Streaming Quarterbacks: Week 16 Targets

Dec 16, 2014

C.D. Carter

Johnny Manziel, upon further review, is not an option for anyone who values a fantasy floor above zero.

It was clear to anyone with functioning eyeballs that Manziel has fundamental flaws that can -- and have -- led to fantasy disaster. I suppose there was a reason Browns coaches waited until December to plug in ole' Money Fingers. They saw him in practice.

Not even Manziel's expected rushing production could save his horrid day against a pretty tough Bengals' secondary, and Cincy's ball control approach left the rookie signal caller with just 43 offensive snaps. That's an awfully low number -- one that can be largely blamed on Cleveland's soft front seven.

Eli Manning, thanks to the utter domination of one Odell Beckham, Jr., posted top-4 quarterback numbers in Week 15. Josh McCown had a prototypical McCown game, turning 154 aerial yards into 17.6 fantasy points thanks to a rushing score in the second half.

After 15 weeks, our quarterback streaming plays are averaging 17.6 points per game, in line with Philip Rivers (QB10), while optimal streamers are notching 22.8 points, about 0.3 points less than Drew Brees (QB4).

Now on to this week's options...

Josh McCown (TB) vs. Green Bay Packers

This, fellow streamers, is a play made from a fine mix of volume and game flow. It boils down to this: Tampa's middling defense, sans Gerald McCoy, is set to be roasted by Aaron Rodgers and company. That leaves our guy, McCown, with plenty of opportunity against an exploitable Packers defense that hasn't been all that good on the road.

We've seen quarterbacks, from Teddy Bridgewater to Matt Ryan to Mark Sanchez, put up nice stat lines against Green Bay after the Pack jumps out to a considerable lead. Signal callers average 35.6 throws per game against the Packers, who allow a 65.3 percent completion rate in road games (nine percentage points higher than home games).

McCown, available in 79 percent of Yahoo leagues, makes for a surprisingly safe option with rushing production that has become fairly reliable over the past month.