Fantasy Football: Week 2 QB Rankings
Kevin Hanson joins SI for the 2019 season. His fantasy rankings have placed him in the Top 20 in each of the past two seasons among all the industry experts tracked by FantasyPros.com, and he has been in the Top 25 in six of the past eight years.
Check out more of Kevin’s rankings: RB, WR, TE, flex, DST and kicker.
Every week I feature a player that I like and a player I dislike, and this week’s quarterbacks play in the same game.
QB Start of the Week – Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens
First off, things shouldn’t be as easy as they were last week for Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson. While it may not be “easy," the second-year signal-caller gets another plus matchup in Week 2.
Last week against Miami, Jackson completed 85% of his passes for 16.2 yards per attempt and one of every four attempts went for a score. In fact, his five touchdown passes on Sunday—in less than 60 minutes—were only one shy of his rookie total and equal to the five touchdowns he threw in his seven 2018 regular-season starts combined.
Arizona may not have much success against Baltimore’s stingy defense (see below), but the pace of play could lead to more than the 20 passes and three rush attempts Jackson had last week. Although the game went into overtime and ended in a tie, the Cardinals (82) and Lions (80) finished No. 1 and 2 in offensive plays run in Week 1.
Not only do the Cardinals play fast, but their defense will continue to miss suspended All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson and they allowed 385 passing yards and three touchdowns to Detroit’s Matthew Stafford last week. The Ravens are nearly two-TD home favorites and they have one of the three highest implied totals from Vegas odds for the week.
Jackson may not throw for five touchdowns again, but there is enormous upside and he’s my second-ranked quarterback heading into Week 2.
QB Sit of the Week – Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals
The other quarterback in this game, Kyler Murray, had a productive fantasy outing in his regular-season debut, but he’s a “sit” for me this week.
Last week’s game went into overtime, but Murray threw it a league-high 54 times to finish with 308 yards, two touchdowns and a pick. He added 13 rushing yards. The No. 1 overall pick got off to a slow start, but he scored 22.6 fantasy points to finish the week as fantasy’s QB11. That’s the good news.
Given the difficult matchup against the Ravens on Sunday, it’s unlikely that the rookie has another productive fantasy outing.
The Ravens allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks in 2018. While I noted that the Ravens have an implied total in the top three, the Cardinals are one of just three NFL teams with implied totals of 17 points or less.
Below are my Week 2 fantasy football quarterback rankings:
• QB1: Patrick Mahomes, KC @ OAK
• QB2: Lamar Jackson, BAL vs. ARI
• QB3: Deshaun Watson, HOU vs. JAC
• QB4: Tom Brady, NE @ MIA
• QB5: Carson Wentz, PHI @ ATL
• QB6: Dak Prescott, DAL @ WAS
• QB7: Cam Newton, CAR vs. TB
• QB8: Matt Ryan, ATL vs. PHI
• QB9: Jared Goff, LAR vs. NO
• QB10: Aaron Rodgers, GB vs. MIN
• QB11: Josh Allen, BUF @ NYG
• QB12: Baker Mayfield, CLE @ NYJ
• QB13: Drew Brees, NO @ LAR
• QB14: Ben Roethlisberger, PIT vs. SEA
• QB15: Russell Wilson, SEA @ PIT
• QB16: Derek Carr, OAK vs. KC
• QB17: Jameis Winston, TB @ CAR
• QB18: Philip Rivers, LAC @ DET
• QB19: Andy Dalton, CIN vs. SF
• QB20: Matthew Stafford, DET vs. LAC
• QB21: Kyler Murray, ARI @ BAL
• QB22: Marcus Mariota, TEN vs. IND
• QB23: Jimmy Garoppolo, SF @ CIN
• QB24: Mitch Trubisky, CHI @ DEN
• QB25: Kirk Cousins, MIN @ GB
• QB26: Jacoby Brissett, IND @ TEN
• QB27: Case Keenum, WAS vs. DAL
• QB28: Trevor Siemian, NYJ vs. CLE
• QB29: Eli Manning, NYG vs. BUF
• QB30: Joe Flacco, DEN vs. CHI
• QB31: Gardner Minshew, JAC @ HOU
• QB32: Ryan Fitzpatrick, MIA vs. NE
• QB33: Taysom Hill, NO @ LAR
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