Fantasy football managers have plenty to consider heading into this week’s slate, as the quarterback landscape keeps shifting in unexpected ways. Some offenses are evolving their approach, while others seem stuck in neutral, leaving fantasy production hard to predict.
With four teams on bye and a few depth-chart shakeups, rostering the right QB could be the difference between a win and a loss. Dig into the matchups and trends before making any lineup decisions — there’s plenty of intrigue waiting to unfold.
Aaron Rodgers | PIT (at CHI)
We will see what this wrist injury means for Aaron Rodgers, but it won’t matter for us.
The future Hall of Famer hasn’t thrown multiple TD passes in November and hasn’t reached 250 passing yards a single time this year. This offense isn’t structured for him to attempt high-risk, high-reward passes, and without any rushing in his profile, he’s left without a clean path to top-10 numbers.
With just two finishes better than QB15 this season, I’m not wasting brain power on considering him in any capacity this weekend, should he gut through this injury.
Baker Mayfield | TB (at LAR)
Baker Mayfield made a few of the gritty plays that we’ve come to assume from the former first overall pick (the highlight being a fourth-down scramble on a zone read for a touchdown in the second quarter), but the bad ways outweighed the good for fantasy managers.
Against the Bills, Mayfield completed just 57.1% of his passes, his second-worst showing since September, and failed to throw multiple TDs for the third time in four games. The struggles, in my opinion, are more the result of a crumbling surrounding cast, but it doesn’t matter why it’s happening, just that it projects to continue.
Over his past four games, Mayfield has misfired on 16 of his 20 deep passes. There simply isn’t much per-pass production to chase in this offense as it currently sits, and if Bucky Irving returns, the focus on this three-man backfield might be the best way for Tampa Bay to compete at a high level.
It’s a difficult reality after the start to this season, but Mayfield is no longer a lineup lock in a neutral setting … and this is even worse than that.
Brock Purdy | SF (vs CAR)
Brock Purdy laced’em up for the first time since Week 4 (toe) last week in Arizona and didn’t miss a beat.
He’s been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the league since assuming the starting gig, and that was on full display Sunday with 19 of his 26 pass attempts being thrown to or short of the sticks.
As Rodgers has proven this season, short targets alone don’t make you a dangerous option. What it does for Purdy is that his understanding of the Kyle Shanahan system allows him to feed his top playmakers with opportunities in space, something that is ultimately the goal of every offense.
In the Week 11 win, he fed six targets to each of his three priority targets (Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Jauan Jennings), elevating his fantasy floor in the process. What makes him different from most is his composure: five of seven with a touchdown when throwing on third down last week, success that not only carries counting numbers with it, but extends drives.
Purdy has thrown 174 passes over his last five starts, and 12 of them (2+ in every game) have ended in touchdowns. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he refused to leave the pocket (one rush for -7 yards), but I think we see that bounce back with time.
He’s not an elite runner by any means, but his 21.5 rushing yards per game a season ago helped him sustain QB1 value, and if he can get back to that come December, then we are in business.
For Monday night, I have Purdy ranked as my QB8, making him a viable option across all formats and hopefully bringing home your matchup.
Bryce Young | CAR (at SF)
Another tight win for the Panthers, and this one saw Bryce Young break the slate. He looked good from the jump (six different players caught a pass on the first drive), and he never slowed down.
In the overtime victory, he threw for 448 yards and three scores, numbers that he didn’t threaten over his previous three games combined (364 passing yards and one touchdown).
With this team in the playoff mix and facing a beat-up 49ers defense, should Young be on your radar in a week with four teams on a bye?
I’ll pass.
Last week, 82.2% of his passes came when not under duress, a rate that I think they are going to have an awfully hard time replicating if I’m right in assuming that historical outlier is, well, an outlier. Then this house of cards comes crashing down in a hurry.
Young’s fantasy production per pressured attempt is identical to where it stood last season, and that’s a problem. There is raw talent on this roster, and that’s good for the long-term outlook, but there isn’t enough polish to make this offense worthy of our attention.
Week 11 was good to see, but not predictive in any way.
