Fantasy Football 2018 - Early QB Rankings

And it'll be interesting. This is not uncharted territory for him to finish in that top three. I mean, 2015, third best. 2014, third best. So he's never not been a quarterback one, his entire career. Four of the last five seasons, 500 plus rushing yards. You just had two years ago when he had the major ankle injuries. It seemed like every week. Stifled that production. He was getting hurt. So he was down at 259 rushing yards. But other than that, over 500. And if your quarterback is going to rush for over 500 yards.

because of how things are scored, whether you like it or not, Jason. I'm on the knot. And I lean that way as well, but that's how we score things right now. So he's very, very valuable. All right. Let's go to number three, the TB12 method. Tom Brady himself. Plant-based. Plant-based Tom Brady. Oh, plant man. Deliverin the goods, 4,500 yards, 32 touchdowns, eight interceptions. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. I was going to plant man knows that the plants will grow, man. Oh.

That's an old reference, and I'm sure there's no way you guys know that one. No, but that's what Twitter's for, Mike. Plant man knows that the plants will grow. No, we do not. Brooks, Brooks? Brooks. Breaking your head? No idea. Giamati doesn't even know. I don't expect you because this is going super deep. It's something my dad used to say to me. No, every night. This was a reference from Beavis and Butthead. Okay. All right. Plant man.

All right, Tom Brady. All three of us have him at number three. Consistency rank at number seven last year. Look, it was somewhat of a strange year where at times because of losing Edelman because of the ups and downs during the season. You maybe felt differently about how he performed, but he ended at number three. What can you complain about? Yeah, it's really hard. And he's getting more weapons back, healthy. He lost his number one weapon from last year.

Well, he lost Brandon Cooks, but I mean, to me, the outside threat of Brandon Cooks can be filled with Chris Hogan, Malcolm Mitchell, while the slot underneath work that he has always thrived. You've got Julian Edelman. You have so many guys to compete. We don't even know who's going to make the roster. They just gave the one-year deal to Jordan Matthews, who I still think could make some noise. There, you've got Grunk. I mean, he has plenty of weapons to use. You haven't seen him slow down. You have to, I mean, I don't know how you can rank him.

much lower than this anyways, just because he gets the job done. You look, he's only had two of the last 10 years where he's basically not a top 10 quarterback. Is there a part of you who we're going to move on to our number four? By the way, I have a couple things that just wanted to throw out for Tom Brady real quick is I'm with Jason. I want to, I want to rank him lower, but he just ends up there. And this past year, when he finishes the quarterback three,

He was only better than the quarterback seven three times per a weekly basis. But he just, he can put up massive games. And I thought, okay, well, what happens if Brandon Cooks is gone? He doesn't have the speed. And I went back to 2010. He was the quarterback three. He didn't have a single receiver over 150 yards. Yeah. It's like he's one of the best quarterbacks of all time. And that's what I'm saying where I vegetables. I want to be the plant man.

I want to rank him lower than quarterback three. It just can't happen. Well, let's talk about the differences between him and our number four. And our number four is Cam Newton. Big bounce back year last year. Ended up number two, according to our scoring system. And 16 games, just 3,300 passing yards, 22 touchdowns, and 16 picks. So that by itself, you're like, hey, you're down in the 20s. And then he ran for 754 yards, six rushing touchdowns.

And that's why he's Cam Newton. And this is what he's done. I mean, he's had top four performances in four of his six years. And he was Cam again last year. And the question that I have is, you know, preferentially, let's say you end up with Tom Brady or Cam Newton. You got that heads up choice. Cam Newton, higher percentage of great games. Okay, so weak winning type of monstrous performances.

Brady a little more consistent, seventh most consistent compared to Cam Newton at 10. What do you prefer in your quarterback? Tommy touchdown or Cam Newton who has that foundational rushing attack and then you get Greg Olson back, hopefully healthy this year? I mean, if they cost the same, I think I would rather have Brady a little bit more.

consistency because Brady is still, you know, you say not in the top seven a certain amount, but he's, you know, almost always a quarterback one. He's very solid. He's not, you know, letting your team down on a weekly basis. I would rather have the consistency. He did in the playoffs. But, yes, he did a couple years in a row, I think, in week 16. The issue is that Tom Brady will cost more. You know, Tom Brady will be. Really? You think Brady will go higher in drafts this year?

I do just because of the name, and maybe people will be back on... Super Cam was the quarterback, too? Sure, maybe people will be back on Cam Newton with the bounceback year. If they did cost the same, I'd rather go Brady. Right now, based on ADP data, which is limited, but from the past week at Fantasy Football Calculator.com, Brady's going in the back of the fourth, whereas Cam is going in the middle of the sixth. Yeah, so in that scenario, I would much rather have Cam... It's basically Rogers...

Rogers Wilson Brady. Yeah. So so far the same top four, which again, I won't have a single one of these guys on my roster. Yeah, and just jumping off the page for Cam Newton is the bus percentage at 44%. So, I mean, yes. That's the other side of the... He finishes the quarterback two on the season, but nearly 50% of the time. You went, what the heck, Cam? A complete bust really let you down. There are three guys that really...

did that a lot this past year. They all three had 44% Cam Newton, Kirk Cousins, and I'll wait on the third. Yeah, yeah, we're going to get into that. We'll get to them. All right, so finally, but we're not all yes men here. We do not all agree, and we finally are getting to the quarterbacks here where we have some disagreement. Number five, Kirk Cousins, is actually our consensus number five. To me, that's wild.

