Week 6 Quarterback & Tight End Rankings: Must-Start QBs, Risky Plays & TE Sleepers (Ep. 2265)

This is an I Heart Podcast, guaranteed human. Welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is the week six quarterback in Titan ranks episode. I'm Chris Welch, got Pat Fitzmore's and Andrew Erickson. We're gonna be looking at the top 12 of both positions, digging a little bit deeper and trying to get you guys all locked in for week six on the ranks. All of that in in between with a couple of my dearest buddies. And we are gonna jump right into this bad boy. If you guys wanna follow along, go to fantasyprose.com/rankings. You can check out all the positional ranks, all the different formats from standard to half to full. You can see dynasty. You can check the flex rankings, go and peruse it, and they will update throughout the week as well, especially for like half PPR for the ranks contest. But that's what we're gonna be referring to today. And also know that there could be a few changes as the week goes on and more analysts and more experts start to submit their rankings. All of that done. Let's look at the quarterback, big board gentleman. We've got Josh Allen coming in at number one. Oh, my boy Brock Purdy coming in at number two. Coming in at three is Matthew Stafford, followed by Drake May, Jordan Love, Dak Prescott. The bottom half is Jaden Daniels. Doesn't matter how many arms he has. He just continues to run. Trevor Lawrence, Jalen Hertz, Tyler Schuck, Patrick Mahomes and Bryce Young. Most of these are, you know, pretty locked in, especially kind of that like top 10 area. I don't think there's a ton of questions that people are dealing with. But let's actually talk about Jalen Hertz though. Hertz actually moved from 11 a day ago and he's jumped up to nine. He's got Carolina. Both of you guys have moved Hertz outside of your top 12. Things have not been good. We speculated on the wide receiver ranks episode, Fitsy that don't want to Smith might be back and how much that potentially could help. But Fitsy, you've got him at 14, Erickson's at 13. If it's why don't you kick off Jalen Hertz, not being a QB1 this week? - Er Hertz is completing 57.8% of his throws this season. Over the last two weeks without Devonte Smith, 49.3%. 6.2 yards per pass attempt on the season, just 4.7 yards per attempt the last two weeks. And Jalen Hertz, yeah, he'll get a lift if Devonte Smith is back this week and he had Dallas Goddard come back last week. That helps, but he is not moving the needle as a runner anymore. He has one touchdown run this season. He had 46 rushing yards in week one, since then he's averaged 15.3 rushing yards per game. And I hate to tell people this, the Tush push is gone. Like that is not coming back. This Eagles offensive line is a mess. Lane Johnson retired, Cam Jurgens got traded. The Eagles are starting a bunch of rookies. They cannot do the Tush push. You are not gonna get eight or nine freebie touchdowns out of Jalen Hertz this year. And when you don't have that, he is not a good enough pure passer to be a top 10 quarterback. So, I mean, I've got him QB 14. I think he's playable in the right situation, but I would not want to be leaning on Jalen Hertz as my QB1 the rest of the way. - Erickson, you're kind of co-signing this at QB 13, not as a QB1. This bill of goods, we were sold on like, oh, the offense is gonna change. And this and that. And it just, it looks the same inefficient and like, you know, no creativity, but then just add in like one of the worst offensive lines. So it's like, okay, how can it get much worse? And this is culminated into very early on in the season. First third of the season, it's already taken to be a not QB1. So Erickson talked to us about Hertz this week. - It's also not improving, right? Everything is getting worse for Jalen Hertz as the season progresses when you're thinking, oh, a new offense, things are gonna gel. Things can't gel when every single week, you're playing with less to work with. It's like every single week, oh, we're losing the solvents alignment or we're losing this receiver. Or what's the big challenge? His fantasy boys have gone down straight for five straight games. The rushing is not there. The online is broken. He still needs these weapons back. We still don't know if the launch is meant is going to be playing. I think the thing that's really interesting the most from this game and what happened last week with Hertz. So he averaged 2.53 seconds to throw against the Jaguars. It was the second quickest mark of his career. Despite that, he was pressured on 55% of his drop-axe. So like the fact that he's getting the ball as quick as humanly possible and he's still getting pressured on half or