QB Rankings: 11-20 + Preseason Highlights, Buckle Up! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/16

He had as many boom games as Deshawn Watson or Lamar Jackson combined. Now, what is defining? Now, why do you get to just discount all that because you think their defense is going to be a little bit better? That's not the entire reason. I mean, when I look at, you know, his.

Track record, you're right, he had a phenomenal year last year. That was the best he's been in several years. His passing touchdown rate was through the roof for him. I mean, career-wise, you're talking about a guy who's always been under 5%. Pretty league average around that 4.9. And now last season, he comes out and throws 35 and 13, 6.8%. Yeah, 6.8% passing touchdown rate.

And I've brought this up before. Obviously, they had to stay to try to get back in some games when they were giving up 35, 40, 50 points. And I don't see that happening this year with the Mike Zimmer defense. But I would argue that some of his ability to have those big boom games while they happened to happen a few times last year, it's really.

Not his norm. He's Philip Rivers of old where he'll finish the season at maybe quarterback 11, quarterback 12. But through the year, it wasn't anybody that was really helping you. He just was, when he is bad, you know, he's the quarterback 17. And you know what I mean? Like he doesn't fall to quarterback 38 and implode and have some five turnover game that really drags him down. And so I think at the end of the year, his ranking will be fine. But.

He's not a quarterback that's going to help you win games and fantasy. And I just don't want it to be, I would rather swing for the fences. I think you're wrong. Because the history of Kirk Cousins does not include Justin Jefferson, who might be the most explosive wide receiver in the game. It included Stefan Diggs, who is awesome and a younger Adam Thielen. Would you not correlate?

So last year's QB11 performance would have been the QB5 in 2019. We've talked about the quarterback scoring going through the roof. Like this was the lowest fantasy finish ever for a 35 plus passing touchdown season. So this was an elite season from Kirk Cousness is what I want to get at. I correlate that to Justin Jefferson. I correlate that to like you look at the metrics for Jefferson. He's the best down the field that.

the NFL has right now. So I do think that there's the possibility that you saw a different precedent set for a player that has three top 10 finishes in his history that was quarterback 13 in a year when they had a great defense. So, Mike, help us out. I'm kind of in between. I think he's... I mean, you are in between stats-wise, too. I'm at 11, Jason, at 19. Mike, you have my 13. Yeah, he's...

What I've been saying is he's the perfect quarterback too. Now, if you, let's say things go really sideways in your draft because you're waiting on a quarterback and then some kind of run happens at the end that you weren't projecting. You can start the season with Kirk Cousins, Cincinnati, Arizona, Seattle. Those are three solid matchups, at least based off of what happened last year with quarterbacks against these.

those teams. So you could start with him. I would be searching for, you know, hopefully you have someone with a higher ceiling because Kirk Cousins will be okay, but Kirk Couss is not jumping in, like, he's not jumping into the top five. I don't think that's in the range of outcomes for him. Maybe I'm just more sad that this next guy, Matt Ryan, is ranked higher than Kirk Cousins, where Cousins outperformed him last year. Matt Ryan lost the...

powerhouse of Julio Jones from his repertoire. And you have them three spots higher. Well, they're very close in rankings and they're very close in style and my desire to play them in fantasy. I'm not really all aboard Matt Ryan either. I mean, these are two guys that are going to.

throw for enough yards, at least with Matt Ryan. You know their defense is going to suck, and he's going to have to play catch up. Obviously, he added Kyle Pitts, but I, you know, I do think Matt Ryan is worse this year from Julio to Pitts than he was last year. And you're right, Kirk Cousins outproduced him last year. I just think Kirk Cousins is going to have normal touchdown regression come and the yardage come back down to a reasonable basis. But both of these players, I mean, this is like,

They're not late-round targets for you. Neither guy are late-round quarterback target. Right. They're not really my late-round quarterback targets. I just think they're going to finish plenty of weeks as the quarterback eight or nine or ten throughout the year and finish with a good ranking, but not really have the upside I'm looking for. Probably going to get 100 more pass attempts from Matt Ryan as well. Yes, you will. So Kyle Pitts, Calvin Ridley, Russell Gage and Company, you don't have Dalvin Cook siphoning, you know.

the amount of offense away from Matt Ryan either. If you want to make an argument for Mattie Ice. He opens up the season against Philadelphia. So that's also a solid week one target. Okay. And then he has the Giants in week three as well. I mean, in poor Matt Ryan, he only has the three seasons over 30 passing touchdowns. I mean, he's an absolute yardage monster. This guy.

what Atlanta has done to Matt Ryan with a new offensive coordinator averaging like every two years, he has to do a brand new system. It's ridiculous. So let's get some continuity here for Matt Ryan. It's a little late. I know. I don't think it's coming for him at this point in his career. Probably not. Matthew Stafford at 15. Jason, you're the highest on Matthew Stafford. Is he an actual late round target for you?

He is a late round target for me. I don't think that his week one matchup is as good as the other two guys. But at least here, at least here I see a path for the potential. Like when I draft one of these late round quarterbacks, I want the idea that, oh, man, they have a path to be like a top six quarterback this year. And when I think about, let me know, guys, if you have this thought ever, okay? Because I have this thought almost every year in hindsight. I say,

There are these storylines. Ice cream for breakfast. Just, right? It's okay, right? Ice cream for breakfast is okay. Yeah, stop getting ashamed. But at the end of every year, I look back and I think there are certain storylines that seem now in hindsight so obvious. Like we should have all seen it coming. Sure. And we didn't. No one saw, like no one in the world and it just came out of nowhere and we could have seen it coming. This is one of those storylines where I just wonder like, look, Matthew Stafford.

