The TRUTH About Fantasy QBs in 2018, Part 2

You cannot be winning a fantasy championship on the back of 427 passing attempts unless your touchdown rate is just – I mean, his touchdown rate was astronomical. It was 8.2%. That's – that's outlier number. And you still did not get enough from him because looking at it holistically, right? It's not just the consistency that matters for a quarterback. To me, I need quarterbacks that boom. I need quarterbacks that –

put up 30 points. You know, I want those huge, obviously everyone wants to Pat Mahomes Weeks, but you look at when... Where did he finish last year? Russell Wilson? Yeah, I'm going to vet that while you're working through your point. My point is, I'm off Russell Wilson completely. He was as consistent as he was as his finish was. And he finished number nine. And that sounds great.

That sounds excellent. He was number one last year, and there's not much of a difference. Maybe it was just the other quarterbacks around him. He did not put up huge games almost ever this year. And if my quarterback, and keep in mind, Russell Wilson, you have to draft a little bit earlier. If my quarterback's not giving me huge week-winning performances, no thank you. I'm out. For those reasons, I'm out.

Because he's going to cost more than... Did you just Shark Tank Russell? Yeah, and unfortunately he didn't make the cut. Look, he dropped about 500 passing yards. He went up a passing touchdown. I mean, it's got to be just the guys around him that happened to go up because, oh, and dropping 200 rushing yards.

That'll make a huge difference. Yeah, because... Come on, Russell, you need to run, buddy. Well, the thing is, is his rushing yards a lot of times came from those scramble plays. They came from calling a drop-back passing attempt, and they were doing that. They were... He doesn't get to run the ball when he hands it off, ever. Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So number 10, Dak Prescott. I was blown away when he... Number 10 on the season, but number 20 in the consistency.

However, it was a different story. Yes. It was a different story once the Dallas Cowboys traded for Amari Cooper. The first five weeks of the season, Dak was so incredibly bad. He was the quarterback 30 in fantasy for those first five. That felt really bad. He was. Because I liked him. He was horrific. And the Cowboys looked like they were, I mean,

You already knew that they were a dead team. They, you know, their head coach is going to get replaced. Then the trade happened. They traded for Amari Cooper. And after he arrived, Prescott responded as a top eight quarterback in five of his next eight starts. He posted a 71% completion rate from week nine until the end of the season as the quarterback six during that span. He was. Are we back? I'm back.

Dack Street's back all right? Dach's back. All right. Dude, I like it. Oh, yeah. Look, I mean, he was, he was, how can you blame him, Dac, when you lose Jason Witten, you lose Des Bryant, you replace him with nothing, you downgrade the offensive line a little bit. I mean, they're not the, they're not the same unbelievable offensive line. So, I mean, now all of a sudden, you get him a piece.

You start to figure things out. I like the fact that they fire their offensive coordinator. That's huge news. Right. And we'll talk about that on an upcoming show here pretty soon, about all the coordinator and offensive head coaches changes. And look, I think DAC is going to be a great pick next year. He's not a guy that's going to go early. I don't hate it. And as a late round guy, I want someone who has the chance to be great. And his rushing.

is what, you know, I mean, he had six rushing touchdowns. Yes. And those, those will not go away. No, because they, they're not, uh, they're not long, breakaway touchdowns that you just not always, it's not always scrambling. I mean, you have read options. You have DAC just calling his own number and running once they get inside the five. Here, yeah, his, uh, his rushing touchdowns. I believe, I think he had.

Five? No, I've got bad. I've got bad news. Uh-oh. I've got really bad news here. Oh, no. I know what's going to happen. It's the mark. Hold on. It's the mark of the beast. He's been in, oh, no, he's been in the league three years. And he's got six, six, six rushing touchdown. The mark of the beast. I'm off on deck. This is the kind of incredible insight you get from the fantasy footballers podcast. This is when we make stupid comments like that is when I feel the need to remind people that.

We had three top 15 ranked analysts, two top 20. That was 19. Oh, I apologize. Thank you. Two of the top 10. Number 11, Philip Rivers, consistency rank of number nine. He was the same as Russell Wilson, though. He did not have that boom, boom, pow. Only 6% of his games were great. 69% good, 25% bust. So those numbers are fantastic. You just didn't get, he was almost there.

But he was still, he helped people win. I don't know that that's true. I strongly believe that it's true. He did not help you win in your championship when he posted an absolute fart in week 16. It's like I said, some of these older guys late in the season from week 13 on were putrid. They fell off a cliff. Whether some were injured, right? Cam Newton got injured and he wasn't the same. Philip Rivers.

You know, he just wasn't the same at the end. Maybe that was Melvin Gordon going down or whatnot. But Philip Rivers has a long history of, in fantasy finishing as a top 12 quarterback. But always near the end, always quarterback 11, quarterback 12. And if you look on a weekly basis of where his fantasy finishes were, they're all pretty okay. But he's just, he doesn't go out and win games. And look.

Because you draft Philip Rivers at the very end of your draft this last year. I'm going to be on him again next year. I don't think I'm going to be as bullish. I do love the offense. And I love that Mike Williams is a target. Yeah, huge part of it is Keenan Allen's a beast. He's an alpha. He's a one. But Mike Williams is, to me, will next year will be the emergence of Mike. And you got Hunter Henry, who should be back. Stephen A. Smith is excited. Nice. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, look.

