Transcription
With the injuries and breakouts we've had at quarterback and tight end, felt like it was worth giving y'all some updated rankings at both positions.
Starting off with the QB position, we are going to have Josh Allen as my quarterback one. I mean, I've been very consistent here before this season, during the year, and obviously right now. Josh Allen has been our quarterback one through and through. He's the quarterback that I have on my own fantasy team. He's averaging 23.2 fantasy points per game right now, which obviously is right up there as one of the highest marks that you're going to find in fantasy football. I mean, Lamar is at 23.8, slightly ahead of him. Josh Allen slightly ahead of Patrick Mahomes. But the big thing I want to point out is if you go through and you look at Josh Allen, he played 17 games in 2024, 17 games in 2023, 17 in 2022, 17 in 2021, 16 in 2020, 16 in 2019. So Josh Allen is going to be a top three quarterback in points per game, and he's never going to miss a single game. And he's already through his buy, which is why he's always going to be my quarterback one.
Lamar Jackson maybe can put up a better points per game mark, but obviously with Lamar, we have had him missing time through his NFL career. Don't know if you want to blame it on the frame, the playing style, blah blah blah. He does come in this past week against Miami, clearly showing he's 100% healthy. I know he only had 15 rushing yards, so maybe you'd want to say, "Oh, okay. Are we sure that he is?" No, no, he really is 100%. If you looked at the mobility he had in the pocket, it was just the fact that that game was an absolute blowout. So, obviously, they didn't need to lean on Lamar Jackson heavily with what he could do on the ground, but he's already through his bye-week as well, which is why we will also have him ahead of Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes is still right there almost identical to Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson in points per game so far. But you are looking at this being the one player that is yet to go through his buy out of this group of S tier quarterbacks. So you're not going to have Patrick Mahomes in week 10 for that reason. I mean, if you could sell him for Allen or Lamar straight up, I would. And that's how we're making these rankings.
Now, moving over to our next tier of quarterbacks, we are gonna have Jaylen Herz, who is actually only averaging about 26 rushing yards per game, which is a pretty big surprise. If you go through and look at what he had in 2024, he was at 42 rushing yards per game. In 2023, he was at 35 and a half, then 50, then 52 and a half. So, this is pretty much a career low for Jaylen Herz with his rushing production, but it frankly hasn't really mattered. He's still averaging 21 and a half points per game. He's still a top five quarterback. He's averaged at least 20 points per game every single season of his NFL career that he's been a starter. So, that doesn't change anything.
Then going over and looking at Drake Maye, Drake May is looking like he can be that next elite quarterback in fantasy where if you're looking at the past month, he has come through and he has had an average of about two and a half passing touchdowns per game and only half an interception. He is giving you five passing touchdowns to every one interception. And the rushing production's pretty damn good. I mean, he is sitting with 30 rushing yards per game, which is actually more than Jaylen Herz. Now, an issue that you're going to have with Drake May is the fact that he has yet to go through his by-week, though. So, you are going to see him for one fewer game than what you're going to get with somebody like Jaylen Herz. You can see the same thing with Dak Prescott.
Now, I am recording this with about 6 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, but reality just scored a garbage time touchdown. I don't think anything looks like it's going to change. This is still one of the worst defenses in the entire league. So, realistically, Dak Prescott could very easily lead the NFL in passing just because he's going to be trailing pretty much every single game and he is going to have to go out there and absolutely sling it.
Now, our next tier is going to be led off with Daniel Jones, who had 50 passing attempts this past week and obviously, um, he doesn't really score many fantasy points just because the passing touchdowns aren't there. But if you are looking at the rushing production, he's had five rushing touchdowns this season and he's averaging about 267 passing yards per game. So Daniel Jones still very much a viable quarterback you can start every week. You can say the same thing with Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield only at 17.5 points per game, but that's really been brought down over the past two weeks where Baker against the Detroit Lions only scored 11.1 points and against the New Orleans Saints he only scored 4.1. You had no Chris Godwin in this game. You had no Jaylen McMillan in this game. You had no Mike Evans. And if you remember, Ibuka got injured against the Niners in week six. The initial reports were telling us, hey, expect him to miss week seven, expect him to miss week eight. He ended up playing through that injury. I do think that limited him severely. So, at this point, um, I would say that Baker's probably better off coming out of the bye now that Ibuka is going to be 100%. And we'd really hope that you're going to get back Chris Godwin and or Jaylen McMillan soon.