more than half of his drop-axe just goes to show like, dude, like he's working with everything he can. So I think that the, if you're trying to be bold with Hertz, it's like he just runs and you're just hoping that he turns back at the clock a little bit and just starts scrambling a lot and that's how he gets his fan's production. But to Fitz's point, like he's not getting the push, opportunities anymore. So he's got to be scoring from outside the one yard line on some of these plays. So that's why I think that he's a top 15 quarterback 'cause I can't just, he can still, he's still capable of us a rusher even though we didn't see it. And it hasn't been there consistently this season. But the Carolina Panthers aren't the worst defense in the world. I think it's Hertz really the debate is, do I play Hertz who I drafted as my fan's quarterback or I pick up a streamer this week? Like that is really the debate. And I think that if your roster allows you to pick up a streamer and use him over Hertz 'cause Hertz does have some upcoming matchups. I don't necessarily want to drop Hertz because I know that he has rushing ability and he will be getting some of these guys back and there are good matchups coming up. Again, Carolina this week, Dallas, the Nico after the command. Like, so I don't want to just like dump them off ahead of some of these good matchups. But if you have the roster space and you can pivot, I think that's probably the move 'cause there's nothing encouraging about what we've seen from this Eagles offense this year that suggests, oh yeah, did that hurt smash start even against a defense like Carolina? - Yeah, I mean, I'm even looking at some of the streamers just to throw out that two streamers come to mind. You've got Kirk Cousins, who's been like a top 12 fan as a quarterback going against Buffalo and he's ranked 14. And I know this is lower down there, but like Aaron Rogers is one we'd have a conversation about would either one of those guys Ericsson be players you'd be comfortable like trying to pick up and then just sitting Hertz. I'm gonna guess you probably have Rogers below Hertz and maybe Kirk Cousins is the answer, but is that like the range of what you're talking about streaming over Hertz? - Yeah, I think that Kirk Cousins, I'd feel comfortable doing that, assuming that I have the bandwidth on my roster. The thing with me is these guys are so closely ranked that I don't want a necessary sacrifice at roster spot that I may value more just for Kirk Cousins to score three more points than Jalen Hertz, right? That necessarily to me isn't enough of a reason to lose an extra roster spot and drop a running back receiver, et cetera, to pick up a second quarterback or something along those lines when Hertz, again, next week against Dallas, right? You're gonna want to probably play Jalen Hertz next week against the Dallas Cowboys. So that's why I'm hesitant to just tell people to drop him. - Right, Fitsy, just real quick. Cousins, Winston, Rogers, any of those guys, if you had the space to be able to pick up another quarterback, would you stream over Hertz this week? - The only one I have higher than Hertz is Winston, one spot higher. But as Erickson said, I'm not gonna drop a player to make that exchange to go to a quarterback I've ranked one spot higher. I mean, maybe Devonte Smith of Eastback this week, that makes a big difference. But yeah, it's been pretty. Like the Kevin Petillo, Sean Manion exchange, I keep thinking of the Alex Jones before and after picture with he looks the same, but just one version is 10 and the other is not like it's the same offense, man, it's terrible. - I like that one where it's like the guy standing here and then the after is him just standing behind, like further back in the house by the glass window and it just like that one makes me laugh. That's a good reference. Tyler Schuck, Tyler Schuck, by add last week. He comes in as QB10, he's got the Giants. You both are also not buying this. Jalen Hertz out looks like Tyler Schuck also kind of an out, Erickson, why don't you kick this off? I believe you have him at 14 was what we saw last week, a little bit what we're in for. Because I mean, there was a lot of like pass volume stuff and Chuck is a top 10 guy and there was kind of exposed last week and your rank signifies maybe your worry that that is going to continue. - Yeah, being compromised on the offensive line has been a big issue for the New Orleans Saints. Tyler Schuck has been under more pressure and I think they got to try to run the ball somewhat against a defense that can be beat on the ground with the New York Giants. Talk about Kendrick Miller on the running back show as a top 30 consensus play this week. Because