Caleb Williams | CHI (vs PIT)
Caleb Williams threw multiple touchdown passes in two of his first three games this season, but he’s just one of seven since, and that one came against the Bengals, so I’m not even sure it counts in full.
I don’t want to say he was skittish on Sunday, but he was just 4 of 11 when not pressured, his first sub-50% completion rate game in such situations this season. This is concerning at face value, but when you consider that this offensive line grades out as elite, it’s even more of a worry.
Given this team’s strengths, what motivates them to blitz?
That’s a double-edged sword. No blitzing means fewer single coverage opportunities down the field, and it also means more good running spots, something that I think this offense wants to lean into.
The Steelers kept the high-flying Bengals in check last week, and while they’ve lacked consistency on that side of the ball, Williams offers at least as much risk as reward.
Cameron Ward | TEN (vs SEA)
The Titans were about as competitive as you could ask for on Sunday, and Cam Ward dropped back to pass 43 times, but he failed to reach 200 yards through the air for the fifth time this season, and he still doesn’t have a multi-pass TD effort on his professional resume.
With Calvin Ridley lost for the season, it’s tough to make the case for Ward in even a two-QB league. The rookie hasn’t reached 14 fantasy points in a game, and this doesn’t project to be the matchup that ends those struggles.
Dak Prescott | DAL (vs PHI)
Dak Prescott was all we could have asked for on Monday night against a vulnerable Raiders secondary, with 78.4% of his passing yards being picked up by his two star receivers.
He tied Matthew Stafford for the league lead in games with 3+ TD passes, and all five of Prescott’s have come in his past seven games. I’d be surprised if he adds to that total this week against an Eagles defense that has made Jordan Love and Jared Goff look like replacement-level QBs, not franchise options.
Prescott and Baker Mayfield (at Rams) are the two quarterbacks who I found most difficult to rank this week. Both are sitting just outside of my top 10 at the position for a lack of upside in these matchups, but a nod to the floor they are capable of providing.
Daniel Jones | IND (at KC)
The Daniel Jones house of cards seems to be wobbling a bit. Maybe the bye week is enough for him to right the ship, but given his career track record and the ability of this offense to succeed without asking him to do much, he’s off my radar this week in standard leagues.
- Weeks 1-8: 0.53 points per pass (5.3% TD rate)
- Weeks 9-10: 0,31 points per pass (2.6% TD rate)
This team wants to limit his volume, and if the efficiency is fleeting, this profile gets thin in a hurry. We know that Jones can pile up the fantasy points on the ground, but his value in that regard has been more sporadic than you might realize.
- Four games with 20+ rushing yards
- Five games under five rushing yards
He’s scored five rushing touchdowns, and that’s still driving some of his per-game rankings for this season, but that’s a dangerous thing to count on for any QB, never mind one who is handing the ball off to an MVP candidate.
With four teams (Bo Nix and Justin Herbert among the usable QBs) on a bye this week, the streaming options are thin. Still, I’d take a look at your wire (hit me up on X at KyleSoppePFN with your lineup decisions, I think you’d be surprised at how many QBs grade better this week and Mr. Dimes).
Dillon Gabriel | CLE (at LV)
Dillon Gabriel didn’t return from a head injury for the second half against the Ravens on Sunday, paving the way for the Shedeur Sanders experience.
You’re not counting on the Browns, and this doesn’t change that. If you’re in one of those leagues where every quarterback is rostered, I think you’re clear to move on from Gabriel. Cleveland now has an excuse to look at Sanders, and that will give them (provided health) a near equal sample size to compare the two rookies.
If early returns mean anything, I’m not the least bit sold that the franchise quarterback is on this roster.
Drake Maye | NE (at CIN)
TreVeyon Henderson cashed in two touchdowns from seven yards out, and that eliminated some of the fantasy upside for Drake Maye on Thursday night against the Jets, but good luck getting any sympathy.
Maye has averaged north of eight yards per pass in eight straight games and is showing tremendous signs of development. In three of his past four games, he’s completed over 76% of his passes when taking 2.5+ seconds to throw (10 of his 13 TD passes over that stretch have come on those attempts), something that points to a high level of effectiveness when allowing the play to develop.
