Early QB Rankings Part 2, Smokin’ Happy

They've redesigned the offense for Lamar Jackson this year. So what you saw last year was a really safe quarterback. Every week you were happy with Lamar Jackson. And that was with him coming in in the middle of a rookie year. You know, he was started behind Flacco. Now he's got an offseason, an offense designed around him. I think he for sure takes a step forward.

Now, on the- He's been working on his accuracy, Jason. That's really good. Huge story. I mean, it was really, I was so impressed when I saw a quarterback saying, I want to be even better at quarterback. I was like, wow, that's really good, Lamar. But yeah, I mean, the way that I see it, he was safe. He didn't have any big boom games, but he certainly can. I think he takes a step forward, and I'm more confident in the rushing totals from Lamar Jackson. And I'm not really worried about the injuries because as soon as he's injured,

whatever, I'll pivot and I'll go to a different quarterback off of waivers versus... You're not going to get him any bus from Jackson or Allen. Yeah, I mean, at all. Whenever you have rushing, we've got to fix it. See, I'm more, I would say I'm more confident in Lamar's rushing yards total, but I'm more confident in Josh Allen's rushing touchdowns. So that's why I like Allen a little bit more. It's funny, though, Jay, because Lamar Jackson on the basis of rushing yards.

led them to the playoffs and winning a bunch of games in a row playing that style of football. It was almost like it was valuable. Not when they got in the playoffs, though. Well, okay. But I'm just saying the weeks that his fantasy points went up for running. That's what he does. Jared Goff. Jared? I saw more comments after our first quarterback show about a quote-unquote disrespect of Jared Gauff. It is. Then I think any other quarterback.

Last year, he finished as the QB 7, 32 touchdowns, 12 interceptions. He was a QB2 in total points from weeks 2 through 11 during the wondrous run of the Los Angeles Rams. After the buy, golf was the QB 26. Now, a lot of factors in play. A lot. Injuries to Todd Gurley, Cooper Cup knocked out. He didn't even play for the full games at the end of the season. So.

maybe throw out kind of the QB 26 kind of distortion field. Had a real bad Super Bowl. You can blame Sean McVeigh. You can blame play calling, Gurley. Same things. We don't know if Cooper Cup is going to be back for week one. The latest report says they're hoping. But I could take a nicer report than that. I would prefer to hear a better report than that. So look, Jared Goff.

I've got him at 15. Yeah, the reason he's in the show is Andy's ranking. Both Jason and I have him as a top 10 quarterback. Oh, instead of being in the first show? Yes. Yeah, yeah, I didn't like what I saw at the end of the year from Jared Gough. And I wasn't, I'm not super confident in the Gurley resurgence. And without Gurley, I think golf is real bad. So I think Gurley coming back being 100%.

that will probably adjust my ranking on Jared Goff quite a bit. I need to know that this offense is going to run like it ran in the first eight games and not the second half of the season, playoffs. So if he's got all his weapons and Gurley's 100%, Jared Goff is going to functionally be affected. Yeah, it's one of those things where I am, you know, I don't love Cooper Cup as much because he's coming off the injury. If he wasn't, I would be my number one Rams wider receiver, but I really like him.

I love Robert Woods. I love Cooper Cup. Brandon Cooks. It's very similar to my James argument. If all of those players, I believe, are going to have really good seasons, then the quarterback necessarily should perform. And we saw that the first half of the last year. Yeah, he will be an upper half quarterback no matter what. I don't know if there's a situation where a guy is safer to be in that realm. I think kind of the inverse of your James argument, I don't really see Goff being a.

top five guy. So because of that, I would rather take a shot on a Josh Allen. Sure. I think Goff is safe, though. I'm completely bought. He's very safe. I'm bought into the offense, even if it's somebody else running the show at the running back position, I think that they will get close. Close maybe is too much, but they will get strong production from the running back to keep the offense moving. I mean,

Jared Goff was a stud for fantasy for over half of the season. And you can look at the numbers where I usually am like, ah, well, the touchdown. The touchdown regression has to come for this quarterback, except the past two years, Jared Goff's running back has led the league in rushing touchdowns. And Goff still gets to put up his points. He did struggle without Gurley, though. He struggled without the running game working at a high capacity. Like, I was going to ask you both questions. It's hard to. If Gurley was out or limited.

