Fantasy Football: Start or Sit Josh McCown in Week Thirteen?

It certainly has been a strange year for fantasy football quarterbacks. Some players have ebbed and flowed (Alex Smith), some have burst onto the scene before suddenly being undercut (Dak Prescott, Deshaun Watson). At this point, fantasy football owners are looking for someone to have some modicum of consistent weekly production, and strange enough, 38-year-old Josh McCown has provided that to fantasy football owners recently. With the reeling Kansas City Chiefs on the docket, is Josh McCown someone you can really trust to start in week thirteen in your fantasy football leagues?

Josh McCown has come a long way from the first five weeks of the season. His best finish in that time span was QB13, and he ended up outside the top twenty more times than he ended up in the top-fifteen. Since week six, however, McCown has performed like a completely different quarterback. He had a couple duds in there (QB16 and QB23 on the week), but he’s finished inside the top six at quarterback in four of those six games. A lot of this has to do with his sudden love connection with Robby Anderson, but is overall numbers are much better lately. In those first five games, he averaged 204 yards with a touchdown and 0.8 interceptions a game. Since then, he averaged 255 yards per game, averaging two scores and .66 interceptions a game. He’s played much better over the last seven weeks, and it’s been reflected in his final rankings each week.

This week he gets a primo matchup in which to pull his Late Career McCown act. Since the Bye, the Chiefs have had two not-great quarterbacks going against them, with now-benched Eli Manning and previously-benched Tyrod Taylor going for a combined 22.72 fantasy points. Before that, they gave up 26.66 fantasy points to Dak Prescott in his last good game (R.I.P.).

Josh McCown has performed much better in his last six games as compared to his first five. While the matchups obviously play a role in that, he luckily gets a good one this week. The Chiefs allow the ninth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks this year and still haven’t picked off a non-AFC West quarterback multiple times in a game. You can go ahead and start him this week, and he even makes a great streaming option if your current quarterback makes you itchy.