Saturday, October 16, 2021

Week 6 Fantasy Football QB Start'em, Sit'em

The decision on which player to start, or sit, largely comes down to the options on your roster (and/or possibly the players available on your league's waiver wire).

As an example, Matthew Stafford is listed below as a "start" for Week 6. And I'd certainly be comfortable going into Week 6 with him as my starting quarterback.

Then again, Stafford may be a "sit" for your team.

In other words, if you roster both Patrick Mahomes and Stafford, you should start Mahomes and, in turn, bench Stafford.

For a more direct answer on whether we would start Player X over Player Y, check our Week 6 Fantasy Football Rankings. Instead of making those direct comparisons, the goal here is to highlight players that we like, or dislike, for the week.

Week 6 Fantasy Football QB Start'em

Taylor Heinicke, Washington Football Team (vs. KC)

Heinicke had a disappointing performance last week with only 248 passing yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Before that, however, he had scored a minimum of 21 fantasy points in three consecutive starts with weekly fantasy finishes of QB12, QB10 and QB5, respectively.

While he threw multiple touchdowns in each of those three games, his mobility has allowed him to post a 25/127/1 rushing line this season as well. Heinicke ranks eighth in QB rushing yards this season.

No team has allowed more fantasy points per game this season than the Kansas City Chiefs. Over the past four weeks, they have allowed four consecutive top-four weekly QB finishes -- Lamar Jackson (QB2), Justin Herbert (QB2), Jalen Hurts (QB4) and Josh Allen (QB4), respectively.

While they have allowed 229 rushing yards and three rushing scores to opposing QBs over that stretch, they have also allowed 983 passing yards and nine passing touchdowns over the past three weeks as well.

For one team where I had Russell Wilson as my starter, Heinicke is a plug-and-play starter for that team this week. Heinicke is still available 73% of Yahoo! leagues (as of Saturday evening).

Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals (at DET)

On a per-game basis, Burrow threw it more often than any other quarterback last season. That hasn't been the case this season, as he has only one game with more than 32 pass attempts. Given this week's matchup against the Detroit Lions, there is some concern that it's another relatively low-volume day for Burrow.

Even so, Burrow has thrown multiple touchdowns every game this season and he's had his two best games -- 22.35 and 20.34 fantasy points -- over the past two weeks, respectively. No team has allowed more pass yards per attempt (9.96) than the Lions this season.

Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams (at NYG)

Stafford has finished as a top-12 fantasy quarterback in only two of five games this season, but he has yet to score less than 17.5 fantasy points in any week. The biggest concern with Stafford (from a fantasy perspective) is that he doesn't run (much), so he'll need to throw enough to accumulate his fantasy points and the Rams are nearly double-digit favorites this week.

That said, Stafford ranks third in the NFL in passing yards per game (315.2) and only two injured quarterbacks -- Russell Wilson (9.6) and Tyrod Taylor (9.5) -- average more yards per pass attempt than Stafford (9.2). Stafford is also top five in passing touchdowns (12) and passer rating (113.2) this season.

The New York Giants have allowed the ninth-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this season. In addition, they have allowed the sixth-highest passer rating (108.5) as well.

Week 6 Fantasy Football QB Sit'em

Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans (vs. BUF)

The Buffalo Bills have faced some bad offenses, but at the same time, they have allowed the fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this season. As well as Ryan Tannehill has played before 2021, he's off to an incredibly slow start this season without Arthur Smith.

Through five weeks, Tannehill has only one top-16 weekly finish and ranks as the QB20 through Week 5. Even though the bye weeks begin in Week 6 and some managers may need a Russell Wilson replacement, Tannehill is ranked as a QB2 in my rankings and I'd prefer someone like Heinicke (see above) over Tannehill this week.

Derek Carr, Las Vegas Raiders (at DEN)

Carr was averaging more than 400 passing yards per game through the first three weeks of the season. Since then, he's barely averaging more than 200 (201.0 YPG). After finishing as the weekly QB9, QB8 and QB11, respectively, to start the season, Carr has ended as the weekly QB24 and QB32 in Weeks 4 and 5, respectively.

This week's matchup limits Carr's streamability. The Denver Broncos are barely allowing 200 passing yards per game (207.0, fifth-lowest in the NFL). In addition, they have allowed a league-low 55.1% completion rate and they second-lowest passing touchdowns (five) this season.

Justin Fields, Chicago Bears (vs. GB)

Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts completed 12-of-26 for 115 yards against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football, yet he scored 24.0 fantasy points due to his rushing ability. Hurts has been a viable QB1 since taking over for Carson Wentz last season.

So, why am I writing about Hurts here?

Fields is a more talented quarterback than Hurts, who also possesses elite dual-threat abilities to compensate for any potential lackluster passing performances (in theory). Unfortunately, that has only been in theory so far for Fields.

In three starts, Fields has finished with 68, 209 and 111 passing yards, respectively, and has thrown a total of one touchdown during that span. He finished outside the top 30 weekly quarterbacks in all three starts. The rushing stats during that stretch have been nearly as pathetic -- nine carries for 25 scoreless yards.

While many drafted some streamers to get them to the point where they could then switch to Fields or San Francisco's Trey Lance when they become (in theory) high-upside starters, Fields should remain on your bench until we see more.

More positions:

Positional Fantasy Football Rankings:

Check out more of our content:

Keep track of our site's updates: Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook and/or Subscribe to our newsletter.

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,