Last week, I told you to go ahead and roll with the Ginger Gem in fantasy football with Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton. He turned in 243 yards and two touchdowns on the day, which wasn’t great on its surface, but was good enough to be the third-best quarterback in week eight. Don’t let that final rank fool you, the 18.72 fantasy points he scored in week eight would have ranked him as QB12 the week before. That’s not exactly an astounding feat for him to pull off. This week he gets a stout Jacksonville defense. Should you keep it rolling with Dalton in week nine against the Jags or will he be Raggedy Andy this week?
Dalton was a big win last week, not because he broke out, but because everyone around him fell by the wayside. While that can be expected with six teams on Bye, it can’t be overstated that his 18.72 fantasy points last week were big for the week, but not big overall. It’s not the type of thing you’ll want to reliably slot into your lineup. Dalton’s 18.72 would have landed him as QB7 at best in any other given week this year, and QB11 on average. Don’t mistake his high ranking as the #3 QB last week as a breakout rather than attrition. There’s a reason he ranks between Eli Manning and Jacoby Brissett in fantasy points per game, after all.
But sure, let’s assume he’s turned a corner, then. It’s going to be one of those corners in cartoons where there’s a comically large, heavy item to hit him in the face. In this case that item is the Jacksonville Jaguars defense. The Jaguars allow just 8.32 fantasy points per game this year, making QBs who play them below the average fantasy output of DeShone Kizer, Mike Glennon and Brian Hoyer. Quarterbacks against them stink, nobody has thrown for more than one touchdown this year against them and they have eight picks on the year. Only Big Ben topped 300 passing yards, and he did it with the Jags in bend-don’t-break mode at the end of a blowout. With that in mind, Dalton is in for a long day against that secondary. Go ahead and cut Andy Dalton, he won’t help you this week, and if you want him back so bad, he’ll be out there in free agency next week.
