Fantasy football preseason Week 1 review: Sleeper and bust candidates at QB

The first week of preseason has come and gone. While we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from what were glorified scrimmages, some players showed better than others, and sometimes it’s just fun to read the tea leaves based on a handful of snaps.

So with the caveats out of the way, let’s take a look at some potential sleeper and bust candidates for fantasy football purposes, starting with quarterback. The most important news is that nobody got injured during any of the games, so nothing has changed for the top-tier, entrenched starters. We’ll instead look at some more fringe options and briefly examine their fantasy outlook as the regular season inches closer.

Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs — Mahomes is still well behind Alex Smith on the depth chart, but he moved ahead of Tyler Bray as the No. 2 after a solid preseason debut. Mahomes completed 7 of 9 passes 49 yards and a touchdown, and would’ve had more yardage if a 41-yard pass wasn’t called back by a penalty. Mahomes remains a longshot to make a 2017 fantasy impact, but all signs point towards him being a strong dynasty asset.

Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans — Not a bad week for rookie quarterbacks, all things considered. Here’s what I wrote about Watson’s performance earlier in the week.

Watson finished his night with 15-of-25 passing, 179 yards, and the one touchdown. He averaged a decent 7.2 yards per attempt and, more importantly, avoided turnovers. Taking care of the ball and not making careless mistakes will be crucial if Watson hopes to win the Week 1 job, and he passed that test with flying colors on Wednesday.

We’ll see if Watson has done enough to earn reps with the first team sooner rather than later. He’s certainly earned the chance after Wednesday’s promising audition.

Watson might not have a high fantasy ceiling, but he showed more than Tom Savage did, and his potential competence is good for the likes of DeAndre Hopkins and Lamar Miller. For the moment, he’s worth looking at deep in two-QB leagues.

Jay Cutler, Miami Dolphins — We’re not saying that Cutler will be a fantasy stud. He’s 34 years old, that ship sailed a long time ago. However, “being better than Ryan Tannehill” isn’t a high bar to clear, and Cutler had one of his best recent seasons with Adam Gase as his playcaller. He also has potent weapons in Jarvis Landry, DeVante Parker, and Julius Thomas. Just saying, you could do a lot worse for your QB2 spot.

Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars — You probably weren’t drafting Bortles high anyway, but the past couple weeks should convince any stragglers to leave him off their cheat sheets. Bortles has been handing out interceptions like candy in camp, and then his preseason performance was a dud (3-of-5, 16 yards). The Jaguars will feed Leonard Fournette as much as he can handle, rendering Bortles an afterthought. He’s way off the fantasy radar now.

Trevor Siemian/Paxton Lynch, Denver Broncos — These two are in another camp battle, and it’s just as uninspiring as it was last season. Siemian did his thing in the preseason opener, completing 6 of 7 passes for 51 yards. Lynch continued to look erratic, and it’s worrying how little progress he’s made over the offseason. Whomever wins the job here doesn’t look to have much upside outside of bye week fill-ins.

Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens — I’ll just let NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal sum it up.

Not that Flacco necessarily needs preseason reps, but the injury is a worrying sign for a QB coming off a poor season. Flacco remains a low-ceiling option with more bust potential by the year.