Fantasy Football Week 4 QB Preview: Fill-in options for Cam Newton, and maybe Patrick Mahomes too

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. 

More Week 4 Previews: QB | RB | WR | TE

Week 4 QB Preview

• 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. 

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: 

So who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 4 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that out-performed experts big-time last season.