Start or Sit Andrew Luck in Fantasy Football Week Five?
It’s week four, and that means that the fantasy football season is already at its quarter pole. Even though that’s not what the quarter pole is, we use that term anyway. The quarterback has become a topic of conversation throughout the fantasy football landscape, as the ol’ 300 yards, two TDs, no picks stat line no longer cuts it for fantasy football. Through four weeks, we already have twelve QB performances of 400 passing yards or more, surpassing the eight we had all last season. We average a 5+ passing TD performance a week, and there were three such games in the previous two years combined. It’s a passing league, so guys like Alex Smith have fallen by the wayside through no fault of their own. It’s a passing league, so it’s time to start taking big swings on guys at quarterback. With that in mind, should you start or sit Andrew Luck in fantasy football week five, as the Indianapolis Colts take on the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football?
After his best fantasy football performance, literally ever, a lot of people are debating whether to start or sit Andrew Luck. It’s a debate that is polarizing the fantasy football community and our own Football Absurdity writers, pitting fathers against sons, brothers against brothers, Waleed against Jeff. I bet you didn’t know Waleed and Jeff were brothers. Neither did they, that’s how good our investigative reporting is.
Those warning against starting Andrew Luck have several points in their favor. First, Luck threw for under 200 yards in two of his four outings, this year. In a world where even 300 yards is ho-hum, a low output is something that can single-handedly kill a fantasy team’s week. Also, he’s playing the upstart New England Patriots, who held Ryan Tannehill to zero point zero zero fantasy points, just last Sunday.
Proponents of starting Andrew Luck point to his 35-43 point fantasy outing, depending upon your league’s scoring. Those kinds of numbers can be insurmountable in the arms race of 2018 fantasy football quarterbacks. Luck also seems to have shaken off the rust, and is getting the volume: He threw the ball 62 freaking times last Sunday, because Indianapolis run game is about as effective as the time I used a banana peel as a condom (public school sex ed is really confusing if your instructor speaks English as a developing language). Also, New England’s defense is garbage and has only four days to prepare.
So the question of whether to start or sit Andrew Luck has some points going in both directions. I own Andrew Luck in three of my six leagues, and I am only starting him in two-quarterback leagues. When it comes down to it, the insane production of quarterbacks in fantasy football this year, so far, means that if you whiff at this position, you are all but buried. A one-dimensional Colts team hosting a white-hot Patriots squad on only four days rest has all the trappings of an underwhelming QB performance. Plus, T.Y. Hilton, the only Colts receiver anyone can name, is almost definitely not playing. Yeah, Luck is also hot, and yeah, he could have a great game. If he does, I’ll gladly start him in future weeks. But in a league where many fantasy QBs seem to have no limit to their ceiling, I’m going to decide whether to start or sit Andrew Luck based on floor, and that floor is mantle-esque. Sit Andrew Luck in week five.
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