That’s huge.
So many young players want to bail after their first read, especially when gifted the physical tools that Maye possesses. So no, I’m not worried that Maye has seen his rushing yardage decline in four straight games or that he hasn’t scored a touchdown on the ground since September.
Instead, I’m encouraged — encouraged that he was five-of-six with a touchdown against the Jets last week when out of the pocket. He’s showing signs of maturity that I didn’t think were on the 2025 radar. He’s now dangerous on the move as a passer and a runner, putting defenses into a true can’t-win situation.
This matchup makes just about any QB interesting, and that makes it impossible to rank Maye too high this week. The bye looms (Week 14), and that’s a pain, but coming out of that for the fantasy playoffs, he’ll be tasked with keeping up with Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.
This is going to be a fun ride to the finish line!
Geno Smith | LV (vs CLE)
The NFL is very much a league of haves and have-nots.
Every week, we see some quarterback play at a borderline all-time level, but the other side of that coin is some awfully dismal play, and that’s the neighborhood in which Geno Smith has lived all season.
Dillon Gabriel hasn’t shown much in the way of potential, J.J. McCarthy is struggling despite a strong system around him, and Cam Ward can’t seem to put 60 good minutes together.
All of those names are on the board, and it’s Smith who owns the league’s lowest passer rating on balls thrown 10+ yards downfield this season.
- 81 attempts
- 36 completions
- 3 touchdowns
- 7 interceptions
There’s a real chance that the D/STs post the highest fantasy point totals in this game. Smith isn’t worth a look in any format. We can only hope that he throws enough accurate passes in the direction of Brock Bowers.
J.J. McCarthy | MIN (at GB)
J.J. McCarthy is not an NFL-level starting quarterback right now.
Fantasy managers and the Minnesota Vikings alike would love for him to be, but he’s not. At the moment, he can’t keep his top target fed (22-of-43 with five interceptions when throwing in the direction of Justin Jefferson) and isn’t a threat to stretch the field at all.
When Throwing Past The Sticks
- Weeks 1-2: 61.1% completion percentage, 101.6 passer rating
- Weeks 9-11: 31.3% completion percentage, 22.1 passer rating
I understand that the Green Bay defense hasn’t been as consistent as projected, but this is still a talented group, and we haven’t been given any reason to believe that McCarthy can string together 30 consecutive good minutes, forget about 60.
Jacoby Brissett | ARI (vs JAX)
We are looking at at least two more missed games for Kyler Murray (foot). GM Monti Ossenfort said shortly after he was placed on IR that he believed Murray would return this season. At the same time, Adam Schefter reported that the team and Murray will have “extensive discussions” about his future with the team.
Who knows?
What I do know is that Jacoby Brissett is cutting it loose right now (NFL record 47 completions last weekend) and is facing a defense that has allowed 20+ fantasy points to a QB in each of their past five games.
The QB production is one thing, but their two games coming out of the bye have been played against the Raiders and Texans.
Multiple touchdowns feel safe, something that Brissett has done in all five of his starts, and with 36+ pass attempts in four of those games, I’m expecting another top 10 performance.
Jalen Hurts | PHI (at DAL)
People will study the 2025 Jalen Hurts season for years to come.
He’s trying to solve the A.J. Brown situation by throwing deep, and it’s just not working. In Weeks 1-9, 19.5% of his throws traveled 15+ yards in the air, a rate that is north of 30% over the past two weeks. In theory, if that elevates his ceiling, but with him misfiring on 15 of those 20 attempts over the past two, it’s really just lowering his floor.
The 31 rushing yards last week were his most since September, and that’s good to see, but without the passing numbers (four games with under 155 passing yards and five games with one or fewer TD passes), the fantasy production is underwhelming.
Hurts is at risk of falling in my rankings, but he’s still my QB5 in this strong matchup.
I understand that the Cowboys’ defense looked better last week with some of their guys back, but it was also on an extended week to prepare for Geno Smith.
This is a hinge week. If the Dallas defense shows up, how I view them as a matchup going forward changes in a big way, and the same is true for Hurts.
