We already knew we'd be without Ben Roethlisberger and Ryan Tannehill in Week 4 after the Titans-Steelers game was postponed, and we learned Saturday morning Cam Newton has tested positive for COVID-19 and would also be out. That news also spurred the NFL to postpone the Patriots and Chiefs games to Monday at the earliest. The takeaway here? You need to prepare to be without Patrick Mahomes in addition to Tannehill, Roethlisberger, and Newton.
Mahomes is obviously the most difficult to bench. As of Sunday morning, the Patriots are expected to fly to Kansas City on Monday and play the Chiefs at 7 ET Monday night, although further testing could nix that entirely. If you want to eliminate the risk on Mahomes, add Nick Mullens and start him Sunday night against the Eagles if we don't have any more news on Chiefs-Patriots.
My top priority if you don't want to risk it is someone you won't see listed in the waiver wire adds below: Gardner Minshew. Minshew is available in 23% of leagues, so probably not in yours, but if he's out there he has a very good matchup against a very bad Bengals defense. Even after his terrible performance in Week 3 against the Dolphins, Minshew ranks 14th among quarterbacks in Fantasy points this season. He's completed 73.8% of his passes and he's run for 20 yards per game.
Assuming Minshew is rostered in your league, the next best options will be Teddy Bridgewater and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick won't likely surprise anyone, but Bridgewater may. That's because he's somehow only thrown two touchdown passes all season. But he's thrown for nearly 200 more yards than Fitzpatrick this season and he's been far more impressive on a per-attempt basis. Either is a good streamer this week, but I'd choose Fitzpatrick if I got to choose between the two.
7.7 -- Dak Prescott's air yards per attempt have fallen considerably from 2019, when it was 9.3.
41.7% -- Daniel Jones has been pressured on more than 40% of his drop backs. Hopefully when the schedule gets easier he can get a little more time and turn into a streamer again.
30% -- Nearly a third of Jared Goff's pass attempts have been at or behind the line of scrimmage. Yet he still leads the league in yards per attempt.
56.4% -- Dwayne Haskins completion percentage. It's time to make sure Alex Smith is rostered in your two-QB or SuperFlex league.
20.8% -- A fifth of Aaron Rodger's pass attempts have traveled at least 20 yards. Kirk Cousins is the only other starting quarterback above 15%.
0 -- Despite 32 rush attempts, Lamar Jackson has still not found the end zone on the ground. Better days are ahead.
6 -- Carson Wentz' six interceptions are tied with Kirk Cousins for the league lead. Wentz has a terribly difficult schedule coming up and can be dropped.
QB Preview
Matchups that matter
We're going through every matchup on the schedule for Week 4 on the Fantasy Football Today podcast. Subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts:
Teddy Bridgewater's start to the season has been very interesting. He's seventh in the NFL in passing yards (872) and yards per attempt (8.38) but he's only thrown two touchdown passes so he currently ranks 23rd in Fantasy points. Bridgewater's 1.9% touchdown rate would be the lowest since 2000 for a starting quarterback. In other words, the touchdowns should come. Chasing the score against the Cardinals should be an excellent place to start.
Only the Falcons have allowed more Fantasy points to quarterbacks this year than Seattle. Fitzpatrick will be at home against a defense making the longest trip possible in today's NFL. And they may be without Jamal Adams as well. Start Fitzpatrick over Tom Brady and Carson Wentz.
It's possible Garoppolo could return in Week 4, but even if he doesn't he should be rostered. He has a very good schedule upcoming and the 49ers expect to get Deebo Samuel and George Kittle back very soon. If everyone is healthy this could be the best set of weapons Garoppolo has had in San Francisco.
Prescott is my top projected quarterback this week and he's $1,400 cheaper than Jackson on FanDuel. The Browns secondary is a mess and the Cowboys can't stop anyone right now. This should be a shootout, with the Cowboys continuing to be amongst the league leaders in pass rate. Now you just have to figure out which receivers to stack with Prescott.
Burrow has thrown for 628 yards and five scores in his last two games. Now he faces a Jaguars defense that allows the sixth most Fantasy points to quarterbacks. I don't expect the Bengals to stop the Jaguars either, so this game has the potential to turn into the contrarian stack of the week.