I think that the Giants defense is going to take a play out of the Brian Flores approach here with blitzing. Since week three, when the Giants lost Brian Burns to a season ending knee injury, the Giants have blitzed on 58% of the drop-backs since week four, trailing only the Minnesota Vikings led by Brian Flores, the madman himself. Tyler Schuck against the blitz has been Buns. Five point four yards per attempt at six lowest, seven percent explosive pass play rate, that's second lowest. So you're not going to be generating these chunk plays when there are defenders in his face from the get-go. And that has been the case over the last couple weeks without Calvin Banks. So I think that this is a fringe spot for Schuck. Any game with Jamie Swinson on the other side and whether that's, I gotta check the forecast 'cause you gotta check all these with all these New York games and commanders, games playing in the rain. The forecast looks good. So there is only a chance that if this game gets fun from a Jamie Swinson Winston interceptions, both teams have, if they're putting certain circumstances, they will drop back the throw a ton. So I think there is a ceiling case for Schuck if things kind of get wacky, but in terms of like his meeting projection, I think that he is a little shaky and I think QB 10 is really buying more into, oh yeah, he's just gonna go back to being the upside case when I think there is actual risk here with Schuck again. - Fifty obviously. talk on the screen. but let me ask you, who would you rather start this week? Tyler Schuck or James Winston? I would start Winston. I've got America two spots higher. Over the last two games, Tyler Schuck has averaged 5.2 yards per pass attempts with one touched on past two interceptions. Now obviously, his performance against the Vikings last week really bad. He just melted like a grilled cheese sandwich against Brian Flores defense under 100 passing yards, two interceptions, but Schuck was not especially good in week four either against the past funnel Falcons defense that didn't have AJ Terrell, their best cornerback. Schuck has 286 yards against the Falcons in that game, but he needed to throw 48 passes to get there. And I really do think as Erickson alluded to the absence of Kelvin Banks, their young stud first round draft pick left tackle. Not having him out with his ankle injury, that's a problem against a team that can get after the pass or like the Giants can. Oh, Tyler Schuck and oh, James Winston. James Winston also getting multiple shoutouts here. Real quick, Fitsy, did you want to give any quick nugget because you've mentioned him a couple times. We did have him as a name we might have hit, but you've mentioned him starting him overhears and Schuck. Yeah, I don't want to get too overexcited about James Winston because we know the drill. He could get you 28 points or he could get you six because he throws four interceptions, but Winston has thrown three touchdown passes each of the last two games. And last week, the Giants after kind of managing him and not letting him be yellow, James, they cut him loose last week, 54 pass attempts. And James has been clicking with Malik neighbors and Isaiah likely both of those guys at 11 catches last week. And it's a pretty good matchup against the Saints. I know the Saints run defense has been atrocious. It ranks dead last in DVOA, but the New Orleans past defense ranks 27th in DVOA. It's just a bad all around defense. So wouldn't be surprised if James had another good game this week. Um, the final quarterback I want to hit here in the top 12 is Bryce Young. Not this is a quarterback that you guys have both higher than the consensus. He comes in at QB 12. He's going against the Eagles in the White receiver episode. I think we've kind of broken down some of what that looked like between Jalen cocker and Tederall McMillan and the Eagles defense here. But Erickson, you've got him in eight fits. He's got him at 11. Erickson talked us about Bryce Young here because it's a nice aggressive rank. You've got on him. He kind of liked both of those wide receivers. And obviously not only if we stick with the theme, he's starting over Schuck and Jalen Hurts, but you're starting him over quite a few players. So what's got you positive against with Bryce Young against the Eagles? I mean, Bryce Young has been playing lights out the best start to his NFL career. The best ball he's ever played in the NFL with the buy in. They're throwing them all more aggressively under the new play collar. And when he has Jalen cocker healthy and upright. This Carolina Panthers offense is absolutely cooking. If you look at with Jalen cocker on the field this season, nine yards per attempt. Second