Sneaky Starts: Week 11

Nov 17, 2016

All but the luckiest fantasy owners need to find the proverbial diamond in the rough at some point – a waiver wire or bench player capable of putting up some points in a pinch. This weekly feature is dedicated to that part of fantasy football. It's not pretty, but it's part of the game.

Quarterbacks

Marcus Mariota (@ IND) and Dak Prescott (vs. BAL) continue to be strong starts.

Eli Manning, Giants (vs. CHI)
The matchup isn’t great (CHI is #10 in QB aFPA), but Manning is hot right now. He has seven touchdowns in his last two games and 10 in his last four. The Bears have yielded an average of 289 yards and 2.0 pass TD in their last three games.

Tyrod Taylor, Bills (@ CIN)
Taylor’s running ability has given him a nice weekly floor. He is averaging 40.2 rush yards and 0.44 rush TD on the year, which equates to more fantasy points than 1.5 passing touchdowns in a standard 4-point per pass TD league. Throw in a nice matchup with the Bengals (#30 in QB aFPA) and Taylor is startable again this week.

Blake Bortles, Jaguars (@ DET)
Is there a player with a bigger disparity between his fantasy value and his real-world value? Bortles has thrown seven touchdowns in his last three games and, like Taylor, his legs (23 rushing yards, 0.11 TD) add to his fantasy value. To top it all off, he faces the Lions, who are last in the league in QB aFPA.

Colin Kaepernick, 49ers (vs. NE)
Kaepernick is another quarterback who relies on his legs to score fantasy points. In four starts, he has added 2.3 to 11.5 FP in the running game. The Patriots are likely to jump out to a big lead, so Kaepernick figures to see a ton of dropbacks.