Jameis Winston | NYG (at DET)
It was fun to talk about, but Jameis Winston was unable to juice any value out of this banged-up Giants offense, and we probably shouldn’t be surprised.
What has made Jaxson Dart a fantasy asset in this setting has nothing to do with the players around him and everything to do with his willingness to risk it all to move the chains.
On Sunday, 27 of Winston’s 29 pass attempts came in the pocket, and I suspect that what we saw from the Packers last week will be consistent with what we see from opponents when facing Dart moving forward: “make anyone besides the QB beat us”.
I’m going to be than the industry on Dart should he play, and that general pessimism will spill over to the backup should the franchise QB be sidelined for another week.
Jared Goff | DET (vs NYG)
We chalk it up and move on.
Jared Goff was a mess on Sunday night, an outdoor night game against the defending Super Bowl champions. He completed just 7-of-25 passes in the second half and was unable to string together positive plays to jump-start the drives.
A home game against a Giants defense that has allowed the opposing QB to score above his season average in seven straight is a slightly different matchup, and I have no issue with locking Goff in as a top 10 performer at the position this week.
That said, we need to call a spade a spade. We saw Sam Darnold excel for the majority of last season, only to be undone in high-pressure situations. I’m not suggesting that Goff’s fate is similar, but he was 0-of-10 when sped up last week and hasn’t thrown a single score on his 113 pressured dropbacks this season.
I’m monitoring.
Jaxson Dart | NYG (at DET)
The Giants are working with an interim coach and a franchise QB who has been tested for a concussion four times already this season.
That’s not exactly a profile I like leaning into with one of the better NFC teams on the schedule, but the results of Jaxson Dart demand that we consider him as a viable option if active and, to be honest, closer to a lineup lock.
The rookie has run for a touchdown or thrown 40+ passes in every start of his young career, and the reckless play that landed him on the sidelines last week is exactly what makes him a difference maker in our game.
It’s a fine needle to thread for a team going nowhere in 2025. If this were a team making a serious run, I don’t think I’d be far from ranking Dart as a Tier 1 fantasy QB: we’d have no reason to think that his style of play was at risk of changing, and with an offense like the Lions on the other side, we’d love the script potential.
But after a Week 11 DNP, we are left with more questions than answers.
I don’t think they can change Dart’s approach to the game overnight. His duality and bold play are what got him to this point, and I can’t imagine this is the first time there have been discussions about how he goes about his business.
That said, this is very much a franchise that needs to take a long-term view. They are already without two skill-position players who figure to impact their future in a major way: the training wheels will come off this offense next year at full strength, but that won’t matter if the bike isn’t in pristine condition beforehand.
I’ve got Dart ranked safely inside of my top 10 this week, with the thought being that he’ll continue to challenge defenses on the ground in a significant way. That’s the fantasy cheat code, but we have also seen some subtle passing growth despite a limited crew of pass catchers by his side:
- Weeks 4-7: 41.2% complete on ball thrown to (or past) the sticks
- Weeks 8-10: 52.8% complete on ball thrown to (or past) the sticks
Joe Burrow | CIN (vs NE)
Joe Burrow (toe) was designated for return on November 10 and has been vocal about Week 13 (Thursday night in Baltimore) being his target return date.
Only time will tell on that front, but he’s getting close, and whether that estimate is spot-on or not, he needs to be rostered in all formats. From that point forward, the Bengals play nothing but elite offenses that can force Cincy into an aggressive script or vulnerable defenses that can be picked apart.
Asking Burrow to come back and immediately put up MVP numbers is a bit optimistic. Still, we are looking at one of the best pocket passers in the league with two elite receivers and a versatile running back at his disposal.
Joe Flacco managers need to start planning.
Joe Flacco | CIN (vs NE)
A month between meetings and, as it turns out, maybe the Flacco film really is as simple as it appears.
The Steelers have been an up-and-down defense this season, but they clearly learned from their first meeting with Flacco and made the adjustments.
Short Passing Profile (under 10 air yards)
- Week 7 vs PIT: 25-of-33 for 216 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT
- Sunday at PIT: 19-of-30 for 125 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
If the clock didn’t strike midnight on Flacco last week, it’s at serious risk of doing it this weekend against a Patriots team on extended rest.