best in the NFL. So that can't be overstated how much having that extra receiver does for this offense. They're getting potentially key offensive lineman back this week. The Eagles are coming off a absolutely embarrassing loss internationally without a buy week against a team coming off of a buy week. This is one of these things that we look at from a betting perspective where you always bet against that team that played the international game and has to play at the next week, especially when the other team is playing off a buy. And they actually needed that buy week. Now you can make the argument. Okay, maybe this will cool off the hot start for Bryce Young. I don't think so, man. This Eagles defense is so overrated. 300 passing yards allowed back to back games. 7th and passing arts allowed per game this season. We talked about cocker and how he's going to absolutely cook in the slot against Cooper DeGene who has just not been the same type of guy in coverage this season. So Bryce Young, I don't I didn't know if he qualified as a streamer because I guess like he was on a buy week and maybe he got dropped and people not believing. I mean, it's real. And it's going to continue, especially has a good, I think this is a good matchup for him, honestly. So I get you see Eagles on the road and you think, oh, man, it's a kind of like a tough spot. I don't think so. Like from what we've seen from the Eagles defense and the Panthers offense this year, I'm giving the advantage all to Bryce Young and Carolina. So I like Bryce. That's why I'm QB8. Fizzy, what do you think about that offensive defensive adjustment here of the old Eagles defense being great, not looking good and giving the lean to the Carolina offense? What do you think about Bryce Young? You've got him at 11 one spot higher than ECR. Yeah, and I feel like I should almost be up where Erickson is. But the crazy thing is, well, if you would have asked me two months ago, six weeks ago on the eve of the season, where I thought I would have Bryce Young ranked in week six against the Eagles in Philadelphia, I would have said, how many teams on by that week four? That probably 26th or 28th. And now I've got him, I'm like trying to figure out ways to get him inside the top 10. Yeah, the Eagles just aren't a matchup to be feared like we thought they would be. I thought this would be one of the best defenses in the NFL and it's not anything close to that. And otherwise just cosine everything Erickson said, like he's QB three right now in fantasy points per game. And you know, they've had Dave canellis and Idzick have had a week to prepare an extra week to prepare with the buy going against a team that is coming off an international game. So yeah, I totally agree with what Erickson said. And I think I need to get my ranking up closer to where Erickson has him. All right, quarterback ranks, you guys can check out the full scope over on fantasy pros type in fantasy pro's ranks. And you can see all of them, especially if you're in super flex and some of the names you might be looking at streamers going to talk about tight ends. 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The bottom half, Dalton Kincaid, Travis Kelsey, Dallas Goddard, Joanne Johnson, Harold Fanon, and Brenton Strange. It's like about Travis Kelsey, coming off of the buy he comes in at tight end eight. Fitsy, you've got him at six. Erickson, you've got him at Reddit, ECR at eight. Fitsy, talk to us about Travis Kelsey, coming off the buy and expectations. He's just kind of right back into a good start. And you know what I'm really curious about in talking about this? Where does Travis Kelsey fit along the line of like, sit it and forget it type of tight ends? Is he the last line? And then it goes to guys like Goddard and Johnson? Or there are a few under Kelsey that are the core tight ends that you just feel about good about every single week? I think he's in the Senate and forget it, ranged just because he has not done anything enough to shake your confidence in him. Yet if you drafted him and hasn't like, had you thinking about streaming? Well, until last week until you maybe picked up a tight end. But then I don't know. I think he just go right back to Travis Kelsey. And I realized Kelsey has had five or fewer targets in three of us first four games. So the target volume hasn't been great. He did have the one big game where he had what nine catches for 101 yards and a touchdown against Indianapolis. And the cold stupid battered around by tight ends. So I just tightquan Thornton out for the year. Rishi Rice tweaked his hamstring in week four. I'm not sure what his status is going to be to not practice Wednesday. Yeah. So there you go. I mean, that's