RAGE—Goddess, sing the rage of Gridiron’s son Achilles (and ACLs),
murderous, doomed, that cost the NFL countless losses,
hurling down to the House of IR so many sturdy souls,
great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the Dawg Pound and Bird Teams,
and the will of Roj was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Football, lord of men and brilliant Achilles (and ACLs).
Well, it’s not quite as dire as the Trojan War, but the first two weeks of the NFL season have left our fantasy football squads obliterated. Luckily, we can help you out with some quarterback sleepers this week to fill out your team. We promise no Greeks will come out of any of these quarterback sleepers… okay, maybe Greeks will come pouring out of Nick Mullens. I’m not Cassandra. We have two quarterback sleepers rostered in fewer than 50% of Yahoo! leagues. For those of you in deep, deep leagues, we always offer a player available in at least 90% of Yahoo! leagues.
Quarterback Sleepers Option #1: Baker Mayfield versus Washington (45% rostered)
Baker Mayfield got off to an awful start, as the Ravens did to him the same thing they did to Deshaun Watson: crushed him. He threw the ball 39 times and ended up with just 189 yards, one pick, and one touchdown. Then, four days later, the Browns cruised past the Bengals thanks to Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. Baker didn’t need to do much (just 23 pass attempts), but he looked on point as he grew more comfortable with Kevin Stefanksi’s offense. He rolled out more, he looked great on play-action, and he threw for a couple of touchdowns in the victory.
This week, he gets a Washington team that has a strong defensive line, but who yields the fifth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks. You take those numbers with a grain of salt when one quarterback is Kyler Murray. When the other quarterback is 2020 Carson Wentz, who is yet to look comfortable but still threw for 270 and two touchdowns (and two picks), you tend to give a longer look at their opponents.
Quarterback Sleepers Option #2: Philip Rivers versus New York Jets (27% rostered)
The Jets yield the tenth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks through two weeks. That doesn’t tell the whole story; let’s try this again. The Jets have given up the tenth-most points to quarterbacks through six quarters. After Jimmy Garoppolo never made it out of the locker room in the second half of the 49ers-Jets game, Nick Mullens went into full handoff mode. He attempted just eleven passes for 71 yards and an interception. That totaled just 1.84 fantasy points, essentially nothing. Through six quarters against starting quarterbacks against this Jets defense yielded 443 yards for four touchdowns and no picks.
Rivers hasn’t been lights out yet, tossing two touchdowns and three picks while averaging 288 yards per game. That’s a lot of yards, but few scores. I expect Rivers to throw more this week and get T.Y. Hilton and Nyheim Hines involved, and not just 25+ carries to rookie running back Jonathan Taylor.
Quarterback Sleepers Deep League Option: Nick Mullens at New York Giants (1% rostered)
With no Raheem Mostert and no Tevin Coleman, the 49ers will need to throw to get the game going against the Giants this weekend. There won’t be any Jimmy Garoppolo, either, so that means it’s Nick Mullens SZN in San Francisco. Let me be clear about one thing: Nick Mullens is not as good as Jimmy Garoppolo. You can box score read, but I was there. I was there, watching Mullens go three and out for three quarters and then scoring two touchdowns with the other team with one foot on the bus.
But, he doesn’t need to be good. The last time he had game action, he had multiple touchdowns in half of his games. He paced out for 4,500 yards, 26 touchdowns and 20 picks when he last started for the 49ers. Let’s hope he’s cleaned up the picks, or else it could be a long day. 300 yards and a couple of touchdowns aren’t out of the realm of possibilities, though.
Quarterback Sleepers Honorable Mention: Mitchell Trubisky at Atlanta (9% rostered)
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