Streaming Quarterbacks: Week 6 Targets

Oct 13, 2015

With byes, injuries, and underwhelming play from the highest-drafted quarterbacks, 2015 has been a high-water mark for QB streamers and late-round drafters. After five weeks, the top-five quarterbacks drafted in August currently rank QB32 (Andrew Luck, injured), QB2, QB23, QB9, & QB20. Even leaving out Luck, the other four are averaging QB13.5. Unless the early QB pick was Aaron Rodgers, everyone who took a QB early has been disappointed.

What that means is that you should be in a position of strength. Hopefully, unless you’ve been decimated by injuries, your skill position players are very strong, and you’re just looking for moderate production from your quarterback. Or, even better, you took our preseason advice and drafted someone like Carson Palmer, Tom Brady or Andy Dalton.

For those who are still streaming QBs, let’s take a look at Week 6 targets. Last week, Marcus Mariota regressed a little, and Tyrod Taylor’s passing efficiency dipped slightly – although his rushing made up for it. As before, if either is dropped in your league, strongly consider adding them. But for purposes of this article, neither qualifies as a streamer because they’re owned in too many leagues. (Note: As this article is going live there are rumors Taylor has an injury that could keep him out. That is worth keeping an eye on.)

Through five weeks, our optimal streamer is averaging 15.82 points, and our streaming QBs are averaging 14.73 points combined. That would rank them QB15 and QB21.

As always, our primary focus will be on each quarterback's fantasy points per attempt, because of how well that correlates with fantasy production, and on aFPA for the defenses each QB faces.

Week 6 QB Streaming Targets

Blake Bortles (JAC) vs. Houston Texans

Blake Bortles may not always play particularly well as an NFL quarterback, but he continues to put up decent fantasy numbers. He is 12th in fantasy points per attempt and posted four touchdowns last week against Tampa Bay. Bortles and the Jaguars play an underwhelming Houston Texans team at home this week, and Vegas projects them to score in the middle of the pack. The Texans are the fifth-most favorable matchup for QBs, in terms of aFPA.

Bortles is available in 75% of leagues, and he is my optimal streaming QB of the week.