Well aren’t you quite the daredevil? It’s the fantasy football semi-finals and you need a QB and you didn’t get one off the waiver wire? Well, look at you. I can understand if you are out a quarterback this week, as two top-ten options went down until 2018 in week fourteen. But to have the gumption to be here now, trolling the waiver wire with your season on the line? Well bravo, you’re braver than I am. Here are three players who can help you out, available in over 50% of Yahoo! leagues. The third guy is out there in 90%, for deep leaguers.
Blake Bortles versus Houston (43% owned)
I mean… don’t look now but Blake Bortles has at least 18 fantasy points in four of his last five games, including the QB11 performance last week against the Seattle Seahawks. He might be getting Allen Hurns back this week to go with late-season breakout Dede Westbrook. I don’t know how to tell you this, but the Texans aren’t the Seahawks this year. They’ve allowed the second-most fantasy points to QBs, including at least 16 to six of the seven QBs since their Bye… QBs that include Jacoby Brissett and Blaine Gabbert. The Texans are so bad they tricked us into thinking Blaine Gabbert might not be terrible. They can do that again with Bort.
Jimmy Garoppolo versus Tennessee (25% owned)
Jimmy G is making his home debut to literally dozens of people in Levi’s Stadium this weekend and is set to take on a Titans pass defense that hasn’t been great. They’ve held Coby Brissett and Blaine Gabbert (hey they keep showing up…) to fewer than ten fantasy points, but Tom Savage threw for 365 against them. The scores haven’t been there yet for Garoppolo, but he’s taken a laser scalpel to defenses on his way to an average of 313 yards in his first two games, chucking it 35 times a contest. The floor will be there, the only question is if he can punch through with the touchdowns. I think he will get you a couple.
Nick Foles at New York Giants (10% owned)
Thank God he didn’t top 10%, as I almost had to write about Mitchell Trubisky here. Foles takes over for Carson Wentz and the Eagles offense. There’s a lot you can say about Foles and a lot of ways you can spin him to be good or bad. However you want to spin it, there’s no denying it: if you start him in week fifteen, then you are one desperate person. I’ll give you some feel-goods: Foles has 49 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in just under 1,000 career attempts when he wasn’t coached by Jeff Fisher. Here’s some extra hyperbole for you: his 5.1% TD rate outside of Jeff Fisher matches Ben Roethlisberger’s, and his 1.7% INT rate is better than Tom Brady. Granted, a lot of this had to do with his 27-2 TD-INT four seasons ago, but I’m trying to make you feel good about starting Nick Foles with your season on the line in 2017, so you have to work with me here. At least he has a good matchup: the Giants took over the mantle from the 49ers, and allow the most fantasy points per game to QBs on this year.