Now, going over to Bixby Nicks. Bixby Nicks we knew was an easy bench this past week against the Houston Texans just because the Houston Texans have an elite defense, but, um, he still came through with 18 and a half fantasy points. I mean, over the past three weeks he's been incredible. A big reason for that is he dropped 40 points against the New York Giants of course, which is going to skew the averages a bit, but right now he is averaging about 20 points per game and he is running the ball a bit as well with 23 rushing yards per game. I will say with Bo Nicks, you are going to have to deal with him still needing to go through his by-week.
Now, if you think Bo Nicks is crazy low in these rankings, I got great news for you. You can currently take higher than 219 and a half passing yards on Underdog Fantasy for that Thursday night game going up against the Las Vegas Raiders. He's currently higher lower 219 and a half passing yards and he is higher lower 21 and a half rushing yards, which is pretty much exactly his career averages so far. I'd imagine these projections move as people start taking higher or lower. But I'll leave you the link to Underdog Fantasy in the description as well as the comment section. If you use code flock, you're going to get $100 added to your account after you play your first five. And on top of that, you'll get free questions that you can ask me in the live streams. I'm live streaming every single day until Christmas answering your fantasy questions. And lastly, you'll be getting a free Ashton Genty pick for that Thursday night game, higher or lower, half a total yard against the Denver Broncos. Underdog Fantasy available in almost every single state. You can find that link in the description as well as the comment section.
Now, Justin Herbert will be our next quarterback. Um, with Herbert, he is averaging 20.9 points per game, which is more than any season he has had since 2021. And the passing attempts per game extremely high, 36, which is significantly higher than what we had in 2024 where he was at 29 and a half. The thing that you have to project out with Herbert though, is how this offense is going to look now that Joe Alt is out for the season, which in my mind is going to be an absolute massive blow. I'm going to be lowering my expectations.
Now, moving over to Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams was an auto start this past week. If you just looked at the matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals and what you add for sportsbook projections. Um, now in terms of where we are projecting Caleb going into the future, this is kind of the tier of quarterbacks that I'm more so just wanted to say, you know what, they are probably streaming options. Caleb has demonstrated some rushing upside and then obviously a ton of passing volume in specific matchups.
Now, moving over to our next quarterback, we are going to have Jackson Dart, who has looked really strong for fantasy purposes since coming on as a starter against the Los Angeles Chargers. You've actually had no game with fewer than 15 fantasy points since he took over. And at the same time, we've seen the ceiling where you've had two performances with more than 25. You've seen four games where he's had over 50 rushing yards and he's had a rushing touchdown in every single contest but one. So, Jackson Dart 100% looks like you can start him any week you want. And you can say the same thing with Matthew Stafford, who at this point, you can make an argument, is potentially the favorite to win the MVP with how well he's playing, but obviously much worse off from a fantasy football perspective where we know he is just simply not going to be running the ball whatsoever. Like what's actually funny is you can see all these stats laid out by flockfantasy.com on the players and Matthew Stafford not only has the lowest rushing yards of any player by far, but he's the only one with negative rushing yards.
Jared Goff will lead off our next tier. So, the issue that we're going to have with Jared Goff in comparison to somebody like Matthew Stafford where we know Goff's also not going to be running the ball is at least with the Rams, they come into the game going, "Yeah, let's let Matthew Stafford sling it." That's not the game plan ever for the Detroit Lions. The game plan always for the Lions is, "Oh, okay. Well, let's run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, run the ball in case all hell breaks loose, maybe we'll let Jared Goff drop back." Where you have Jared Goff right now this season averaging about 30 passing attempts per game as opposed to where if you're going to be looking at Matthew Stafford, Matthew Stafford's up at almost 35.
Now, moving over to our next quarterback, we are going to have Brock Purdy. Um, we haven't seen Purdy in forever. Last time we saw him, he was injured. Um, we've had M. Jones looking decent in this offense. We know Brock Purdy does have more rushing upside than M. Jones, and I think he may come back this week. And there's an outside chance you're going to get Ricky Priesthood back at the same time. We'll see what the practice reports look like. And then going over and looking at Sam Darnold, Sam Darnold trending towards being that streaming option. I mean, averaging 17.2 points per game. I know that obviously a lot of people are going to be looking for one of these quarterbacks just because you did lose Jaden Daniels for a lot of those teams.
Then Jordan Love will be our next QB. Jordan Love averaging actually more points per game than any other quarterback in this range. But the issue that I'm going to have with Jordan Love is the fact that you lose Tucker Kraft and on top of that, Matthew Golden gets banged up. Jaden Reed's already injured. So, the pass catchers are just going away here in this offense.
