In all four games he started and finished for the Chicago Bears last season, Brian Hoyer topped 300 passing yards and he had two passing touchdowns in each of the first three. He also did not throw an interception, and was a fantasy QB1 as a top-12 finisher in three of those four weeks. But a broken arm ended his season early.
Hoyer landed with the San Francisco 49ers in free agency, where he will reunite with Kyle Shanahan. Hoyer had his best season with the Cleveland Browns in 2014, with Shanahan as offensive coordinator, setting career-highs in starts (13), yard (3,326), yards per attempt (7.6) and yards per completion (13.7; a league high).
The 49ers are expected to be bad again this year, as Shanahan and general manager John Lynch embark on a rebuild. Matt Barkley (who took a turn as the Bears’ starting quarterback last year too) and rookie C.J. Beathard are the only competition for the starting job, and Shanahan was quick to name Hoyer the starter way back in April.
Hoyer had at least 43 pass attempts in three of his four starts last season, and his fantasy value lies strictly as a volume play. If (when) San Francisco is trailing in games by more than one score in the second half, he’ll be putting the ball in the air plenty. Fantasy owners don’t have to apologize for garbage time production, which has made someone as bad in real life as Blake Bortles useful over the last couple years.
Hoyer is not draftable outside the biggest and deepest of leagues. But he is shaping up to be a solid DFS or streaming option when the matchup warrants consideration, and when it’s all said and done he could flirt with QB2 production in 12-team leagues.
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