The season is a full month in, giving us enough quarterback play to build more concrete expectations. With 4 games down, we’ve watched the resurgence of Kirk Cousins and a fantasy ascension from 2023 1st Overall Pick Bryce Young. Both have given us very solid months, and now we can pull them off the waiver wire with real trust. In Week 4, we look back at our 3 waiver wire offerings to see how they performed. Cousins led last week’s waiver wire options, and he paid off in spades. Cousins went up against one of the most consistent quarterbacks in the league, Patrick Mahomes, and almost pulled off a major upset for a Raiders team that has now finished every game this season with over 26 points. Cousins finished the game with 365 passing yards and 2 passing touchdowns. He’ll look to build on a year where he now looks less like a seat filler and more like a full-year starter. Kyler Murray was our second option for last week’s streamers, and the results were varied. He completed almost 73 percent of his passes, but couldn’t get his team in the endzone, crushing our hopes for some much-needed passing touchdowns. Only scoring 15 points against arguably the worst defense in the league doesn’t leave us a lot of hope in what Kyler can give us for the remainder of the season. Carson Wentz could be called upon soon to retake the starter’s role, and we’d return to his name in this column if that was the case. Marcus Mariota was our final option for last week, and hopefully not many had to dig that far down the quarterback streamers this early in the season, as he left the game in the first quarter, suffering a right knee MCL sprain. He’ll be week to week and likely won’t return behind center, as Jayden Daniels could be back by next week.
This week we’ll look at three new weekly streamers as we attempt to fill in the void created by a constant wave of quarterback injuries.
Tyson Bagent, Chicago Bears
| Oppponent | Matchup Rating | Yahoo! Roster % | Proj. Pts |
| @GB | 5/5 | 3 | 17.46 |
Tyson Bagent has filled in for Caleb Williams over the past two games, putting a bit of life in a fanbase that was aghast at Williams being carted off the squad so early into their season. Bagent won’t get you a bit of rushing stats, but he stays in the pocket and keeps the offense churning. This pick was a lot more tactical than it is reading into the numbers, as the Packers have been a bit difficult of a team to track thus far this year, not fully putting together all segments of their team at the same time. The defense ranks 20th on PFF’s defensive ratings, so they aren’t exactly a slam dunk of a matchup. What we do get from this matchup is Bagent’s potential in an offense that will likely need to lean on the pass to keep up with Jordan Love, who is attempting to build upon his best performance yet in Week 4. This can be a huge factor, but it is further compounded by the fact that the team is annoyed with D’Andre Swift ‘s fumble troubles, and Kyle Monangai left last week’s game with an injury designation. While it isn’t that worrisome an injury (right thumb), he likely wouldn’t be ready to handle a workload as large as this week’s 30 carries. It’s all adding up to an eventful divisional matchup with two teams that will likely take to the air, making this one of the best situations on the wire for large fantasy points at the quarterback spot.
Deshaun Watson, Cleveland Browns
| Opponent | Matchup Rating | Yahoo! Roster % | Proj. Pts |
| @NYJ | 4/5 | 9 | 15.84 |
Deshaun Watson had a season last year that left many of us to write him off for his career, on a downward trajectory from his offseason scandals to poor performance last year, never giving us much reason to think he had any fantasy value remaining. To our surprise, Watson has been arguably playing some of the best football of his career over the last month. Todd Monken has brought an exciting format of football to Cleveland, and the core of the Browns’ offense is latching on to it in quite some way. Boasting talent on both the rushing and receiving side of the ball through some very solid drafts, the team now has K.C. Concepcion, Denzel Boston, and Harold Fannin to look to at any time. Watson has had 2 top-end outputs in his 4 games this season, finishing at the top of PFF rankings for his matchup with Tampa Bay in Week 2, and again in Week 4 in a divisional matchup against the Steelers. Watson may not even be getting the full glow-up he’s deserved given the first matchup of his year was against one of the best defenses in the league in the Jacksonville Jaguars, who’ve yet to allow over 17 points this season or over 40 yards rushing to a single running back.
Now, we get a perfect matchup against a Jets team that is 1-3 and was only able to pull that first win due to a matchup of ease with the Titans. Watson is starting to find a groove with his variety of options, and Boston, Fannin, and Concepcion all saw over 5 targets in their win against Pittsburgh. In a matchup against the Jets on the road, Watson will have every opportunity to air it out in a game where they could go to 4-1 on the season. The edge rushers for the Jets have been the worst facet of the Jets, posting up average ratings at best for David Kingsley and Kingsley Enagbare, likely leading to more time in the pocket for Watson to find his targets. This game could lead to another sneaky top-12 level finish for Watson.
Jalon Daniels, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
| Matchup | Matchup Rating | Yahoo! Roster % | Proj. Pts |
| @DAL | 3/5 | 2 | 14.83 |
The last matchup worth keeping an eye on as the week passes is Jalon Daniels, who gets the opportunity to take on a Cowboys team that is winning games purely on offensive prowess, boasting the worst defense in the land per PFF ranking metrics. This Cowboys team has given up no less than 28 points this season, even making the Texans look competent in a Week 4 matchup they barely eeked out. Daniels showed major upside in training camp, quickly earning buzz for his cannon-like arm and ability to scramble with the best of them. Baker Mayfield won’t see the field for at minimum another month, leaving an untouched runway for Daniels to capitalize on. In last week’s game versus the Packers, Daniels only supplied 148 passing yards, but his ability to rush led him to 55 rushing yards on the ground against the Packers’ defense, which is in the top 12 for rushing stops so far this season. Daniels faces off in this matchup against a Cowboys team that is 19th best against the run and overall has given up points in every game thus far this season. Daniels didn’t have a huge coming-out game last week, but this opportunity is one that has a massive upside factor built in, as this Cowboys team has done nothing to stop quarterback rushing this season. In the past 2 games against the run, the Cowboys allowed 69 yards rushing for Jayden Daniels and 50 yards rushing for Lamar Jackson, providing us a reasonable baseline of somewhere between 40 and 50 yards rushing if the Cowboys don’t scheme up for Daniels to leave the pocket. In a matchup where the Cowboys are at .500 and not yet panicking about their type of play, there’s not much to expect the Cowboys will change much to keep Daniels from running, and with the potential of his offensive weapons in Emeka Egbuka (who desperately needs a big day) and Chris Godwin, this team could come out and not only put up points, but possibly steal a win.
Feature image by Michael Packard (@CollectingPack on Twitter) / Photography by Melissa Tamez/ Icon Sportswire