In the playoffs, I will agree, but it's hard to, A, B, that because C.J. Anderson was awesome to close out the season. Like, I think that's, I think that was actually what the situation was, like the game against Arizona. Anderson was awesome as a runner. Yeah. But didn't offer the kind of screen game. We talked a lot about what kind of plays Jared Gough got. Sure, where he comes out the line. He gets the Robert Woods, takes the, uh, underneath the mesh route to the house. Gurley gets what?

3, 4, 5, 6 of those screen pass 60-yarders every year, you're not going to get that with a backup to Gurley. Certainly not with C.J. Anderson, as much as I love him, he's not breaking away for 60. So I just think it's a fluidity thing. You know how you get out there and you see the team running on all cylinders? They just didn't look that way at the end of the year. Like I said, I'll adjust that ranking if Gurley looks like the offense looks like Cups healthy, Gurley's healthy. Goff deserves more respect than 15.

Sure. Malcolm Brown is, I think, a little bit more capable in the past catching game than C.J. Anderson. And I'm going to go on record and say, I think McVeigh is a good coach. Yeah. He's pretty good at offense. And his beard is manicure. Oh, it is finally manicured. Big Ben Rathsburger, the quarterback three from a season ago, 34 touchdown, 16 interceptions.

The quarterback three. This one was rough, man. Hardest guy to rank. Yes. Mike 15. Jason 16. I have him at 18. I think we all don't want to draft him and we all didn't want to rank him. Loses Antonio Brown. Loses Levy on Bell. Not that he had him last year, but still loses him. And it's coming off a monster season. I mean, the way that I look at it.

is this is not just an indictment. A lot of times you see these quarterbacks. Okay, I've got him ranked as my quarterback 16. That is not just solely an indictment on Big Ben. It's also an endorsement of 15 other quarterbacks because I said last episode, and this is really important if you didn't catch a last episode, this year more than any year in recent memory, there are more quarterbacks that are great. 21 quarterbacks on my rankings, I like. I'm fine with Big Ben.

but I just like other people more. And whenever you lose Antonio Brown, I mean, he had two of the top 10 wide receivers in, I believe, real life, but definitely in fantasy. When you lose one of those, you take a step back. It's just impossible not to lose Antonio Brown and not take a step backwards. Big Ben's history is not at the upper echelon of the fantasy finish chart either. If you go to 2013, it was 11, 5, 21, 18, 10, 3, tendency to get injured.

I feel like, Jason, you would prefer to have ranked the quarterbacks one through 11 and then 10 guys tied at 12 for the top 12. Yeah, exactly. I still think that top 12 is in the range of outcomes for big. I do too. I think top 12 is, but I don't think QB3 is a reasonable ceiling with that and Tony Brown. Philip Rivers at 16, Tom Brady at 17. Rivers kind of in the same boat, you know, in terms of where we're ranking him. Only one time.

Last season. One game did he put up a week-winning great performance? So it was a pretty steady season for Phillip Rivers. 4,300 yards, 32 touchdowns, 12 picks, finished this QB11. That's steady. Tough week 16. A couple of duds throughout the season, but pretty steady. Is there, you know, high touchdown rate last year?

He, this team is more Melvin Gordon's than it is Philip Rivers at this point. Yeah, but even still, it's like Jared Goff. I think despite Melvin Gordon being there getting a ton of rushing touchdowns, Melvin Gordon is a huge asset in the passing game. Philip Rivers is, it's, he's similar like Big Ben to, where it's hard to rank because it's just the upside is, right, is what? But he's going to be super solid. I mean, this guy, he, he is an activia.