kind of why I was anticipating when I first did rankings. And I haven't really changed Kelsey since I first did rankings. But knowing that Rishi Rice might not be himself or might not even play this week, I think the the target outlook for Travis Kelsey is pretty good. Excellent. What do you think about Kelsey? And that line of like, does he belong in the core Titan group or does he follow along? Because you know, there's like the core guys. You just it's like, great. Then there's that next group. I kind of think John Johnson fits in that next group where you're like, we're cool. He's not like the best. And then there's the group of just like, oh, God, you know, is Kelly. I'll see in that core group or does he, does he belong closer to the John Johnson so the world? I think he's in that core group specifically for this spot. I mean, I think if it's hit the nail on the head talking about, he hasn't really done anything where you would kind of lose confidence in him. The targets have not been there the last couple of weeks, but now you have a reason to believe they'll bounce back if the receivers don't play. The fact that Roger Rice isn't practicing after a by-week, this dude's not playing, right? Like this is like so classic. If they don't play on Wednesday or practice on Wednesday when they had a full week off, they're probably not going to play. So unless we see any more information about it. So you can obviously make that decision, but right now I would move Kelsey up, probably closer where Fitz has him at six, just because the targets will now be there due to the lack of wide receivers, chargers, German James is not, he's hurt right now, so that would be the only reason you look at this maybe as a bad matchup, but he's not playing. So she can have his Kelsey, should see solid usage efficiency, he's not always going to rip off a lot of big plays after the catch like he's done for the most of the season, but as an older guy, 37 years old, coming off a by-week, he'll be fresh. So I think that this will probably be one of Kelsey's better games, just given the opportunity for targets. He's fresh, well rested, and it's a good matchup. The note by the way I see is not only did he not practice through the hamstring. This is from sleeper chiefs that Andy Reid said it could be a week, it could be two when talking about the hamstring issue. Yeah, that's less than optimistic, 100%. Speaking of that next group where they're good, but there's a little bit of level of uncomfortability, Harold Fanon, he comes in at Titan 11. You guys are both higher, it's is a four-star graded matchup against Baltimore, and Erickson wanted to kick us off, Harold Fanon disappeared a little bit, gets going with Watson, disappears again, where you at on the Baltimore matchup in Fanon for this week. So Fanon is one of the Titans that he doesn't feel like he's in the super trust tree, because it has been a little bit up and down type of performance with the Sean Watson as his quarterback, but he has paid off in some circumstances with the touchdowns, we know his role is elite. He plays all the snaps, he runs all the routes, he has one of the highest rock participation among Titans, which is honestly sometimes just enough for them to be productive. But now you have an avenue for him to actually see an uptick in targets, because I find very unlikely that Casey Conceptsion plays in this game after suffering a brutal concussion last week, and what does that open up in the offense underneath targets for Harold Fanon. If you look at the average up of target, but we'll grow with Fanon and Casey Conceptsion this season, they're nearly identical. So I think Fanon absorbs a lot of those short to intermediate looks that Ken Stepsion was getting, and this matchup is perfect for that. Teams don't throw the ball down, feeling it's the Ravens. Allegro 4.1% of opponents passing attempts have traveled at least 20 areas against the Baltimore Ravens. I mean Kyle Pitts was productive against the Ravens, if he could do it, then so could Harold Fanon. So I'm right at ECR, but I would not be surprised if he outdoes tie it into 11, and I think Fitz agrees with me because he has him higher. Yeah, Fitz, you got him at eight, so talk to us about your thoughts on Harold Fanon this week. Yeah, so I'm a little conflicted here about the matchup. On one hand, it seems like it would benefit Fanon to not have Casey Conceptsion in the lineup and have that enhanced Fanon's target outlook. The one thing I worry about is that the Ravens have a safety slash slot cornerback Kyle Hamilton, and I wonder if maybe with no Conceptsion, the Ravens just kind of have Hamilton on Fanon for a lot of this game. And obviously there are a lot of