Fantasy football 2017: Performance of sleeper, bust quarterback candidates from preseason Week 3

For all intents and purposes, the NFL preseason is over. Well, it’s not officially over until the fourth games are played on Thursday night, but those are only for the backups and fringe players trying to win roster spots. The starters got their reps in the third game and will be taking the night off, with the key battles mostly settled by this point.

But It’s also the busiest week of the fantasy football preseason, when most leagues hold their drafts and make final preparations for the regular season. Or at least, the smart leagues waited until after the third preseason game to do their drafts. Our apologies if you drafted Julian Edelman or Spencer Ware last week.

Anyway, with the biggest weekend of preseason out of the way, let’s review some sleeper and bust candidates at the quarterback position.

Carson Wentz, Philadelphia Eagles — Wentz did have a poor finish to his rookie season, but the pieces are in place for him to make a second-year leap, with much-improved weapons and a good offensive line. Wentz had a good showing against the Miami Dolphins with 6-of-10 passing, 129 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He remains on track to be a solid QB2, with potential for more.

Andy Dalton, Cincinnati Bengals — The Bengals offense was ruined by injuries last year, and Dalton’s production suffered as a result. He now has reinforcements in John Ross, Joe Mixon, and most importantly, a healthy A.J. Green. Few QBs are more reliant on their top receiver than Dalton is on Green, so he has legitimate QB1 upside whenever the two are on the field together.

Brian Hoyer, San Francisco 49ers — Hoyer knows Kyle Shanahan’s system and sure looked comfortable in it on Sunday night, carving up the Minnesota Vikings defense with 176 yards and two touchdowns on 12-of-17 passing. Hoyer is susceptible to hot-and-cold play, but when he’s on, he’s an appealing streaming target in most fantasy leagues.

Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts — By now, it seems apparent that Luck won’t play in Week 1, but we still don’t know when he’ll actually be available. The longer he stays on the PUP, the cloudier the situation gets. The Colts aren’t a competitive team without Luck, but they also can’t rush him back and risk further injury to the throwing shoulder. There’s too much uncertainty here for fantasy owners to fully trust Luck at the moment.

DeShone Kizer, Cleveland Browns — The Browns named Kizer the Week 1 starter and plan on going the distance with him, giving him every shot to prove he can be a franchise quarterback. That’s a smart move for a rebuilding team, but it probably won’t do much for fantasy owners. Kizer has potential, but there’s a low ceiling and even lower floor. Look for the Browns to feed Isaiah Crowell as much as he can handle at the start of the season.

Tyrod Taylor, Buffalo Bills — Taylor’s nightmare August got even worse when he suffered a concussion early in the third preseason game. Fifth-round rookie Nathan Peterman entered the game and was pretty bad himself, but Taylor’s grip on the starting job is increasingly tenuous. It sure feels like he’s falling out of favor in Buffalo, and we wouldn’t bet on Taylor starting all 16 games. His fantasy value took a nosedive with Sammy Watkins gone.