Don’t miss on the quarterback position in the upcoming fantasy football draft. Even before a snap has been made in the preseason, here are two examples around the NFL of rising and sinking stocks at the quarterback position.
Rising
Teddy Bridgewater
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is one of the players to watch in the first preseason game this weekend. He’s entering his second season at the helm and the Vikings front office gave him plenty of weapons to work with this season.
Wide receiver Mike Wallace should offer a more vertical threat to an offense that was in desperate need of a player who could stretch the field last year. Cordarrelle Patterson was supposed to be that player, but his inability to produce any offense last year eliminated any downfield threat, until Charles Johnson became a more focal point in the offense.
Johnson should be even better this year after coming on late last season. Tight end Kyle Rudolph also provides a nice secondary option, as long as he can stay healthy. Rudolph has missed 16 games in the last four seasons because of injury.
The biggest weapon at Bridgewater’s disposal is someone fans won’t see until the regular season — Adrian Peterson. As long as Peterson hasn’t lost a step after missing 15 games last year, he should provide enough support that Bridgewater should be much improved from his season of 14 touchdowns and 2,919 yards last year.
Sinking
Peyton Manning
Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning may have finally met his match — father time. Manning looked old near the end of the season and his play on the field showed it.
In his final five games of 2014 (including the playoff loss to Indianapolis), Manning had quarterback ratings of 56.9, 125.6, 61.8, 80.1 and 75.5. His total passer rating for the season was more than 100. Other than the one game against the San Diego Chargers, Manning was far below his season total in the final five weeks.
That should make fantasy football owners nervous entering 2015. Reports are claiming it was all due to injury, which could be true. But he’s almost 40, so injuries are going to be commonplace from here on out. If he’s unable to get healthy during the course of a 16-game schedule, he is likely to break down.
Remember Brett Favre in 2010? He was coming off an almost MVP season in 2009 for the Minnesota Vikings. Then, a year later, he was unable to stay healthy and threw eight more interceptions than touchdowns. It only took a year for that to happen, and from what Manning showed late in the season last year, that could be a similar fate this year.
To make matters worse, the offensive line is extremely young, meaning they will have to block for a quarterback even less mobile than in his earlier years (which isn’t good.)
Manning is still Manning, so he’s likely to put up some monster numbers in a few games. But don’t expect him to produce like in years past and make sure to have a quality back-up waiting in the wings in case the injury bug creeps up again this season.