Now, we can talk about Justin Fields here, and I want to say for sure that these rankings would be very different if you were playing in a superflex format. If you were in a superflex league, then there you are not nearly as excited about Justin Fields because what you would actually need to focus in on is you would need to have some stability. You would need to have a floor. But if you're in a one quarterback format, the only thing that matters is the ceiling. So if Justin Fields gets benched, you can cut him easily. But if he is the starter, you know that he is going to run the ball a tremendous amount.
Now, moving over to our next quarterback, we are going to have Joe Flacco. 100% looks like you can pick him up and you can potentially start him. Ever since you've had him taking over as the quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, you've seen him be at the very top of the NFL with passing volume where we have actually had in that four-game stretch a total of 11 passing touchdowns. And he's actually throwing the ball a ton inside the five-yard line where they get inside the five. They're not really running it with Chase Brown. You've actually had seven pass attempts inside the five-yard line for Flacco since he took over here. So, um, realistically, I'm really excited about him in a six-point passing touchdown format, but obviously in a four-point passing touchdown league, he's not really going to run the ball at all.
Now, we can throw Kyler Murray at the end of this. Um, with Kyler, I don't know if he is just actually injured or he got quietly benched for Jacobe Brassette, but obviously if Kyler were to play, then you do have some rushing upside. But right now, we don't even know if we're going to see him again.
But let's move over and let's look at the tight ends. Starting off with the tight end one in fantasy. Tight end one coming into the season. Drafted a ton of them in round two of underdog basketball drafts. And those teams are doing no bueno because he was injured in week one. We finally get the knee brace off and he's finally healthy in week nine. And what does he do? He scores 43 fantasy points. 43.2. That's a lot. All right. Like if we are looking at Bowers, he is the tight end 13 despite really only playing one fully healthy game. So, I'm all in. I People were making fun of us earlier for having him ranked ahead of Jake Ferguson in our rest of season rankings and who's laughing now.
Now, going over and looking at Trey McBride. McBride, obviously, this game's not over. I'm recording this right now and there's three minutes to go. But again, I'd be surprised if you get anything really from McBride. This game does look like it's over. You can kind of say that you would hope that you actually have Jacobe Brassette staying as the starting quarterback here for the Arizona Cardinals where Trey McBride's been much better with Brassette where you can essentially just guarantee that he's going to get there with the receiving touchdown and at the same time the target volume's been consistent as well. So, he's been absolutely incredible. I mean, what's actually funny is these were the two tight ends coming into the year that were kind of in their own tier, and we're now in week 10, and it's right back to how it was before the season.
Now, going over to A tier, we are going to have Tyler Higbee. Tyler Higbee disappointing back-to-back games, but I'm still going to stand by the rookie tight end that right now is averaging like 2.22 yards per route run in his rookie season, is averaging 6.3 targets per game. And realistically, I actually think you should assume just based off historical touchdown rates that some of these touchdowns transition from Michael Pittman Jr. over to Tyler Higbee as the season goes on.
George Kittle will be our next tight end. Um, with Kittle, ever since he came back from the injury, like you've been holding your breath, hoping that we get some massive blow-up game and it just simply hasn't happened. I don't know if we're going to need Brock Purdy back in. I don't know if he needs to get fully healthy. I don't know if it's just his age catching up to him or some combination of all three, but if we get another down performance from Kittle, um, obviously things are going to get worse for him in our ranks.
Moving over to Jake Ferguson, again, my issue with him is just when you have CeeDee Lamb back in this offense, the target volume is going to stray away. Um, not ranking him as somebody that you can't start. Obviously still a top five tight end in my rest of season rankings. The only hesitation that I've had is I just don't think you can put him in the same tier as Bowers. I don't think you can put him in the same tier as McBride.
Now going over to the B tier options, we are going to have Sam LaPorta leading us off. Sam LaPorta 21 and a half fantasy points this past week. Pretty much just every single week, you know, you're going to get at the very minimum four targets in a good offense. Is that the most exciting thing in the world? No. Um, but it's just kind of enough in fantasy at the tight end position to know that this is a player that you can start every single week.
If we're going over and looking at Dallas, um, I have him as the tight end one in my league. I would kind of prefer if we had no A.J. Brown rest of season so I could project out significantly more targets because in reality, you look at his 5.66 targets per game this season. His 4.3 receptions per game, his 41 receiving yards per game, it's pretty much all identical to what he has had through his entire NFL career. But he jumps up from like a career average of about 10 points per game to 14 and a half just because he's 5Xing the amount of touchdowns that he usually has, which, um, I wish that this would maintain rest of season, but the reality of the situation is it's just not going to.
