Fantasy Football Week 3 Quarterback Preview: Streaming options, DFS plays, matchups that matter, and more

Lamar Jackson has been a quarterback over the past five years with incredible highs and inexplainable lows. So it's never a time to bet on him going nuclear and torching the league. But now may be one of the best times. Through two weeks he has 96 combined passes and rushes for 687 combined yards. To put those numbers in perspective Jalen Hurts has 579 combined passing and rushing yards. QB1 on the season has 529. Patrick Mahomes has 474. 

Jackson's problem, if there's a problem for the guy who currently sits at QB6 averaging 22.8 FPPG, has been touchdowns. This is not the first time this has happened. He posted a less-than-stellar 4.2 passing touchdown rate in 2021. He only scored three times on 112 rush attempts in 2022. But it's not been consistent either. Jackson posted a 5.3% passing touchdown rate last year, including five pass touchdowns in the Fantasy championship. His current pass TD rate is 2.7%, and he's yet to score on the ground.

If you're expecting me to make a buy low case for Jackson right now, you're 100% right. With the way Mahomes, Allen, and Hurts have started the year, I believe there is a legitimate chance that Jackson could be QB1 this year. If you have Allen or Hurts, I believe you can turn them into Jackson plus. 

If you don't have an elite QB, the person who has Jackson probably has an injury somewhere, who doesn't? See if you can give them help at that position while getting a major upgrade at the quarterback position. Jackson has been a Fantasy league winner as recently as Week 17 last year, and his early usage looks like he'll have the chance to be a league winner early this year. Some touchdown variance has given you the opportunity to buy him lower than you should be able to, don't wait until that moment passes.

Let's get to the rest of the preview:

Week 3 QB Preview

• 0 -- Rookie QBs have yet to throw a passing touchdown on a combined 196 pass attempts.
• 550 -- Brock Purdy leads the NFL with 550 passing yards. The Fantasy points should follow.
• 11.4 -- Derek Carr is averaging 11.4 yards per pass attempt. No one is playing better football through two weeks.
• 19.6% -- 19.6% of Bryce Young's passes were off target, the worst mark in the league.
• 205.7 -- Josh Allen is averaging 205.7 pass plus rush yards per game. That would be the lowest mark of his career.
• 12.1% -- Trevor Lawrence has been sacked on 12.1% of his dropbacks, the highest percentage in the league.

My full set of Week 3 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. You'll find them here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 2. Projected stats for all starting quarterbacks are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.

Who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 3 Fantasy rankings for every position, plus see which quarterback comes out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that has outperformed experts big-time.