Late-round quarterback drafter? Had an injury to your starter? In need of a bye-week replacement? In this article, you'll find a couple of quarterback options likely available in most leagues (we'll use players rostered in fewer than 60% of Yahoo leagues) who could provide some punch at the quarterback position.
Unless most teams in your league carry a backup quarterback, there should be plenty of starting quarterbacks on your waiver wire each week. Instead of starting a low-end QB1 facing an elite secondary, look to the waiver wire and play the matchups. Ideally, a player who appears in this space gets hot and becomes an every-week starter. If not, throw him back to the wire and come back here next week. Quarterback is one of the most predictable positions in fantasy football. Simply by using matchups, fantasy GMs can start a mid-to-high QB1 every week by using the waiver wire.
Disclaimer: This column will typically be written on Monday evenings. Should any relevant events occur on Monday Night Football, the article will be edited. Any post-publication edits will be noted.
Last Week's Results
Let's take a look at how last week's recommendations fared. Regardless of what happens on Monday night, Week 12 was our first week of the year with two Rent-a-Quarterbacks finishing in the top half of the QB1 ranks!
Baker Mayfield - vs. Miami
Mayfield was barely under the availability threshold, but we're taking credit for his 327 yards and 3 touchdowns anyway. Mayfield finished as this week's QB4 (pending Monday night) with 27.85 fantasy points, which is the seventh-highest fantasy point total of the 34 Rent-a-Quarterback selections this season. But it's not even the highest this week...
Sam Darnold - vs. Oakland
Darnold continued his fantastic run of production against the Raiders, passing for 315 yards and 2 touchdowns while adding another score on the ground. Darnold's performance yielded 31.35 fantasy points, a QB2 performance (pending Monday night).
Jeff Driskel - at Washington
Rent-a-Quarterback doesn't have to pretty. Driskel proved that once again, as he passed for only 207 yards and 1 touchdown. Driskel added 63 on the ground, though, on his way to 17.65 fantasy points and QB13 (pending Monday night) performance.
This Week's Candidates
Here are the players available in at least 40% of typical leagues who could provide QB1 production this week.
This week, we're going to break the candidates into "high floor" and "high ceiling" groups. The floor guys aren't likely to get you 25+ points, but they should provide a comfortable 12-15. The ceiling guys might get you 25 or more, but they could also end up in the single digits for various reasons.
High-Ceiling: Nick Foles - vs. Tampa Bay (Team Total: 24)
Foles had a dreadful game in Week 12, but the Tampa Bay defense is the elixir a struggling offense needs. Foles showed us his floor, and Tampa Bay has shown us many ceilings this year, hence Foles' place here.
High-Ceiling: Sam Darnold - at Cincinnati (Team Total: 22)
Since their Week 9 loss at Miami, the Jets have scored exactly 34 points in three straight games. Darnold has seven passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in that stretch. He's the overall QB2 (behind only Josh Allen) in that span.
Despite facing the combination of Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges last week, Cincinnati is still yielding the third-most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks over the past five weeks. That includes a league-worse 10.3 yards per pass attempt.
High-Floor: Kyle Allen - vs. Washington (Team Total: 25.25)
Allen hasn't been an elite fantasy producer, but he only has one performance lower than the QB2 ranks since becoming the starter in Week 3. He has four top-15 weekly performances, including two in the top-6. Allen is a "floor" play this week because his team's running game is highly productive, and Washington's poor offense could allow Carolina to lean on the run game.
High-Floor: Ryan Tannehill - at Indianapolis (Team Total: 20.5)
Since Tannehill took over as the team's starter in Week 7, there is one still-starting quarterback (we're excluding Matthew Stafford from this sample) with more fantasy points per game than Tannehill. That quarterback is Lamar Jackson.
This week's matchup isn't great, as Indianapolis covers wide receivers well and plays a conservative offense that isn't the most positive game environment. But Tannehill has the momentum, has the belief of his team and coaches, and is making plays with his legs -- something that always helps both the floor and the ceiling of fantasy quarterbacks.
Deep Leagues Only
These selections are best saved for deeper leagues and/or 2QB/Superflex leagues.
- Jacoby Brissett - vs. Tennessee: Brissett could easily be in the "high floor" section above.
- Andy Dalton - vs. N.Y. Jets: Dalton is back as the starter. The matchup is good, but does his team care enough for it to matter?
- Daniel Jones - vs. Green Bay: The matchup isn't great, but we've seen the kind of ceiling Jones has.
Looking Ahead
If others in your league are also playing the "Rent-a-Quarterback" game, it might be wise to get a jump on some of these players. We've separated this section into "next week" and "beyond" to help with the fantasy playoffs.
Week 14
- Ryan Tannehill - at Oakland
- Jacoby Brissett - at Tampa Bay
- Sam Darnold - vs. Miami
Playoffs
Positive matchups will be shown in BLUE; negative matchups will be shown in RED.
- Tannehill - at Oakland, vs. Houston, vs. New Orleans
- Nick Foles - vs. L.A. Chargers, at Oakland, at Atlanta
- Ryan Fitzpatrick - at N.Y. Jets, at N.Y. Giants, vs. Cincinnati
- Kyle Allen - at Atlanta, vs. Seattle, at Indianapolis
Questions, comments, suggestions, and other feedback on this piece are always welcome via e-mail hester@footballguys.com