Plus Sean McVeigh, is this something where he really does just explode? And the offense for the Rams is great because you've got a really smart, capable, quality quarterback with a really smart, capable offensive coordinator, good weapons. And I don't have them stated as anything otherworldly, but at least I see that potential and say,

Yeah, is this a storyline we're all missing because we haven't seen him play for this team before. Yeah, there's some hope and some upside that maybe he comes out and scorches the earth. He has been ridiculously injury prone of late. I think that's the real fear for Matthew Stafford. He missed a lot of time, thumb and ribs and ankle and then back and then thumb again this preseason just like it wasn't serious, but we all winced a little bit.

more than we would have with somebody else that dealt with that injury. So I think that stands out a little bit. But I love Matthew Stafford, the player. I love the elite traits he brings to the position that Jared Goff certainly didn't possess. You've brought them up many times, Jason, the improvisation, the difficult window throws and arm angles and all of these things that they just didn't have. He can go win you a game.

Now, they have one of the best defenses in football. So how much is Sean McVeigh's intelligence going to be channeled into game management, right? Don't make mistake type of Matthew Stafford might be what you need three out of four weeks. That's another question mark. Yeah, I mean, that is one of the reasons that he moved up for me this offseason. When they lost Cam Acres.

and Darrell Henderson being their main guy, I think that they're going to need to step on the throat and really outscore people as opposed to say, let's control this game a little bit easier and give 25 carries to a running back while we've got a lead. I don't think Henderson would be able to do that, but your point is definitely fair on a great defense. They're not going to need to score 45 points to win the game. It's just one of those things where

with Cooper Cup and Robert Woods and Tyler Higby, Henderson's a good pass catcher. I could see. Remember, it wasn't that long ago. The season before last, he was, Matthew Stafford was on fire. And then obviously he missed the 2019. Yeah, and then he missed half of that year. But he was a top five quarterback that we were all in love with. Do you realize that Matthew Stafford has thrown for more than 30 touchdowns two times?

Yeah, he had a 40 plus, right, with Calvin? Yes, the 40 in 2011, that was the year he went absolutely nuts. I mean, he also threw the ball 663 times that year, the 5,041 touchdowns. But that's wild to me. Because when you think of Matthew Stafford, you know, the beginning you think of the gunslinger, Calvin Johnson's already in the Hall of Fame. I mean, that's who he was playing with, that level of talent. And yet, we give Matt Ryan crap for.

the touchdown totals only being over 33 times. Stafford's only twice. The Detroit Lions are the Adam Gaze of teams in the NFL. There is a suppression effect that happens in Detroit. Okay. That's some strange analysis. There's just like an invisible dome covering the city? Yeah, there is. There's kind of like a fog. Look, I don't want to.

I already have. But I don't want to disrespect the Detroit fans. But look, you know what I'm talking about. No offense. I said no offense. Look, it's just appropriate levels of, you know, what do we say about the head coaches there? There hasn't been a head coach of the Lions that has gotten rehired. Right. Ever, like. Like ever. Or in the last like 10 coaches or something like that. There is a.

Brooks Brooks is messaging me right now. He says, Andy's right. You can feel it when you live nearby. There's a fog of defeat that settles over the field. And so it's still a well-received point. He hasn't hit that total. You've seen sample sizes, right? Like the year he got hurt two years ago, those first eight games, he was on pace for like 50 touchdowns. Yeah, but that was it. I mean. No, I know. He's...

That's why he's being drafted later or without that potential promise. I think that Stafford will do more game managing. I do too. I do too. Joe Burrow at 16, I don't want to draft him. He's completely off my board. Oh, man, Joe Burrow. He's going in the ninth round of fantasy drafts. He's my 20th ranked quarterback. I have no interest in this experiment because I don't think the upside is there compared to everybody else that I could be taking.

So I'd be taking Trevor Lawrence ahead of him. I'd take the shot there versus Joe Burrow. I know he has weapons all over the field, but I don't. ACL, MCL, PCL. Too many abbreviations for me to take the shot this year. It's so brutal, that injury moving the hopes and the dreams, at least for the beginning of this season for Joe Burrell, moving them way down. Elite weapons all over. They just added a top five.

pick at the wide receiver position in Jamar Chase, and you know that the volume will be there. The Bengals are going to throw the ball. They're going to be near the league lead by the end of the year in terms of passing attempts. But you combine all those things, recovering from the injury. They're opening against Minnesota, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. So if you're in, my advice, if you're in on Joe Burrow is...

You wait. You don't draft him. Maybe he's great at the beginning and then you miss out. Sorry. But the way that I'm handling Joe Burrow is I'm looking to pick him up after that Pittsburgh game. Because he gets Jacksonville in week four. See if there's any real signs of life. See if he's showing the promise of two years ago being the overall number one pick. See if any of that is there. If there's signs of life, then pick him up and move on from there. I don't want to play Pittsburgh in Baltimore in Cleveland twice.