Start or Sit Joe Flacco in Fantay Football Week Five?

Start or Sit Joe Flacco 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 Joe Flacco in fantasy football week five, as the Baltimore Ravens travel to Cleveland to take on the Browns?

It’s the same story as it always was with Joe Flacco: he’s an extremely matchup dependent play who you can’t trust on a weekly basis… but with a twist. The Ravens have a real-life receiving corps for the first time since they won the Super Bowl. However, at the same time, there are some things in his profile that make for unpleasant times ahead if you choose to start or sit Joe Flacco incorrectly on Sunday. Sure, he has games of 3 TDs, 2 TDs and 2 TDs under his belt already this season, which is very good. On the other hand, they came versus the #11-against-QBs Buffalo Bills, the #6-against-QBs Cincinnati Bengals and the #2-against-QBs Pittsburgh Steelers. He took on a defense that is in the bottom half in terms of QB fantasy points allowed just once this season. In that game, the Denver Broncos held him to one touchdown.

This week, Flacco gets the worst matchup for him so far this season, and he does it on the road. These aren’t your daddy’s Browns. Well, I mean, that’s technically true, since your daddy’s Browns are the Ravens. But you know what I mean. This isn’t the 1-31 Browns defense. With Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward leading the way, they make life hell for opposing quarterbacks. Derek Carr mysteriously put up four touchdowns on them last week in a game that went to overtime, but before that, they yielded just three touchdowns in three games. Their opposing QBs included regular fantasy starters like Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger, too. Their seven picks in four games are tied for third in the NFL, and Joe Flacco never met a 50/50 ball he didn’t want to throw. It’s suddenly and surprisingly a bad matchup for Flacco, and one I want to avoid.

Joe Flacco has been a good story this season, though questions about whether or not he is an elite quarterback continue. He has performed decently well in good matchups but has floundered in his sole bad matchup. This week he faces his hardest test of the year as the Browns host the Ravens in an AFC North battle that will suddenly be much harder than Flacco thought it would be when the schedule came out. He doesn’t have a great matchup, and many quarterbacks do this week. I would not look towards Joe Flacco this week. If you are wondering if you should start or sit Joe Flacco, he is a firm sit.

If you want to see the flip side of “start or sit Joe Flacco,” check out our recommendation for Blake Bortles in week five!