I'm really surprised. It should be the next guy on this list. No way. But Jason, Jason caused major issues. Kurt Cousins. Well, I cannot wait. Let's just skip him. No, Kirk Cousins, I haven't met nine. Jason has him at six. Mike has him at five. Jason's six ranking is unbelievable. What?

Well, we got to stay with Kurt Cousins. That's what I'm talking about. Okay. He has him at six, the guy that he's disparaged all offseason. That's my whole point. Oh, oh, I got you. He last year he was the 15th most consistent quarterback, goes to Minnesota, equipped with all of the, you know, he's got the full holster. Maybe he's got double holsters. He's got the ammo bag on. I mean, he is ready to rumble.

Those are the reasons I've got him at six. When I disparaged him this offseason, it was more so a matter of I don't think he is necessarily worth the money. I think he'll be a little bit overhyped wherever he goes. But he did end up going to the best case scenario. The best weapons, best offensive line, best run game. Best defense. Now the defense, I think, hurts a little bit from a fantasy perspective because you, you know, I brought up this point.

Earlier in the offseason, you saw the games where Case Keenham, they won, and his passing attempts were just not even high enough to be fantasy relevant for that week. And you're going to have some of those from Kirk Cousins. They're not going to want him to go out and throw the ball 35 times if they're winning the game and beating down their opponent. Why would they? They're not focused on your fantasy points. That's, I think, going to be the issue.

that we run into this year with Kirk Cousins. Andy, you've got him at nine. So I'm assuming you see more of that side of it. What is the side that you think will let people down on Captain Kirk? Yeah, I don't think it's liking other players more. That's all it is. I mean, you have to make a decision between these guys. I think Cousins will have a fine season.

I don't think it would be forced. I think it's what you said. He won't be forced into those situations where maybe he has to air it out as often. Maybe there's a game or two here there where he is a one touchdown game and they get it done. I just like other players more. One of them being number six on our list, Drew Breeze. I've got him at five. Mike has him at six. Jason, you got him at 11. And for some reason, you've been filled with a venom against Drew Breeze this morning in the office. I don't know why. I'd love to hear the arguments. You seem to have them.

Top 10 quarterback every year since 2008. Last year, quarterback 9, just 23 touchdowns, 4,300 yards. Zero, quote, great games. Jason, why are you so down on Drew Breeze? Why are you letting him push that QB1 envelope here and almost...

drip into the QB2 range. Yes. I am down on Drew Brees from a fantasy perspective. He didn't show me anything that said that he lost his arm strength or his ability a la, you know, old Peyton Manning, you know, and obviously the yardage was good as a touchdown issue, which I'm sure people are saying, oh, if the touchdowns come back, he'll be great. But here's my issue with Drew Breeze, and it's a major one. The style of Drew Breeze that he has been the last decade is no longer needed.

and wasn't used. This is a team that does not look like the hapless saints of the last five years or so. They are a defense first, great running game. They're going to score a lot of touchdowns on the ground, score some touchdowns with their defense. And if you look at what happened last year, so last season, right, you've got Drew Breeze who finishes as a top 10 quarterback.

So everyone's happy with Drew Breeze, right? You drafted him. You got a top 10 quarterback. You were freaking murdered by Drew Breeze if you played him last year. I mean, you didn't even make the playoffs. You didn't come close to making the playoffs. You know how many times Drew Breeze actually finished as a top 12, meaning a quarterback won last year? Four times. Four. Deshaun Kaiser did it seven times.

He was not helping you win games. He was losing for you, but he was never so, so bad. You know, he didn't go out there and put up five points to where his end of season rank was terrible. Can he bounce back? Absolutely. He's a Hall of Fame or he's great. But I think that this is the Drew Breeze we're going to see is, you know, manage the game, be smart, be accurate, set up a great run game. So those are my arguments. I understand some of that, but I think that,

If we were ranking him based off of last year's performance, you'd get it right. But we're projecting towards next year, and the way I look at it is I think Drew Brees had arguably his greatest NFL season ever last year. Broke the accuracy record in the NFL, and you know what he did it on? The league leading yards per attempt number. You talk about manage the game, Drew Brees.

He wasn't. He was the most yards per attempt. He's never done that in his career, and yet his yards per attempt were that high. I don't view them as a defense first team. I looked at them as a balanced team, and I simply think that the touchdown number is going to swing back to the mean, which is all you need from Drew Brees next year to get what you want in fantasy.

Now, the value-wise, I thought maybe that season that you're describing, the painful branding of sadness that he did last year, I thought that would drive him down the draft board. So I don't think I'm going to have him because he's still going in that fifth frame. He's going ahead of Cam Newton. So I don't think I'm going to have Drew Brees. I do think that, you know, what you said in the beginning, no decrease in scale set, every ability to lead that offense. And arguably the best NFL season I've ever seen him have. From 2014 to 2016, the New Orleans Saints.

rushing touchdown to passing touchdown ratio was 2 to 1 in favor of passing touchdowns. And all of a sudden last year it swings to a 1 to 1 ratio where there are equal in passing touchdowns and equal in rushing touchdowns. I just, I don't think Drew Brees is done. He threw for over 4,300 yards. That's not a game manager. That's a guy who's winning the games and just didn't happen to have the touchdown luck. His touchdown rate went from...

5.1, 5.5 and a half, down to 4.3. That thing's going to jump back up into the fives, in my opinion, which makes Drew Breeze a fantastic quarterback. The previous three years before last year led the league in passing, I don't buy the narrative that it's a run and defense only team. Let me ask you something, Jay. If Drew Breeze was 31 years old,