2021 NFL Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 4: Quarterbacks

Carr has been amazing this season. He’s thrown for 1,203 passing yards and is just the fourth player in the Super Bowl era to throw for more than 1,200 yards through three games. Carr and Kurt Warner are the only guys who have done it for teams that have started 3-0. The Raiders also went to the Super Bowl the last time they started 3-0. Derek had 386 with two touchdowns in the Raiders win on Sunday. He has two overtime wins, and while you don’t get fantasy points for that, a lot of you like to pretend that he’s not good. You all remind me of the people who say stuff like, “I don’t get Kenny Omega.” That doesn’t make you look as smart as you think it does. 

I will get a Slack message from my producer from the Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em Show (watch it on YouTube), asking me if it’s really helpful to talk about Stafford. I understand that. But in a lot of my home leagues (including my league of record) Stafford was drafted as a second quarterback. I know my friend Doug Dipaolo left him on the bench last week. And look, I’m not going to sit here and try to justify this to you. I think we’re good on Stafford being your starter the rest of the way. I know some might not play him, fearing a letdown against the Cardinals this week. But the Rams smoked the Cardinals twice last year, including a game when the Cardinals needed a win last year in Week 17.

Cousins is playing great. He’s the only quarterback in the NFL with at least eight touchdown passes on zero interceptions this season. His passer rating of 118.3 is the best of his career. He’s the sixth player over the last 25 seasons with a completion percentage above 70 percent with at least eight touchdowns and zero picks. You know, I honestly don’t love this matchup, but Cousins has been great. He’s the QB5 on the season, so I know this might be kind of an obvious pick (or not, he’s still sort of weirdly available). But here’s my thing with Cousins: I know he’s going to have a week when he lets us down. I’m going to play through it. There’s not a lot of quarterbacks with streaming options that I have to pick. So I’m cool with it.  

The Eagles were dominated on Monday night, and you know what, Jalen still had a pretty good fantasy day despite the two picks. He also said the right things in the postgame pressers, so I’m fine rolling with him again. The Chiefs have been one of the worst teams against the pass this season, which is kind of a surprise. I do expect them to turn it around at some point. Maybe it’s even this week. But if you’ve been playing Jalen, you need to stick with him. I honestly expect him to be a bit better, too. I mean, I don’t know what in the name of Matt Nagy the Eagles were doing on Monday night. Why aren’t these coaches rolling out these young quarterbacks? 

I mean, it is a Kevin Stefanski REVENGE GAME. Although I don’t know why he’d be mad at the guy who helped him a big break in the NFL. This is expected to be one of the highest-scoring games on the weekend. You might have seen the Browns on Sunday vs. the Bears and come to the conclusion they have the greatest defense of all-time. You can score on them, however, which means the Browns should have to keep pace with the Vikings. I honestly don’t feel super convinced of this, but I’m not going to insult you by listing Tom Brady, Kyler Murray or players like that. I was already pushing my luck with Matthew Stafford earlier, but I do have Baker in the top 16. I would rather start him over a guy like Matt Ryan, who is playing better and has a great matchup on paper (the Football Team has allowed the most fantasy points to QBs this year). But that FT defensive line should get after Ryan pretty good. 

If you didn’t read my words to open this piece, let’s just go back to the basics. Anytime you like a quarterback and the entire internet community rallies around that player -- run. Like Tony Benedict once told Rusty Ryan, “Run and hide (expletive). Run and hide. If you should be picked up next week buying a $100K sports car in Newport Beach I’m going to be supremely disappointed.” I do want to point out the Saints defense is no joke. Turns out, Aaron Rodgers isn’t bad and the Saints shut him down in Week 1. 

The Packers, you might be shocked to find out, have allowed the sixth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season. Obviously there was a large Week 1, and there is no doubt going to be a Steelers bounce-back game. We think. Roethlisberger can’t be this washed, right? Like there is still a champion down there some place? The Packers coming off a huge win might lead to a trap game, so it's fine if you want to start one of the receivers. I just can’t trust Roethlisberger when there are so many other options.

This one is a bit risky, because, well, Tannehill has been risky this season. He was a darling of draft season but he’s thrown for just 756 passing yards this season, his fewest in his first three games since 2018. Tannehill did throw three touchdowns on Sunday (to dudes who helped absolutely nobody) but the one thing I really loved was the rushing. He ran for a career-high 56 yards against the Colts. Here’s also something that’s a little weird: The Jets have allowed the third-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks. I love the way Tannehill is playing. He’s a good quarterback. I just don’t see the fantasy points there.

Let’s talk about what we’re seeing out of Jameis. He’s had some great games, where he throws a bunch of touchdowns but doesn’t have any yards. This might be the Jameis we get moving forward, and it’s fine. We can remember the good times of when he was wildly throwing the ball all over the field. Honestly, we got a glimpse of that in Week 2 against the Panthers. This is a great matchup, but Jameis has failed us in great matchups before. I’m probably not going to risk starting him until the bye weeks.  

Huge fan of Teddy B. This is a note for all the Broncos fans: You’re 3-0. I don’t care who you have played, that’s tough to do in the NFL, so enjoy it. I see this game being a bit more low scoring, so I’m going to resist going with Teddy. Although I have him in a super-flex league, so I might not have a choice. I’m going to hold off.