Week 4 QBs: How do your preseason rankings look?
Jay Cutler is the best quarterback in fantasy football.
No joke. In fact, through Week 4, Jay Cutler is the top rated fantasy football player in most standard (scoring+yardage) leagues. He probably won’t be by the end of the year, but he is right now.
In one league I run, completions and incompletions factor in, but even in that league he is second to Drew Brees by a mere 5 points. What to do with him? You can trade high, but I think I might let his surge carry my team for a while. Even if he starts to slow down, he’s going to have solid numbers and keep his trade value for a couple weeks. Pull the trigger then. His value is too high to buy, wait until he cools off a little before trading for him.
The current rankings for every position in standard (scoring+performance) fantasy leagues are filled with surprises like this one. Today we’ll take a look at the quarterbacks, with running backs, receivers, tight ends, kickers and defenses to follow.
Here are the top 10 signal callers in many standard scoring systems, and a couple statistics for each:
| 1. | Jay Cutler | Broncos | 9 TD passes, 1,275 yards |
| 2. | Drew Brees | Saints | 1,343 yards, 107 comp. |
| 3. | Tony Romo | Cowboys | 1,192 yards, 8 TDs |
| 4. | Kurt Warner | Cardinals | 3 fumbles, 1,222 yards |
| 5. | Philip Rivers | Chargers | 10 TDs, 2 2-point conv. |
| 6. | Brett Favre | Jets | 12 TDs, 935 yards |
| 7. | Aaron Rodgers | Packers | Rushing: 78 yards, 2 TDs |
| 8. | Donovan McNabb | Eagles | 1,100 yards, 6 TDs, 2 INTs |
| 9. | Jason Campbell | Redskins | 6 TDs, 878 yards, 0 INTs |
| 10. | J.T. O’Sullivan | 49ers | 962 yards, 4/3 TD/INT |
There are some interesting names up there. Kurt Warner was fighting for a starting job when most everyone drafted their teams. Cutler, Rivers, Favre, Rodgers all were question marks. Campbell had huge question marks and red flags. O’Sullivan? The biggest surprise of the bunch. I, like a lot of owners, completely separated myself from that QB mess in San Francisco, despite Mike Martz’s arrival.
While the names and numbers on that board are interesting, you may be asking yourself about the players not on the board.
Everybody already knows about Tom Brady’s season-ending injury, but most boards had Peyton Manning No. 2, or at least in the top 3. Manning sits at No. 16. He has had a bye, unlike most of the guys on the list, but his average points per game puts him at 12th, sandwiched between Jason Campbell and Jon Kitna. Peyton Manning’s name doesn’t often appear in a sentence with those two.
Brian Griese ranks ahead of Ben Roethlisberger. Under them, Derek Anderson, as bad as he’s been, ranks higher than Matt Hasselbeck, Carson Palmer and Marc Bulger. Kerry Collins and Chad Pennington rank higher than all four of them.
It’ll be interesting to see how these trends pan out in the coming months. Campbell’s got weapons so I see his success continuing, same for Rodgers, Cutler and Favre. O’Sullivan’s TD/INT ratio is disturbing, but he’s a QB in a Mike Martz offense, ask Jon Kitna how awesome that is.
Peyton Manning will bounce, but I fear Hasselbeck, Palmer and Bulger are going to be in for long seasons, and may finish behind Collins and Pennington once all the dust settles. As bad as Pennington is, and as old as Collins is, they both have good short options that can turn screens and quick slants into long gains.
What quarterback has surprised you so far this year? Which surprise quarterback has carried you to a 4-0 or 3-1 start? Leave a comment below.
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