things you can do with Fanon to try to move him around motion him or have him in a stack with some one of the receivers. I just, I worry about that matchup a little bit ultimately. It comes down to me thinking that Fanon is just awesome at football and I want him inside my top 10. Not so awesome at football at least this year is the final tight and we're going to talk about one you don't see on the top 12, close to leveling. Erickson has been rolling over the touchdowns for Jamir Gibbs on BP and it's been a really fun thing. If you've rolled over, this is the week for Colson Loveland to break out. You're going to continue having to roll it over and the payoff has not been there. Will it ever be there? He is ECR 14 this week. Fitsy, you are the optimistic share with the head shake. You got him a 10, but it doesn't happen. It's just not happening. It's not a thing. Loveland has not been a thing for five weeks. You have him at tight in 10 so his week six, finally the Colson Loveland week. Yeah, I feel like I have to play back some of the highlights from the late last season or remind myself how good Colston Loveland was in those games that I wasn't just hallucinating him, catching all these passes and just rampaging through secondaries over the latter part of the Bears schedule. So I'm ranking him in the top 10 at tight and 10 based on the assumption that Caleb Williams is back this week against the Falcons in their extreme past funnel defense. The Falcons are still facing the highest pass rates of any team basically offense is throwing on the Falcons nearly 70% of the time. If Caleb is not back, I'm probably going to have Loveland ranked more where Erickson has him because we saw last week any the pretense about Tyson Baygent being one of the top 32 quarterbacks in the league. Probably not true. I think we can dismiss that little myth after what we saw in Green Bay last week, but yeah, if Caleb's back though, I've still I'm going to have Loveland inside the circle of trust this week. Erickson, he's not in your circle of trust. He is 14 so talk to us obviously there doesn't seem to be a lot of optimism here. Let me add you this is 14 to high for Colston Loveland. Not with four teams on by in the fact that he does play all the snaps runs all the routes because that's sometimes all you need a tight end and he is a positive touchdown regression candidate, right? There are so many times you can be tackled at the one yard line and be so close to a touchdown and then it gets reversed. He's seeing a decent chunk of red zone targets and net zone targets, so it is very possible that he could bail you out with a touchdown. I think that's more likely to happen with Caleb Williams under center. I'm just less optimistic about cables actually playing in this game, especially when the Patriots or excuse me the bears have a quick turnaround and have to play on Thursday night I believe against the Patriots. So I think that they're going to hold Caleb Williams out for one more week and maybe Loveland can turn around there. But I want to see it for his man like it's been so bad like and he's played it's not for a lack of snaps or routes. It's he's not getting targeted in the one game that played in full with Caleb Williams. That was going to be his worst game of the year when he did absolutely nothing. So I'm not so sure Caleb Williams will be his night in shining armor. Ericson, Britain Strange is ranked 12 on ECR, not with a great matchup. Do you coastline Britain starting Britain Strange over Colston Loveland? Yes, because Trevor Lawrence knows, Brent Strange is on the team and we'll throw on the ball. There you go. There's your Colston Loveland. There's your tight ends. There's your quarterbacks. Those are the ranks. Go to fantasy pros. Download the app. Get locked in. Sink whether you are optimizing your best lineup for the week. Maybe you want to check out the trade tool and you know, you got questions that maybe we're not live for. You want to say who am I starting? We got you covered there, powered by all of all of the data here at fantasy pros and the experts. Make sure you download the app. Go to fantasy pros. Check out the ranks. If you want to follow along with what we've done here and hopefully this gets you guys set up. We've got more for you from live streams on the start and sit all the way up until Sunday before kickoff. We got you covered for some of the start and sit. So make sure you come and hang out with us. It's going to do it, though, for the quarterback in Titan ranks episode four, Pat Fitzmore and Andrew Erickson. I'm Chris Welch. Good luck this week. And we'll talk to you next time right here on fantasy pros. 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