New England created pressure on one-third of opponent dropbacks when not blitzing in the first seven weeks of the season, a nice rate, but one that has spiked to 39.8% since. Flacco can deal with pressure, but for him to load his top two receivers down with targets, he needs favorable coverage spots, and with extra men circling in the secondary, that’s less likely to happen.
Joe Burrow is targeting next week to return, and I think that’s the next time you start a quarterback with confidence from this team.
Jordan Love | GB (vs MIN)
There was a shoulder injury in the first quarter, but Jordan Love shook it off and looked fine after returning to the game.
The bomb to Christian Watson was his first deep touchdown pass since September, and with the big play receiver certainly looking healthy, there’s a chance that this offense has an added dimension moving forward.
Consider me interested.
Love’s aDOT is over eight yards again, something that has been the case in all three of his seasons at the helm, and that’s where Watson wins. Savion Williams also made a big play in this one (32-yard jump ball reception in the fourth quarter), so while the counting numbers weren’t there (under 180 passing yards for the third time in five games), there are reasons for optimism.
We’ve seen select QBs victimize this aggressive Vikings defense (Jalen Hurts and Jared Goff combined to complete 15-of-22 passes thrown 10+ yards down with five scores), and I think we see some of that vulnerability shown this week, especially if Green Bay is working with a limited/inactive Josh Jacobs.
Love is a top-10 QB for me this week and one that I think comes with a higher floor than you might assume.
Justin Fields | NYJ (at BAL)
This is a college offense being played against professionals.
Justin Fields is a rare athlete, and that is going to allow him to backdoor his way into fantasy value at times (Thursday night at New England: 116 pass yards, TD, 67 rush yards, TD), but it’s far from “safe”.
In his last four games not played against the Bengals, Fields has completed 3-of-15 passes thrown 10+ yards downfield, with the lone chunk play being the touchdown last week, where the defender tripped over his own feet mid-route.
Mobile QBs are great, but if there’s next to no threat vertically, the field gets small in a hurry. For me, Fields is nothing more than a DFS play when on the field. You can embrace the variance in a tournament with a top-heavy payout structure to maximize how impactful your “hit” can be, but the math is never going to work in his favor.
None of that matters right now as the Jets announced on Monday that this is now Tyrod Taylor’s offense. This sort of feels like shuffling chairs on the Titanic, but we’ve seen backup QBs breathe life into offenses all season long, and there’s only one direction for this offense to go.
Kyler Murray | ARI (vs JAX)
The fact that we needed reports three weeks ago to tell us that the Cardinals’ starting Brissett was “not some kind of benching” of Kyler Murray is a concern.
The foot injury is a worry for a player who, at the peak of his powers, threatens defenses in a multitude of ways. But even pre-injury, we are talking about a quarterback who has yet to post a top-12 finish at the position this season.
Murray is pacing for a career low in both fantasy points per pass and per rush, making him a tough sell until we have a clean bill of health, and even then, I think I’d need to see it on the field before trusting him in lineups.
With the IR tag slapped on him last Wednesday, Murray will miss the remainder of the month, with a Week 14 return his next possible spot to impact our world.
The Cardinals play the Rams and Texans in Weeks 14-15, two matchups that I’d rather not touch, and that means, at best, a Week 16 home game against the Falcons is the next time you’d feel even remotely confident in considering Murray.
Lamar Jackson | BAL (vs NYJ)
This just isn’t the Lamar Jackson we drafted.
In 2022, 38.3% of his fantasy value came from his legs. That rate dropped to 30.2% in 2023 and to 24.5% in 2024, Year 1 of the Derrick Henry era.
Through 11 weeks this season, he’s sitting at 19%. Now, I understand the value of the forward pass, and Jackson has proven himself to be a strong option in the pocket, but when the defense feels threatened in fewer ways, everything gets a touch more difficult.
Over the past two weeks, Jackson has had one touchdown and just 369 passing yards. There’s no real actionable here, you’re starting him and not thinking twice about it, but I do think our baseline does need to be adjusted until we see him function more as a true dual threat.