He is a yogurt that is going to keep your regular. That's fair. If you look at his career finished year after year after year, he's almost always a back-in quarterback one. Literally almost always. You've got enough data to know where he's going to finish. So will he finish above my ranking of him at 17? Yes. Yeah, he will. He'll finish at quarterback 12.

But that doesn't mean you want to draft him. But that doesn't mean I want to draft him because his upside, he's literally only finished at the top five at the position once, and it was in 2010. That's a long time ago now. So I don't think he's got room to go up. He's just going to be steady. And I want to take my shot late in the draft at a guy I think has the potential to be top five. They're a good defense. And look, lowest total pass attempts in 10 years for Philip Rivers. So he remained steady, regular.

as Mike would say. Yes. Because of a 6.3% touchdown rate, the second highest of his career. And his completion percentage. I mean, he threw the ball 508 times, and you can look two years ago, he threw the ball 578 times, yet he only had two fewer completions this year. So if you want some context for like the NFL schedule is coming out, and we're getting into the range of like you might draft a player to stream them for a few weeks. Right. That's where we're at at the quarterback position. Philip Rivers could be.

Your last pick in the draft if he has a great early season schedule, and he could be the guy you start with or platoon. And it seems like he always starts off the season hot and tails off near the end. Yeah. I felt that last year. Yeah. It's like this show. Tuberculosis over here. You got me. I finally got Jason. Jason's been fighting. Jason's been. I told you to stay off the Oregon Trail, man. I know. He's got, is it tuberculosis, Brooks? Have we got him tested? Or is it the black lung?

Or is that Typhor? Or is that the same thing? I don't know. But I think I got the black lung paw. Yeah. Well, the plant man can help. Tom Brady. Oh, yeah. Hit it. Do I have a plant man drop? Of course you do. I honestly don't see it, Mike. I really wish I did. Brooks. Oh, crap. You got to get organic. You got to get that $35 a meal organic.

plan, Jason, and your lungs would feel better. Hey, don't talk to me. You've got to talk to Mike here, Mr. Rankin him at quarterback 21. Yeah, that's right. That's fine. Get out of my life, fantasy Tom Brady. That's his way of saying I'm done with Tom Brady as a fantasy starting quarterback. You're darn right. No more gronk. No more unfair advantage. No more gronk cheat code. No, I agree. I've got him at 18. Yeah, I mean, it's just not that exciting in New England. It's effective, not exciting.

He threw for one touchdown reviewer in half of his games. That is destruction to your life. Get Bradyed. Yes. If the forthcoming, you know, rise of Sony Michelle that we, I think all three definitely Andy sees coming as, you know, relying on him, especially around the goal line happens, that's only going to continue to hurt the touchdown upside of Tom Brady. The quarterback 25 from weeks 8 through 13. Perfect.

Will he be on any of your teams? No. Not any of ours. Mitchell Trebisky at 18. This one surprises me. And I, look, I've thrown the most shade on Mitchell, obviously, famously. Yeah, what did he put up six touchdowns against you? Yes, against me. He put up six touchdowns. And that was against me personally, not in fantasy, just like, it was me on the field. Yes. But I've got him at 14. You guys have him at 19 and 20. Here's an example. Like, we just.

literally talked about a three-pack of elder statesmen that we know what we're getting in Big Ben, Philip Rivers, Tom Brady. The upside is not really there, but they're consistent versus a guy like Mitchell Trebisky who. There's upside. The upside is there, right? Matt Nagy, going into year two of the system. Yes. You've got a guy that, I mean, look, last year he finished his quarterback 15, but in 14 games, on a per game basis, he was the quarterback 12. I think Mitchell,

As a football player, forget fantasy. In real life, I think Mitchell Tripisky is better this year than he was last year. Another year in the system, another year in the NFL. Remember, he only had one year as a starter in college. So, you know, the evolution, I would expect him to take a slight step forward. And if he does a slight step forward from the quarterback 12 on a per game basis,