Gaddston will be our next tight end. I would love if he just took a chill pill and let Quentin Johnston start scoring some more points for my basketball teams, of course, but, um, Gaddston looks like he's here to stay four straight weeks with at least five targets. You have the big play upside. You have, I mean, him running a route on pretty much every single Justin Herbert drop back. And then obviously this is a player that you'd assume can continue to get better as time goes on given the fact that he is a rookie.
Now moving over to Travis Kelce. Kelce continues to play extremely well. Um, this is despite Rashee Rice coming back in. Like Kelce has given you a really nice floor here. Obviously, he has fallen down quite dramatically in terms of the volume numbers that we've had through his entire NFL career to this season, but the efficiency has actually come up dramatically where he's averaging 10.2 yards per target right now, which is actually a higher mark than we have ever seen for Kelce in his NFL career.
Now moving over to Dalton Kincaid. It is incredibly difficult for me to rank Kincaid because he is currently playing fewer than 50% of the snaps for the Buffalo Bills. Yet at the same time, he is averaging more points per game than Kelce, Gaddston, Sam LaPorta, and George Kittle. So I, I just have never really seen anything like this. I don't know how to project this out, but I mean obviously it's a good offense and he is one of the key pass catchers when they do have to throw the ball.
Cole Kmet will be our next tight end. If we are looking at Kmet, he is the biggest riser that we are going to have in these rankings. Obviously, a lot of this has to do with the breakout coming from the Cole Kmet concussion. And you may say, "Oh, okay. Well, it's not like Kmet's out for the rest of the season." But my counter to that would be Cole Kmet's not a good player. Cole Kmet is a great player. So, in reality, I think that you can make a pretty strong argument that this is just his job going into the future. And if we're super excited about Tyler Higbee, he should be probably pretty damn excited about the tight end that graded out as a better option to a lot of people in the NFL draft.
Now, I have Harold Fannon on my team as well, and during some of these by-week struggles, I may consider actually throwing him in the flex spot. I think a big thing you're going to be on the lookout for is if you do end up getting David Njoku traded this week. If Njoku gets dealt, then obviously Harold Fannon does indeed get a big bump up. Um, Kyle Pitts can't be viable if Drake London continues to be a top three wide receiver in terms of his target share. But Kyle Pitts has still been a respectable option so far this season. He's averaging a career-high points per game, a career-high targets per game, career-high receptions per game. Um, he's still not scoring touchdowns. He's scored one touchdown so far this season. I mean, that's just the usage with Kyle Pitts.
Now, moving over to our next tier, we have Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews has given you some of these massive blow-up games where you had this past week with 16 and a half points. Week three against the Detroit Lions with 27, but they're just off of touchdowns. And he's had no volume whatsoever. He's averaging 4.1 targets per game so far this season and 28 receiving yards per game, which is the lowest mark of his NFL career. Now, obviously, you can make an argument, oh, well, now you have Lamar Jackson in and this offense is 10 times better now, which may be true.
Now, moving over to Hunter Henry. Um, with Hunter Henry, super exciting name in terms of what he was giving you at the beginning of the season with his snap rate, with his usage in this offense, with our really good quarterback, but that has trended in a really bad direction where the volume's just not consistent. You can probably say the volume of Zach Ertz is going to be there, but the issue that you're going to have with Zach Ertz more so is just going to be the offense now with Marcus Mariota under center. Um, T.J. Hockenson scores the touchdown this past week, but he had 11 receiving yards and now I think that this offense is going to be a little bit less exciting given what you are dealing with with McCarthy under center.
Um, and then lastly, we can go to the E tier names. Um, Theo Johnson definitely viable. David Njoku, I'm kind of hoping he gets dealt. Dalton Schultz, I, I don't necessarily know how he could come through and how we could say, "Yeah, this is a player that we can start with confidence knowing that he did nothing with no Nico Collins and then he just had a random big reception this past week." And then Evan Engram's been so bad. Every trade rumor coming out of Denver is that they're trying to trade for a tight end. But I think that's all I got for you. I really appreciate you and really hope I was able to help you out in some way with this. And of course, if you wanted to go check out any of those projections, you can find them on Underdog Fantasy. Links in the description. It's in the comment section. It's in the live chat if you use code flock when you sign up to Underdog Fantasy. You're going to get a $100 added to your account after you play your first five. And you'll be getting a free Ashton Genty pick, higher or lower, half a total yard for that Thursday night game. And free questions that you can ask me in the live streams. And we're live streaming every single night until Christmas answering your questions.