Mac Jones | SF (vs CAR)
Mac Jones kept the seat warm, but this was always going to be Brock Purdy’s offense to lead when healthy, and right now, that’s the case.
We did see the backup post three top-10 finishes, but he finished outside of the top 16 in half of his starts, leaving us with too low a floor to bank on him blindly should he be pushed into the starter’s role at any point for the remainder of the season.
- Monday vs. Panthers
- Week 13 at Browns
- Week 14 BYE
- Week 15 vs. Titans
- Week 16 at Colts
- Week 17 vs. Bears
- Week 18 vs. Seahawks
There are a few matchups in there that could be enticing should the opportunity present itself, but we can cross that bridge when we get there. There’s no reason to roster him at this moment in time. The profile (bottom-10 in aDOT without access to much work on the ground) isn’t something I’m moving mountains for.
Mason Rudolph | PIT (at CHI)
Aaron Rodgers wasn’t in MVP form, but this system as a whole isn’t exactly built for fantasy production, so expecting Mason Rudolph to unlock options like Jacoby Brissett has done in Arizona or Joe Flacco in Cincinnati simply isn’t wise.
Rudolph has never cleared 20 fantasy points in a start, and he has at least as many interceptions as touchdown tosses in four of his past five starts. This is a cautious offense that now welcomes an even lower-upside QB than they’ve had up to this point.
The matchup with Chicago is obviously a good one, but unless they are required to defend with fewer than 11 players on the field, I’m not looking at Rudolph in any format.
Matthew Stafford | LAR (vs TB)
Asking the Bucs to go from chasing Josh Allen all over the place to defending the precision-based Matthew Stafford is an interesting dynamic, but not all that new.
In Week 4, Tampa Bay faced Hurts, and they got Sam Darnold the next week: Darnold went 28-of-34 for 341 yards and four scores.
I’m not projecting that stat line for Stafford this week. But with 12 red zone TD passes over his past four games and 59.3% of his targets being funneled to Puka Nacua or Davante Adams, the floor is plenty high enough to justify starting this statue in all formats.
Stafford has multiple touchdown tosses in eight of his last nine games, and I think he makes it nine of 10, potentially in the first half against a defense that is much stronger against the run than the pass.
Michael Penix Jr. | ATL (at NO)
Michael Penix saw four of his collegiate seasons end prematurely with various injuries, and with him being placed on injured reserve (knee) on Monday, we could be looking at a similar fate this year.
The lefty has shown flashes of competence at the pro level, but he’s been unable to sustain it. He’s completed just 59.6% of his career passes with 12 scores on 381 attempts. I’m hopeful that the recovery process is a clean one for this 25-year-old, but I’m ruling him out for our purposes for the remainder of this season, meaning this is Kirk Cousins’ ship to steer.
Patrick Mahomes | KC (vs IND)
It’s been a wild ride for those with Patrick Mahomes rostered this season. Over the last two games, on the heels of three straight three-TD games, he’s totaled one passing touchdown and eight rushing yards.
In the first two months of this season, that was one quarter’s worth of production.
He now has six games this season with one or fewer pass TDs, as this season truly has been a boom/bust one for #15. Mahomes was one of nine throwing deep last week and hasn’t had a long touchdown pass in six straight games.
The Colts have allowed 20+ fantasy points to Bo Nix, Matthew Stafford, Jacoby Brissett, and Justin Herbert this year. Their offense puts their defense in a position to face aggressive offenses regularly, and if the Chiefs can bring that plan, Mahomes can post a top 5 performance.
But could this be a grind-it-out Jonathan Taylor game off the bye?
The range of outcomes is wide for Mahomes, and while I’m comfortable in ranking him as my QB6, he’s sitting at the top of a tier that extends all the way down to QB12.
Sam Darnold | SEA (at TEN)
I’d love to fight the “he is who we thought he was” narrative, but when the numbers point in that direction, we have to listen.
Over the past two weeks (games against the Cardinals and Rams), Darnold is 5-of-13 when pressured, with zero touchdowns and four of those eight incompletions actually being completed to the other team.
