Stanley Holditch
Sit/Start columns telling you to start Derek Henry and sit Tevin Coleman aren’t much use. I’ll try to avoid the obvious and focus on quarterbacks where most owners are on the fence whether to start them or not. Obvious is a subjective term, but feel free to @ me on twitter if you disagree.
Quarterback Starts
Matt Ryan
The Giants just made Taylor Heinicke look like an all-star, allowing a 330+ yard game to him with a single interception, and a 100+ yard game to his number one receiver Terry Mclaulin. Ryan is obviously on the back end of his career, but I am feeling a breakout game for him, Ridley, and Pitts. The loss of Gage shouldn’t hurt much, and Patterson has emerged as a viable weapon in the pass game. The Giants are ranked 25th against the pass, and the Falcons are 18th, meaning this should be a high scoring game.
Joe Burrow
The loss of Higgins hurts, but Pittsburgh’s pass defense is atrocious and TJ Watt has already been declared out. Burrow was openly calling for more deep shots to his receivers this week, and less pressure in the pocket should give him time to do it. Boyd should have a big game and I think we could see more passing to Mixon and Samaje Perine as well. Plus through two weeks Cincinnati is ranked 26th in pass attempts. Burrow had 97 pass attempts in his first two games as a rookie. He has 57 through the first two games of 2021. Expect some regression to the mean.
Trevor Lawrence
Regardless of how bad Urban Meyer is as a coach, and I don’t even know if there are ways to quantify that, Trevor is a good quarterback. He will figure this out, even if he has to do it on his own. I like his chances to rack up a lot of garbage time points as the Cardinals will shred the Jaguars and probably jump to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.
Daniel Jones
If you grabbed Jones off the WW this week or have had him on your bench, start him today against the Falcons. There will be little to no defense in this one on either side of the ball, and even if the Falcons scheme to take away his running ability, they will end up leaving someone open. I think 280 passing and 50 rushing with a score of each.
Justin Fields
Fields’ rushing ability will give him a safe enough floor to be a solid QB2 start this week. Cleveland is far from a plus matchup, but they did allow 36 yards and a touchdown to Mahomes week 1 and gave up a TD to Taylor in week 2. I think Fields could easily rush for 60+ yards and a score, plus get about 225 yards passing and a TD. Should be good for a QB 10-16 finish making him a solid QB2 start.
Jared Goff
This is a hold-your-nose start, but Baltimore is currently ranked dead last against the pass in the league through two weeks. Granted, they played the Chiefs last week, and the Raiders are looking better than originally advertised at the beginning of the season, but given the amount of QB2s that are looking like poor starts, he could be a better play than most think.
Quarterback Sits
Teddy Bridgewater
The Jets are 10th against the pass, and they have a rookie who can not handle pressure. This will be a Gordon and Javonte Williams show in a low-scoring affair. The Broncos front four and secondary are going to give Zach Wilson fits. Teddy won’t need to do much to win and I expect his streak of great games to end just due to gamescipt.
Jameis Winston
BIll Belichik takes whatever works for you and takes it away. Right now, very little is working for the Saints. Their passing game stayed stuck in neutral against the Panthers, and Winston frankly looked lost against the Panthers pass rush which didn’t seem too much for Texans rookie Davis Mills. Of course, the refs let the Texans get away with holding on most if not all of Mills’ dropbacks. Still, I expect Belichik to show Jameis multiple pass-rush looks and focus on taking away Alvin Kamara. Winston was not recognizing the rush and checking into run plays when he needed to. His receivers were not getting open causing him to hold on to the ball too long and resort to desperation throws. If Winston gets right, it won’t be against Belichik this week. Whether he gets another chance is an open question.
Taylor Heinicke
Don’t chase the points. Even with a small sample size, the Bills are the 2nd best passing offense in the league. I think it will be really hard for Heinicke to pull off another masterful performance today, and garbage time will likely lead to more interceptions than touchdowns. I am rooting for him, but not betting on him.
Jimmy Garroppolo
It feels like Green Bay’s offense sucks, but they’re actually ranked 7th against the pass this year. Jimmy’s weapons are in disarray: he’s got a rookie in Sermon and likely Kerryon Johnson in the backfield, Aiyuk in the doghouse, and I think this could be the game that gets Shanahan to turn the page to Lance. I’m seeing under 225 yards and 1 touchdown, and 2 picks.
Zach Wilson
Wilson should be on your bench until further notice. Until he learns to handle a pass rush he really shouldn’t be on an NFL field, much less in fantasy lineups.
Mac Jones
Mac will be a quality starter this year, but not in this game which I expect to be another dominant defensive performance that will require little from the passing game to win. But he should absolutely be started next week against Brady.
