Do you know who led the NFL in week 1 passing yardage? If it would take a few moments, we couldn’t blame you. Andy Dalton held that distinction with 418 yards and still just finished 11th in fantasy scoring among quarterbacks.
It was a big day for quarterbacks in week 1, with 11 quarterbacks generating more than 20 fantasy points. That goes hand-in-hand with the way the fantasy game is progressing, with more quarterbacks able to put up big numbers. Let’s see if quarterbacks can stay on track this week. Here’s the start ’em, sit ’em guide for week 2 fantasy football quarterbacks.
Start
Andy Dalton vs. San Francisco 49ers
Back-to-back road games for a West Coast team traveling east. That doesn’t sound like a good recipe for success.
The 49ers earned a win against Tampa Bay in week 1, with a stellar performance against Jameis Winston. That won’t continue in week 2 as Dalton can move the chains, especially when his team is somewhat healthy.
San Francisco may be better on the defensive side of the ball than last year, but I’m not going to be fooled by their week 1 performance. Winston looks lost and doesn’t seem ready to grasp a new offense. That worked in San Francisco’s favor. Dalton had some weapons step up for him in week 1, so I’ll go with Dalton once again. He’s been known to start off hot in fantasy, so I’ll ride the hot hand.
Philip Rivers vs. Detroit Lions
Rivers didn’t miss Melvin Gordon much in week 1, with Austin Ekeler doing his best to make the Chargers move on without noticing Gordon’s absence.
That should continue for much of the year, and with all the weapons at Rivers’ disposal, it should be another start for him in week 2. The revamped Lions defense looked good for almost three quarters, before imploding against Arizona. I don’t love Rivers having to travel east, but the Chargers have gotten better in recent years with having to leave their home field and still competing at a high level.
This game should feature some points, so I’m banking on Rivers avoiding mistakes and collecting a few touchdowns.
Baker Mayfield vs. New York Jets
This is a little out there, so this is for anyone who is streaming and sees Mayfield suddenly on the waiver wire.
The NFL world should have seen week 1 coming for the Browns. There are some serious issues up front and the Browns just aren’t mature enough to be ready for such a moment. But I’m not going to ignore the fact that Mayfield has some serious weapons to utilize in fantasy football.
And while the Jets looked good for the majority of week 1, there were some definite holes throughout the game that finally showed up in the fourth quarter. Even when CJ Mosley was in the game for the Jets, they were flirting with disaster against a much worse offensive unit in the Bills.
Mayfield will get back on track, so don’t overreact too much with the Browns.
Sit
Eli Manning vs. Buffalo Bills
Sam Darnold is likely terrible. But what the Bills did to him was eye-opening.
Buffalo’s defense manhandled New York’s offensive line, batting down several passes and making life very hard on Darnold. Even when the Jets took a 16-0 lead, it still felt like the Bills weren’t out of it. The defense is once again legit and will stifle anything the Giants can do.
Manning wasn’t terrible in week 1, but he’s still not worth streaming in week 2. There’s just not enough weapons in New York for him to be consistent and with the Bills giving up just 3.8 yards per pass attempt (the best in the NFL), I’m not going against them with a sub-part quarterback.
Marcus Mariota vs. Indianapolis Colts
While we’re on the topic of overreacting, let’s not go crazy over Mariota in week 1. The Browns helped Mariota a lot, especially in the second half, along with a massive 75-yard screen pass to the house to Derrick Henry.
Mariota looked like an average quarterback once again for much of week 1, so I’m not going to overreact by playing in a week 2 matchup against a Colts team that is still above-average on defense.
The Colts are still very much alive in the AFC South, so don’t expect they’ll take a back-seat to Mariota and company.
Kyler Murray vs. Baltimore Ravens
It’s a good thing that Ryan Fitzpatrick was taken out of the week 1 game against Baltimore because I was legitimately worried about his safety. The Ravens were better in all aspects of that week 1 demolition and the defense should once again be one of the tops in the NFL.
And while Murray ranked in the top-10 among quarterbacks in fantasy points in week 1, I’m not going to fool myself into thinking he’s going to have that kind of day on a consistent basis. He attempted more than 50 passes thanks to game flow and the Lions defense shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Baltimore’s.
Murray was bad early in that game, so I’m anticipating him to revert more back to that self, rather than what we saw late in that tie against Detroit.