The problem I have with Philip Rivers is that his end of the year rankings to me always look a little bit better than how helpful he was. And I wanted to bring up, so I talked about the last five weeks how this season so many quarterbacks that were great and got you to the playoffs just fell off a cliff. Through those last few weeks, okay, here's a good barometer. Was anybody worse in Case Keenum this year?

I mean like, no, probably not. His consistency rating, we won't talk about him, but it was like 33. I think he was the lowest consistency. 33. He was out of a starter range. Yes, I believe so. He was, he was 19 on the season, consistency rank of 33. Yeah, he was putrid. So the last five weeks. To be fair, Stafford was not a consistency, but finished behind him. Stafford. Stafford was serial against your fantasy team. My point is, Case Keenum over those last five weeks is a good.

Barometer. Are you better than Case Keenham? Because you have to beat. He was the quarterback 18. Here are quarterbacks behind him over the last very important stretch of the last five weeks. Behind him. Philip Rivers. Jared Gough. Drew Brees. Cam Newton. I mean, the reason I'm hitting this point over and over is next year, you know, we're going to have another episode of like things to remember. But you have to be willing to pivot.

because some of the guys that came on strong at the end of the year, they were rookies. Absolutely. He was the stallion. During that stretch. It was when he got his name. During that stretch, it was not Pat Mahomes over the last five weeks who was the number one quarterback. It was Josh Allen, number one quarterback over the last five weeks. I know that's surprising, and you might have just calmed it. We will get to him because we're going to finish off the quarterback ones. Kirk Cousin.

Number 12, but a consistency rank of number 16. Wait, did he lose several of his cousins? And he just, he's down to one now. Did you just make a cousin's joke? No, you did, son. You said Kirk Cousin. Yeah. You called him Kirk Cousin. Shame on you. I apologize. Thank you. Oh, this is the first time we've ever heard. For nothing. Oh, there is. Oh, step into my trap of Kirk Cousins.

Now I'll just put multiple asses on it. It's a Z at this point. Oh, no. That'll help Kirk. Reeve, like that guy with a Z on the end of his name. It's not the rebranding he needs, but it's the rebranding he gets. Kirk, who did it? Oh, Brooks did it in the dock. And Kirk Cousins with a Z, he's been rebranded, been reborn. Maybe that will help him finish higher than 12. Only 19% of his games were great.

56% good, which is that you're in the math zone. And 38% of the time he busted. It seemed like things were really hunky-dory over the first half of the season for Kirk Cousins because this team was incredibly pass-happy. They put everything on to Kirk Cousins. Dalvin Cook was beat up. They couldn't get a running game going. So everything was Kirk Cousins or bust.

Then the bus came, and they made a change at offensive coordinator, and things changed for Kirk Cousins because from week 11 through the end of the season, I mean, you had no idea what you were possibly going to get from Kirk Cousins. He, and this is not a matter of splits because it's better on the road. Yeah, but I mean, like very, very small amount of points. Top 16, bottom 16 defenses, not a,

massive, not a massive split there. It was, to me, just offensive coordinator changed. And I am, you have to be worried. You have to be worried because of what Kirk Cousins represented being a, he had been a fantasy beast in Washington. Then he goes to Minnesota, has Adam Thielen, Stefan Diggs, and Dalvin Cook. He, he is one of the possible bounceback candidates for me, but it's going to be.

A climb for me to talk myself into that. Yeah, I mean, the offensive coordinator change. Sometimes the team stinks and they clear house and they come back with, you know, a new regime and you're not sure what to expect. You're not sure which direction they're going yet. You've got to see it. But we know here. They got rid of DiPhilippo because they were passing too much.

They wanted to be a defense-first run-the-ball team. I know they paid a lot of money for Kirk Cousins, but when they believe that that's their best recipe for winning, they paid for Kirk Cousins to win games, not to just throw for 5,000 yards. And once that change was made, everything was about the running game. It hurt Captain Kirk. Now they bring in Gary Kubiak, who I love. He's not the offensive coordinator. He's going to be, what is he like, the...

some offensive specialist or whatever, but Gary Kubiak brings... This is going to be Coobes. It's just he's going to be Coobes, the Coobes system, which is really the Shanahan system. Coobs and Cousins. Get some Z, Z, double Z. The running game, like I want to hate Dalvin Cook because of what he did to my team personally. You should, you got to get over that. But I recognize that. I have to get over it. Dalvin Cook looks set up for success next season.

Kirk Cousins does not. To me, I think Kirk Cousins has the passing attempts reigned back. He'll be efficient. He'll be okay. But I'm not excited about Kirk Cousins going forward. And like you said, home road didn't matter. Good, bad didn't matter. What did matter is old O.C. New O. C. Number 13, we can get through it pretty quick because it's Cam Newton. Number 13, but consistency rank of number six, he was.

He was fantastic. He was magma. For the whole season until the shoulder problem took its toll. So it's just a matter of health next year and draft price for Cam Newton. Do you have anything you really want to focus on? I'll just say this. Cam will drop like a rock in draft price because of his, if he's not throwing at OTAs, I think people will really be worried about how he finished the season.

And I'm going to be fine drafting him because the thing is is when he's out there, he's going to be great. And if the shoulder injury pops up, what if he's going in like round six? No, I don't draft a quarterback before round nine. All right. Yeah, not anything else on cam. He's going to be great. It's all about price. And health, health and price. Number 14, this is interesting, Jason, because this is Tom Brady. Oh.