see which other quarterbacks we should be looking to acquire in our 2-QB fantasy football leagues this week.
Josh McCown
In relief of the injured Jay Cutler, McCown filled in admirably for the Bears, going 14-of-20, for 204 passing yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions. McCown also added 33 yards rushing, on four attempts. When Week 7 was over, McCown finished the week as QB15.
McCown has become a travelled journeyman back-up quarterback in the latter stages of his career, but he did have two seasons where he saw significant time starting. In 2004, McCown started 13 games for the Arizona Cardinals, and in 2007 he started nine games for the Oakland Raiders.
The numbers don’t scream out extraordinary talent for McCown, but he finds himself in a favorable situation, playing in Chicago, with great pass catching options in Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey, Matt Forte, and Martellus Bennett. On top of that, he gets to play under the tutelage of “quarterback guru” Marc Trestman, and has a soft upcoming schedule.
Once the Bears come back from their Week 8 bye, they play the Packers (twice), Lions, Ravens, Rams, Vikings, Cowboys, Browns, Eagles and Packers. The Browns, giving up the 12th fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks, is the “worst” of those match-ups.
The word on Cutler is he’ll be out at least four weeks, and possibly longer. If you’re a Cutler owner, McCown is a must add replacement, and even if you don’t owner Cutler, McCown could make for an admirable QB3 bye week fill-in.
If there is only one waiver wire quarterback you target this week in 2-QB leagues make it McCown.
Case Keenum
A wait-and-see approach was advised in regards to Keenum and his fantasy starting viability in 2-QB leagues last week. Everything was stacked against Keenum: undrafted quarterback, first start, playing in Arrowhead Stadium, and playing against the top defense in the NFL.
Going into Week 7, the Chiefs were allowing 13.9 fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks, and when you add it all up, the odds were not in Keenum’s favor. Yet, that didn’t matter to Keenum, as he wound up throwing for 271 passing yards, which were the second most the Chiefs allowed all year, and he also throw for one touchdown.
Keenum finished the week as QB19 in standard leagues, entrenching him in the QB2 tier. Some quarterbacks Keenum scored more fantasy points than in Week 7 include Tony Romo, Eli Manning, Nick Foles, and Tom Brady.
If Keenum can hold his own against the Chiefs it would be a good sign that we might possibly be able to perform as a QB2 for the rest of the year.
The only thing holding Keenum back is Gary Kubiak going back to Matt Schaub, but that’s no guarantee. While Kubiak mentioned that Schaub is the team’s “starting quarterback” there still needs evaluating to be done, leaving the door open for at least one more Keenum start in Week 9.
Stash Keenum on your bench for now, and wait to see how Kubiak handles the situation, before dropping Keenum.
Drew Stanton
The #FreeDrewStanton movement might officially be put on the shelf. Even though Palmer didn’t put up an inspiring performance versus the Seahawks on Thursday Night, it was probably more than enough to ensure that Palmer isn’t benched by Bruce Arians.
A late touchdown in garbage time helped pad Palmer’s stats, and without it, he would have finished as QB29, instead of QB25, in standard scoring leagues. Palmer also added two interceptions, and now has 13 on the season, two less than league leader Eli Manning, and his 15 interceptions.
If Palmer were to see the bench, having it happen versus the Seahawks defense would have been a good bet, but it didn’t happen.
The schedule picks up for the Cardinals going forward, and a match-up versus the Falcons this week might be the start of a turnaround for Palmer, as the Falcons are giving up the sixth most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks.
Keep an eye on Stanton on the waiver wire of your 2-QB league for now, and be ready to pick him up, in case something were to happen to Palmer, either due to injury or ineffective play.
Soon-to-be named Starting St. Louis Rams QB
Kellen Clemens looks to be the most likely quarterback under center for the Rams this week versus the Seahawks, mainly because the Rams have no other quarterback on the active roster.
There are some names that have been mentioned that will either work out for the Rams this week, or are rumoured to work out for them, and they include Brady Quinn and Tyler Thigpen. Even if the Rams sign another quarterback, which they will, it’s unlikely that they would start on short notice over Clemens.
It’s not easy learning a new playbook, and then playing right away, so don’t look for the Rams to do that.
Clemens is a risky 2-QB start this week, as the Rams face the Seahawks, so you might want to look elsewhere for a Bradford replacement. Still, he is a starting quarterback in the NFL, and warrants at least a speculative bench stash.
One name to keep an eye on is undrafted rookie Austin Davis, who was in the Rams’ camp this year. Davis had impressed the Rams during the preseason, completing 70 percent of his passes, and throwing 6.9 yards per attempt.
Davis was released though, as the Rams decided to go with only two quarterbacks. If none of the veteran quarterbacks brought in for workouts this week by the Rams impress, Davis could be brought back. If Clemens disappoints, Davis might have a chance to win the starting job.
Jason Campbell
It wasn’t a great Week 7 showing by Brandon Weeden against the Packers, as he completed only 40.5 percent of his passes. Weeden put up 149 yards passing, one touchdown, and one interception, and wasn’t able to move the chains.
Such a poor performance by Weeden has led Rob Chudzinski to consider his other options, which includes benching Weeden for Jason Campbell.
We already know the Browns don’t think much of Campbell, as they gave Brian Hoyer a chance to start over him when Weeden was injured earlier in the year, but it might be time to put the Weeden experiment out of its misery, and Campbell is the next man up.
The Cleveland Browns starting quarterback debate is something to monitor, but might be one to avoid, as the schedule gets difficult, with a Week 8 match-up versus the Chiefs first on the docket.
Stats used in this article from FantasyData.com, Yahoo! Fantasy Sports, and Rotoworld.com
