The NFL Rank ‘Em Up: #24-21 QBs
When a quarterback (or any player for that matter) comes out of nowhere and starts playing the best ball of his life, it’s an extremely gratifying feeling. Especially if that guy was on your team before the big turnaround. This sort of thing happened last year when I correctly predicted that Arian Foster, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, and LeGarrette Blount would all be huge, and I had all of them (one on three different teams). One quarterback on this list made that jump last season.
Last year, Carson Palmer, my #24 quarterback, was the king of garbage time. Some of his best games were in losing efforts. Like in Week 4, when he went for 371 yards and had a passer rating of 121.4, but still lost to Cleveland. Or in Week 7, when he threw for a season high 412 yards and an-almost season high three touchdowns in a loss to Atlanta. If he can find a team that will employ him other than the Bengals, he may not lead them to wins, but he’ll light up the air.
At #23, we have David Garrard. I actually feel a little bad for David Garrard. He’s been a perfectly good quarterback for the majority of his career, but with Blaine Gabbert on the roster, the pressure has got to be on for Garrard. However, I think that unless the Jags start to get really desperate to sell tickets, Garrard will be the starter for the entire season. At least, that would be the smart approach. Like I said in the Gabbert piece, the only reasons Blaine Gabbert should start this season would be if either Garrard gets injured, or Garrard plays the worst football of his life.
It’s too bad that most fantasy football leagues don’t award points for wins, because if they did, Mark Sanchez wouldn’t be 22nd. He would probably be in the top 10, and maybe higher. Half the time, it seems like the Jets win in spite of him, rather than because of him. I’m not saying the Sanchez is a bust or anything like that. But I think that this is going to be a make-or-break season for the Sanchise. Yes, the Jets rely on an extremely conservative offense, but that may be because the Jets don’t want to rely of Sanchez. If he continues to stagnate the way he has, the Jets will need to take a good long look at whether or not Sanchez is actually the quarterback of the future for the Jets.
Who saw Ryan Fitzpatrick coming? Seriously, the first time I saw him in his rookie season for the Rams, he was one of the worst quarterbacks I’d ever seen. And when he joined the Bills in ’09, I though their idea was that they were going to combine him, Trent Edwards and Brian Brohm into one halfway decent quarterback. Then, after Trent Edwards failed to live up to the Bills’ meager quarterback expectations, Fitzpatrick came in, and all of a sudden, it just clicked. And it really shouldn’t have, since they lost #2 receiver Roscoe Parrish. But a revival of Lee Evans and the unexpected breakout of Stevie Johnson made the Harvard grad a star in the making. He’s easily the best quarterback the Bills have had since Drew Bledsoe, and the first true long-term solution at quarterback since Jim Kelly left. So, why is he only #21? Well, he does tend to take games off, but as long as he keeps the Bills competitive enough for their defense to win some games, the Bills will be OK with him.
In the next article, we have two quarterbacks who are on the same team. For now…
Feeling Drafty #3: Buffalo Bills
The Harvard-grad, Ryan Fitzpatrick kept Buffalo competitive and had a breakout year, enough to earn Buffalo Team MVP honors.
When a team’s performance is undermined by the team’s record, that could potentially be a positive down the road. That means most of the pieces are there, the team just needs to stop blowing games (see last year’s Chiefs). The Buffalo Bills have a fairly potent offense that can win games, they just need some playmakers on the defense to make themselves a contender in the AFC East.
The Bills had a knack this season of taking great teams to the limit. They lost by eight to New England, three to Baltimore, three to Kansas City, three to Chicago, and three to Pittsburgh. And not many teams were able to put up the 49 points that Buffalo racked up against Cincinnati.
Their offense is pretty good. Ryan Fitzpatrick had a nice season, especially when you consider his last five seasons with St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Buffalo. He established career highs in games started (13), completions (255), attempts (441), passing yards (3,000), passing TDs (23), and passer rating (81.8). Fred Jackson backed up his 2009 breakout season with a respectable 927 yards, while putting up career highs in TDs, and 20+ yard runs. Stevie Johnson had a breakout season of his own, going for 82 receptions, 1,073 receiving yards, and 10 TDs. And going for 1,000 receiving yards in Buffalo isn’t an easy task; it’s only been done three times since 2003.
It's sort of odd that the team's MVP is the same position as their projected first round pick, but that's the case with Cam Newton.
But, unfortunately, Fitzpatrick may not have done enough to keep his job intact. With the NFL’s “win now” philosophy and the fact that Buffalo hasn’t had a big star that could attract people to Ralph Wilson Stadium since Thurman Thomas. The Bills will probably pick up Auburn QB Cam Newton. Let’s recap this guy’s last season at Auburn. 6’6″, 250 lbs., 4.42 in the 40 yard dash, 2,854 passing yards, 30 touchdowns, seven picks, along with 1,473 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground, and one Heisman Trophy. Absolutely crazy.
It’s not likely that Cam Newton will fall past this point, so about ten teams will leave the first round disappointed (most notably Cincy, who is right after Buffalo, and Minnesota, who need a replacement to Brett Favre). If Cam Newton can be the same guy he was at Auburn, we could be looking at one of the most exciting players in NFL history. Personally, I think that Cam will either get hurt or limit the exciting runs like all dual-threat college quarterbacks do when they enter the NFL, but, hey, that’s just me thinking.
My Fantasy Football World 