Welcome to Week 1 of the football season. For all you late-round quarterback people, I’ll be covering QB Streaming this year. The goal is simple – create a Frankenstein-esque quarterback monster to help you win your league. Each week, we’ll go through the quarterbacks with viable fantasy matchups that are less than 50% owned in Yahoo! leagues. Following this week, we’ll review the top 12 scorers of the week and see how we did.
Our faithful leader, Erik Smith, wrote a Draft Prep: Four Quarterback Sleepers which hopefully prepared you for the start of the league. My favorite late-round QB was Lamar Jackson, who has a cake schedule for the first eight weeks. Unfortunately for our purposes here, he’s currently 92% owned and not eligible for our streaming exercise. Here are some low-owned players I have my eye on for Week One:
| Quarterback | Week 1 Opponent | Percent Owned |
|---|---|---|
| Jimmy Garoppolo | @ Tampa Bay Bucs | 56% |
| Josh Allen | @ New York Jets | 34% |
| Derek Carr | vs. Denver Broncos | 33% |
| Sam Darnold | vs. Buffalo Bills | 28% |
| Matthew Stafford | @ Arizona Cardinals | 27% |
| Nick Foles | vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 18% |
| Jacoby Brissett | @ Los Angeles Chargers | 12% |
| Andy Dalton | @ Seattle Seahawks | 11% |
| Marcus Mariota | @ Cleveland Browns | 8% |
| Joe Flacco | @ Oakland Raiders | 7% |
Each week, I’ll go through some players from the list that I’m targeting for streaming purposes. Let’s get to it!
Jimmy Garropolo (56% Owned)
I’ll keep this brief because I know I’m cheating with this ownership. Jimmy Garropolo has a matchup against the Bucs that has the makeup for a shootout. Vegas has the total on this game at 50, with Tampa Bay as a one-point favorite. There should be lots of scoring on both sides and Pro Football Focus has the Bucs ranked as the 32nd secondary in football.
Matthew Stafford (27% Owned, Pick of the Week)
Speaking of shootouts, allow me to introduce you to Arizona Cardinals new head coach, Kliff Kingsbury. Kingsbury’s Texas Tech offense ranked 3rd, 2nd, 9th, and 4th in plays per game from 2015-2018. Our own Kevin Taylor did a deeper dive into the changes in Arizona (and all NFC offensive coaching changes).
Knowing that the Cardinals are going to try and put the pedal to the metal on offense leads me to look across the field to Matthew Stafford. Vegas has this game at a 48 point total with the Lions being 2.5 point favorites. Pro Football Focus has the Cardinals rated as the sixth-best pass defense when at full strength. Unfortunately for them, top CB Patrick Peterson is suspended for the first six games of the season making the pass defense a liability instead of an asset.
With the departure of Lion’s OC Jim Bob Cooter, the team will most likely start to lean towards a more balanced attack, but that doesn’t mean Stafford can’t have himself a solid game. And if this game goes to shootout mode, Stafford could easily end up a top 10 quarterback in Week 1.
Nick Foles (18% Owned)
New faces in new places – what could go wrong? Nick Foles makes his Jaguars debut against the high-powered Chiefs offense that put up 34.8 points per game, the most in 2018. Luckily for him, the Chiefs pass defense is not as stout. In fact, Pro Football Focus rates the Chiefs defense very poorly – 30th against the pass and 26th against the run.
Vegas has the Chiefs as a 3.5 point favorite and the game at a 52 point total. That’s an implied team total of 24.25 for the Jaguars. In order to keep up with the high flying offense of the Chiefs, I expect Dede Westbrook to step up big, as well everyone’s forgotten receiver, Marqise Lee, which could lead to a top 10 day for Nick Foles.
Joe Flacco (7% Owned)
Alright, here’s the hail mary and it’s all predicated on the Raiders. The Raiders defense is not going to be good again this year but with the added assets of Antonio Brown and Josh Jacobs, they should at least be a mildly competent offense.
With the Raiders offense potentially putting up points, it will be on Joe Flacco to lead the Broncos against the meh Raiders defense. Emmanuel Sanders has looked like a new man in the preseason coming off a torn Achilles-tendon last year. Flacco also has second-year receivers Courtland Sutton and DaeSean Hamilton, who will look to take another step forward this year.
The Vegas total on this game, 43, is lower than the other games, but the Raiders are just a one-point home favorite, so this should be a close game. Good luck in Week 1!
(Photo by Adam Ruff/Icon Sportswire)