The QB position in the NFL is by far and away the most important, but in fantasy football that isn’t exactly the case. The majority of the experts tell you to wait on a QB (including me) and some will tell you to stream QBs for the entire season and skip even drafting a QB at all. The following list of players are currently being drafted as QB2s in most fantasy drafts, but are guys that I think could end up in the top ten by the end of the year.
2016 Fantasy Football Sleepers: QB Edition
Kirk Cousins, Redskins – Expert Consensus Rank (ECR) 18
Living in the DC area as I do, when I look at what he did last year, I can’t understand why Cousins is ranked so low. He had 4166 yards passing with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. That’s not too shabby in its own right but he also rushed for five TDs.
He was the only QB in the NFL to pass for at least one TD in every game last year… let me repeat that… Kirk Cousins, not Tom Brady, not Drew Brees, not Aaron Rodgers, was the only QB to throw a TD pass in all 16 games in 2015 — if that doesn’t get you excited, there’s more.
He ended the season strong, in fact, in the final three games of the season he threw for 11 of his 29 TDs, and two of those games had playoff implications, so he showed he can play well under pressure. Going into 2015, cutting out his mistakes was something the NFL experts pointed to as something he needed to improve upon. After his Week 6 two interception game verse the Jets, he only threw three INTs for the rest of the season!
Now he enters the training camp as the unquestioned starter, something he has never done in his short NFL career. This is his team and he knows it. I’m looking for a big season from The Captain, so if waiting on a QB is your thing (and it should be) then Cousins could be a late round steal.
Jameis Winston, Buccaneers – ECR 16
Winston is another guy that when I look at his numbers, I can’t figure out why he is being drafted so low. He started slowly in his rookie season, so slow in fact some pundits wondered if Marcus Mariota would have been the better option for the Bucs to take with the No. 1 overall pick.
Despite his slow start, he ended the season as the 13th overall fantasy QB. In fact, if you took his last eight games and added up his fantasy points (183) and extrapolate that over an entire season, he would leap up to QB No.8, one point shy of Eli Manning at No. 7. You have to expect him to be even better with a full year under his belt so a top ten finish isn’t too hard to imagine.
Ryan Tannehill, Dolphins – ECR 21
This is my first true risk as a sleeper QB, and maybe it’s my attempt to save face after I pumped him up all offseason last year, and proceeded to draft him in three of my four leagues. Tannehill regressed last year, that much is clear, but one can’t ignore the progress he was making in his previous three years, so I’m not going to give up hope just yet.
I’m going to chalk it up to bad coaching and give Tannehill one more chance. One major stat that was glaringly missing from his numbers last year were his rushing yards and attempts. He had nearly half as many attempts and half the yards as he did in 2015. Maybe it was the coaches telling him not to run, maybe he thought himself too valuable to risk getting injured, but whatever the reason, I expect it to change in 2016.
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Tannehill has the receiving options to be successful, and if RB Jay Ajayi can take a step forward in his development as expected, the Dolphins, and new head coach Adam Gase, might be able to turn Tanny into a viable fantasy QB — finally.
Matthew Stafford, Lions – ECR 19
The final QB on my short list of QB sleepers is Lions embattled QB Matthew Stafford. Many pundits are predicting his downfall now that Calvin Johnson has retired, but I don’t listen to pundits (what is a pundit anyway?) Stafford ended his season strong throwing for 15 TDs over the last six games of the season, which is nearly half of his entire season total.
Yes, losing Megatron is going to sting a little, but offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter is going to implement a shorter more control passing attack. The thought is, get the ball into the hands of their playmakers like Golden Tate and Ameer Abdullah and let them do all the work. I really think this type of offense will suit Stafford, and I was also just trying to work Jim Bob Cooter’s name into this article somehow. Mission accomplished.
Stafford ended the season as the No. 8 overall QB in 2015, but is being drafted as a fringe QB2 this year — that is a mistake. Stafford could easily end up right where he was this season, at No. 8, by the time the season ends.
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