Fantasy Football Quarterback Preview
Posted on
August 19, 2009 by
Marc
The fantasy football preview begins with Quarterback. The quarterback is the most important person in real football, but in fantasy football they are 2nd or 3rd on the priority scale poll for me. With that being said, I agree with much of the analysis below from fantasy football contributor, John.
(My only disagreement is David Gerrard. He should be a little higher. His fantasy statistics last year rated pretty well, and he adds Tory Holt this year. Even old he won’t drop passes like the rest of the receiving corp.)
- Drew Brees – no brainer. Thrives in Sean Payton’s O, plays at least 9 games in a dome every year (incl. at ATL), has the weapons on O but not on D (so there will often be the need to play catch up)
- Tom Brady – Yes, I know, he was injured last year. I’m not saying there isn’t a drop off between Tom and Drew, but there’s also ANOTHER drop-off between Tom and…
- Peyton Manning – who slides all the way to 3 this year. New coach, no Marvin Harrison and he screwed many teams over last year when the weather turned cold (thankfully, one of them belonged to my opponent!)
- Aaron Rodgers – was like the #2 or #3 QB last year in standard-scoring leagues. Unlike Pey-Pey, can fling it outdoors once it gets cold. GB’s still looking for a running game, necessitating a West Coast O that’ll rely more on the pass. You could make a case for drafting him over Peyton, but I’d like to see one more year of success for Aaron before taking that leap
- Phillip Rivers – thriving in Norv Turner’s offense, can always dump it off to Tomlinson or Sproles, winters in San Diego are lovely. The one concern would be if the D improves, they may not need to throw the ball late to catch up anymore. Still, there’s a drop-off between him and…
- Tony Romo – lost T.O., but Witten is gold. Not sure about Roy Williams, Patrick Crayton and Miles Austin though. Again, I feel there’s a drop-off between him and…
- Kurt Warner – due to Kurt’s age and penchant for turnovers. Wisenhunt is trying to run the ball more.
- Matt Schaub – due to play a full season… right?
- Donovan McNabb – favorite target, Westbrook, is banged up & 30 years old, but PHI drafted a possible replacement and also a speedy WR (Maclin)
- Jay Cutler – serious downgrade from last year due to the lack of true WRs in Chi-town. Don’t believe the hype that the gurus are giving any receiver not named “Devin Hester”. Expect many dump-offs to Forte and Olsen.
- Carson Palmer – Racking up the injuries at an alarming rate. Lost TJ to Seattle, but gained Laverneus Coles. Heard they scrapped the playbook from previous years, so they’ll need time to learn the new one. Worth watching in pre-season to see how that’s coming along.
- Matt Ryan – possible sophomore slump, but they did pick up Tony Gonzalez. This slot seems about right b/c there’s a drop-off to…
- Ben Roethlisberger – usually no need to throw it late; PIT’s usually up in the 4th and they just let their D close things out.
- Eli Manning – as a Giants fan, I don’t want him ruining my real team AND my fantasy teams. Need to see if not one but TWO WRs step up to replace Plax and Toomer.
- Matt Hasselbeck – he SHOULD be healthy, but SEA’s going to a run-heavy version of the West Coast O. TJ will help, at least.
- Brett Favre
- Kyle Orton – probably getting a little TOO much love from the gurus. If you trust him to fully understand Josh McDaniel’s O from Week 1, by all means, draft him higher
- Matt Cassel – odds are, he’s about to be exposed in KC as a product of a good system in NE.
- David Garrard – Tory Holt will help, but this team relies on their running game and D.
- Joe Flacco – because he has to fit somewhere.
- Marc Bulger – has had the holy heck beaten out of him these past few years. Lost Tory Holt. New O-coordinator implementing a run-heavy West Coast O. Plays in a dome and in the NFC West, which isn’t known for its D.
- Trent Edwards – has TO on one side and perennial fantasy-team killer Lee Evans on the other. Not bad, but Jauron’s still the coach and he’s still Trent Edwards. Has to play NE, MIA and NYJ’s Ds twice each.
- Jake Delhomme – if he didn’t have Steve Smith, he wouldn’t even be worth ranking
- Kerry Collins – TEN got some wide receivers in the off-season, Chris Johnson’s always a threat to score on a dump-off pass and the D may give up a few more points with Haynesworth now in WAS.
- Chad Pennington – he’s accurate, that’s about it
- Jason Campbell – stopped throwing TD’s at about the midway point of last season
- JaMarcus Russell – he’s not even accurate
- Jets QB – either Kellen Clemens or rookie Mark Sanchez. Neither belong on your team.
- TB QB – ditto
- SF QB – ditto
Regarding Garrard, two things: 1) I’ve been burned by him in the past and 2) I think we’ve seen the ceiling on him. Despite the ‘negative’ things I said about Orton, Cassel, etc, those guys have more upside than he does.
that said, I had my first draft the other night and MJD fell to me at #3, so I hope Garrard throws him many many TD passes (it’s a PPR league). My QBs? Schaub and Palmer (we start 2).
Oh, if you could edit the main post to add Favre in just below Hasselbeck, that’d be great! I think that’s a good spot for him.
JMP – We will agree to disagree about the QB’s. I like Schaub a lot this year. If you didn’t ask about Favre, I would have gladly left him off the list.