That flaw is obviously a problem. That said, this is a Week 12 article, and the Titans are not only a well below-average pressure defense; they are dead last at creating heat when bringing a blitz.
So yes, I’m worried this season is going to end the same way last season did for Darnold, but in our weekly game, I’m starting him with confidence and not at all hesitating to go this way in DFS.
In terms of fantasy upside, we need a WR2 (preferably Rashid Shaheed) to step up: 11 targets to AJ Barner can be efficient, but it’s not going to fuel much in the way of upside.
Shedeur Sanders | CLE (at LV)
Shedeur Sanders was thrown into a near-impossible situation on Sunday and struggled at the level that you’d expect.
Against the Ravens, he was just four-of-16 after taking over for a concussed Dillon Gabriel in the second half. The inefficiency was predictable, but I would have thought that numbers like that would be the result of an overly aggressive rookie trying to make a splash.
Nope.
Sanders misfired on six of the passes thrown less than five yards downfield (the NFL average for completion percentage, not incompletion percentage, usually hovers around 75%) as the game was clearly coming at him faster than he was ready for.
READ MORE: Soppe’s Week 12 Fantasy Football Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em: Analysis for Every Player in Every Game
How much of that was the result of getting dropped into a tough spot and how much is a talent thing isn’t clear after this tiny sample, but it was obvious that he has a long way to go.
I like Sanders as the Cleveland starter for the remainder of the season, and a full work week against a Vegas defense that played on Monday night should give us a better feel for exactly where we are with the 144th pick.
This passing game isn’t one that successful fantasy teams are invested in.
Trevor Lawrence | JAX (at ARI)
Trevor Lawrence hasn’t cleared 220 passing yards in a game this month, hasn’t thrown multiple touchdowns in over a month, and has one touchdown pass on a ball thrown 20+ yards (36 attempts).
To say that he’s come up short of the “Chosen One” pedigree would be an understatement. The Cardinals are a good enough matchup to put anyone on the DFS radar (40+ points allowed in consecutive games), but given how Jacksonville steamrolled the Chargers on Sunday (192 yards and four scores on the ground), what grounds do we have to project a big attempt total for Lawrence?
None.
He’s not an efficient passer and lacks big-play upside (his last 40-yard completion came in Week 5), making low volume a death knell to his fantasy stock. I’d advise against blindly looking this way in DFS under the pretense of a cheap price and a strong matchup: the math still doesn’t work in Lawrence’s favor.
Tyler Shough | NO (vs ATL)
It’s perfectly OK to like what you saw in Week 10’s win over the Panthers from Tyler Shough and not to be at all interested for fantasy purposes.
He funneled 30.8% of his targets in the direction of Chris Olave, and that’s good business practice. From an inside baseball perspective, he completed five of eight passes for 99 yards and a touchdown when pressured (season prior, when pressured: one-of-13 for six yards and an interception).
Any 26-year-old rookie is going to face an uphill battle to develop and prove himself on the desired timeline, but in his third career start, Shough showed enough promise to keep us interested from a future value point of view.
He’s nowhere near the fantasy radar in anything close to a standard-sized league.
Tyrod Taylor | NYJ (at BAL)
Tyrod Taylor is in a nice spot.
No, not for fantasy. God no. This Ravens defense is trending in the right direction, and the Jets have made it clear that losses are more valuable than wins for the remainder of this season.
But what’s the downside? This offense has failed to reach 15 points in three of its past five games, a stretch during which Justin Fields has struggled to post a passing yardage total greater than the kickoff temperature.
Taylor is in a nice spot because there are no expectations, and he can play freely. If you want to bet on that mindset, bet the over in total points for this game, understanding that if things go sideways, he’s putting the Ravens in position to help cash your ticket.
In this era of fantasy football, 17 points from your QB isn’t asking for a ton, and Taylor has hit that threshold, in a loss, just once since the middle of the 2017 season.
I’m happy for New York fans in that they get something different to watch this week and that this franchise at least gave him a long work week in terms of prep, but he’s nowhere near the viable streaming radar, even in the deepest of one-QB leagues.
