The story of Week 3, at least for the moment, appears to be the backup quarterbacks. In Week 2 we saw Tyrod Taylor, Andy Dalton, Carson Wentz, and Tua Tagovailoa leave due to injury. As of Tuesday afternoon, we aren't projecting any of them to play in Week 3.
While that makes the waiver wire a lot more interesting in two-QB leagues, most of these guys won't matter in leagues where you only start one passed. When evaluating Jacoby Brissett, Davis Mills, and Jacob Eason it's more about what their injury means for their pass catchers. The one exception to that is Justin Fields.
As one of the fastest quarterbacks to enter the NFL in recent years, Fields was always going to be exciting as soon as he got a shot. As Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson, and Jalen Hurts have shown us, a quarterback can be mediocre or average as a passer early in their career and still be useful for Fantasy because of their legs.
I would understand if you looked at Fields' box score from Week 2 and wondered if he could be even mediocre as a passer. After all, 60 yards on 13 attempts does not inspire confidence. But, in reviewing the film, you'll see three balls hit a receiver's hands in the end zone (two of them from Allen Robinson) and another bad drop from Darnell Mooney. Fields made plenty of mistakes, and threw a miserable interception, but he realistically should have had at least 100 yards and two touchdowns on those 13 attempts.
It's worth noting that I was a big Fields backer coming out of Ohio State, where he was an exceptionally accurate passer. I believe he could be more Russell Wilson than Jalen Hurts. But for now, the promise of his legs is enough to make him a must-roster in any league, and his arm is mostly upside.
You may be wondering, with this glowing report, why Fields doesn't rank higher in the projections below. That's because Week 3 just happens to be an exceptional week for streaming. We'll get to that soon enough.
Let's get to the rest of the preview:
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Week 3 QB Preview
Numbers to know
- 10.0 -- Intended air yards per pass attempt for Teddy Bridgewater this season. That's way higher than what we've seen from him in the past.
- 2 -- Rushing touchdowns for Daniel Jones already, tying his career high.
- 21.5 -- Pass attempts per game for the New Orleans Saints, the lowest mark in the league.
- 37.8% -- Zach Wilson has been pressured on more than a third of his drop backs, the highest rate in the league.
- 32.9% -- Nearly a third of Trevor Lawrence's throws have been graded "bad throws" by Pro Football Reference, the highest rate in the league.
- 85.6 -- Passer rating for Ben Roethlisberger. That would be his lowest mark over a full season since 2006.
- 56.2 -- Fantasy points for Derek Carr, which makes him QB7 after games against the Ravens and Steelers.
Matchups that matter
Waiver Wire Targets
My initial projections have Jones at QB6 this week. I pulled him back in the rankings to QB11, but it's hard to justify any more. He's currently QB8 for the season and he's facing a Falcons defense that has surrendered the most Fantasy points to quarterbacks through the first two weeks of the season. I know it's tough to trust him, but this is about as good of a setup as you could ask for from a streamer.
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Carr has looked like a different quarterback in two impressive wins over the Ravens and Steelers. He's taking deep shots down the field as his 8.9 intended air yards per attempt indicates and he's still completing 66.7% of his throws. The Raiders have gone very pass heavy (64.5% pass rate) and it's hard to see them going away from it after having this much success.
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Heinicke gets the Jaguars in Week 4. If he can look even serviceable against the Bills, we'll be streaming him next week.
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DFS Plays
What more can I say about Jones? He's the 10th-highest priced quarterback on FanDuel despite having my fifth-best projection in that format. And I can't imagine enough people will buy in to make him the chalk on the slate.
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Quarterbacks generally struggle at Arrowhead and some bad luck has really hampered Herbert so far this season. But the talent is still there, the luck is going to turn at some point, and the Chiefs defense has looked abysmal.
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Heath's projections
So who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 3 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that has out-performed experts big-time.
