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Once again, the NFL was a perfect example of why people love and hate the game of football. On one hand, we saw the best feelgood story in several years with Alex Smith returning to play (and looking relatively good all things considered) for the Washington Football Team. Then, just hours later the brutal cruelty of football emerged as Dak Prescott suffered a major ankle injury that will likely end his 2020 season and bring him into an uncertain contract negotiation this offseason.
While all we can do is offer condolences to Dak Prescott for his horrible injury, the fact is the football season won’t stop moving forward. Each week we advance brings new bye weeks, and given the COVID-driven uncertainty this year, identifying the players to add to your team has never been more important. At this moment, the NFL has shuffled numerous bye weeks, making planning even more essential. Thankfully, we have now surpassed the quarter of the season mark, so there is plenty of data out there to point us in the right direction.
In this article, I will be focusing on players who are under 65% rostered in fantasy leagues while adding a couple of deep sleepers for two-quarterback leagues (less than 20% rostered).
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Top QB Streamers and Adds
Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers
Yahoo: 49% rostered ESPN: 32.2% rostered
Thanks to the constant reshuffling of the NFL schedule due to COVID cancellations, the Chargers (based on what I can tell) will have a week 6 bye. That will probably buy you one more week to place a waiver claim on Justin Herbert, but honestly, it may be worth your time to be proactive and just roster him. Herbert looks to be the real deal, throwing for over 900 yards and five touchdowns in his first three starts. That doesn’t even take into account his week 5 performance against the Saints, which will be coming tonight. Herbert was recently named the full-time starter and is worth rostering thanks to the array of weapons at his disposal (including a soon to return Mike Williams).
Andy Dalton, Dallas Cowboys
Yahoo: 2% rostered ESPN: 0.2% rostered
With the Dak Prescott injury, Dalton has been thrust into arguably one of the best offensive situations in the NFL. The Cowboys have a punishing run game with Ezekiel Elliott and three legitimate WR1 level talents in Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and CeeDee Lamb. Dalton was 9 of 11 for 111 yards in relief of Dak Prescott against the Giants as he led the Cowboys to a win with a last-second field goal. Many fantasy players will remember Dalton toward the end of his Bengals career, but don’t remember the times he flourished with the Bengals in his prime. This is easily the most talented offense Dalton has ever played on (no offense to A.J. Green, Marvin Jones Jr., and Mohamed Sanu) and he is an instant weekly QB2 with QB1 upside for the rest of the season.
Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings
Yahoo: 32% rostered ESPN: 15.8% rostered
Through four weeks, Daniel Jones has been far from a roster able asset. He hasn’t thrown a touchdown in three weeks and has failed to surpass 11 fantasy points since the first week of the season. However, he has faced an absolute murderers row of fantasy defenses, going against the Steelers, Bears, 49ers, and Rams so far this year. His schedule softens up considerably from now until his week 11 bye week, with contests against Dallas, Washington, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Washington, and Philadelphia.
Jones should be able to bounce back even without the services of Saquon Barkley in the backfield. Jones is accurate enough to pick apart those defenses and still has a litany of weapons at his disposal in the form of Evan Engram, Golden Tate, and Darius Slayton. Pick him up and stash him for a rainy day.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, Miami Dolphins
Yahoo: 20% rostered ESPN: 20.7% rostered
Kirk Cousins continued to bounce back from his abysmal showing against the Colts in week 2, throwing for 260 yards and a touchdown against the Texans secondary in week 4. Cousins doesn’t have the passing ceiling of most players considering he has yet to attempt more than 27 passes in a game this season despite the Vikings being 1-3, but he has a ton of weapons that maximize his completions. Adam Theilen continues to produce, Justin Jefferson has emerged as a legitimate weapon at wide receiver, and Dalvin Cook is always a threat to take a short pass the distance.
Cousins plays two of the three worst secondaries in the NFL in 2020 (Seattle and Atlanta) the next two weeks, which means he should see the same offensive statistical boost so many quarterbacks have enjoyed so far this season.
2QB Options and Stashes
Drew Lock, Denver Broncos
Yahoo: 8% rostered ESPN: 5.9% rostered
It has been many weeks since we have seen Drew Lock take an NFL field. Before his shoulder injury, Lock had one game where he looked solid (13.14 points scored against the Titans) and a game where he threw five passes before getting knocked out by the Steelers. The Broncos signal-caller was coming into week 5 with a questionable tag, but thanks to the impromptu bye situation, he got one more week to rest and likely returns against the Dolphins in Week 6. Despite the loss of Courtland Sutton to an ACL injury, Lock still has a plethora of weapons at his disposal when he returns. Noah Fant has continued to dominate and Tim Patrick and Jerry Jeudy both looked strong with Brett Rypien and Jeff Driskel under center. Beyond that, Melvin Gordon has been excellent, and Philip Lindsay is poised to return from his own injury. Lock has the complimentary cast to provide a nice floor as a QB2 for the remainder of the season.
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