The fantasy football season is reaching its halfway point, and we remain in the middle of the bye week grind. Managing the waiver wire effectively is critical at this point as fantasy leagues’ playoff pictures start coming into focus.
Fantasy football waiver wire: 5 quarterbacks to target for Week 7
With Aaron Rodgers and Andy Dalton on bye, what waiver wire quarterbacks should fantasy owners look at this week?
There are four more teams on bye and they feature some important fantasy players. The Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers have the week off, making Aaron Rodgers, Andy Dalton, Peyton Manning and Jay Cutler unavailable. To help you get through Week 7, we look at five potential options owned in 50 percent of less of Yahoo! leagues.
Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars (43 percent)
Bortles continues to struggle with turnovers and accuracy, throwing three picks against the Houston Texans. However, he’s been making up for it in pure volume, throwing for over 300 yards for the second game in a row. With Julius Thomas healthy, look for Bortles to continue racking up the fantasy points, warts and all. He’ll have borderline-QB1 appeal against a Buffalo Bills defense that hasn’t been as good as advertised this year.
Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders (35 percent)
Carr was predictably shut down by the Denver Broncos defense in Week 5, but he should be back on the radar coming off the Raiders’ bye week. Carr has been quite capable in his second year, although he has only reached 300 yards twice. Look for him to continue establishing a connection with rookie Amari Cooper. Carr is a QB2 play in a matchup with the San Diego Chargers.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, New York Jets (12 percent)
FitzMagic was on full force in Week 5. With Chris Ivory tearing up a previously stout Washington defense, Fitzpatrick had one of his better games this year, throwing for two touchdowns and picking up another score on the ground. He’s clearly comfortable in Chan Gailey’s offense and has all of his weapons healthy again. Fitzpatrick is a good streaming option against the New England Patriots, in a game where the Jets are expected to score lots of points to keep up.
Matt Cassel, Dallas Cowboys (two percent)
The Cowboys have seen enough of Brandon Weeden and handed the keys over to Cassel during their bye week. Cassel is hardly an inspiring fantasy play, but he’s an upgrade on Weeden and could get Dez Bryant back sooner than later. He’ll probably not be asked to do more than take care of the ball and let the running game do the heavy lifting, but Cassel does have a plus matchup with the New York Giants, whose defense ranks 31st in passing yards allowed per game. You could do worse as a cheap DFS dart throw.
Zach Mettenberger, Tennessee Titans (less than one percent)
This is your speculative stash of the week. Marcus Mariota picked up a sprained MCL on Sunday, and although the Titans have yet to rule him out, MCL injuries often take a few weeks to heal. With the Titans at 1-4, there’s no reason to risk their franchise quarterback’s health during a rebuilding year, so we ultimately expect Mariota to sit a game or two.
That leaves Mettenberger, who has pretty much hit his ceiling already but has a lively arm. If he gets the start this week, he’ll be a low-end QB2 against an Atlanta Falcons defense that’s 29th in passing yards allowed per game. Mettenberger is a statue in the pocket, which is a problem behind a poor Titans offensive line that lost its starting center for the year. He could put up decent numbers with the running game MIA, but fantasy owners should keep expectations in check.
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