Streaming Quarterbacks: Week 4 Targets

Sep 29, 2020

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I keep going back to Thursday night’s game.

I, along with most of the fantasy community, stared (screamed) at their screens as Gardner Minshew opened Week 3 with a 9.2-point outing. The weak outing caused many of us to revisit our process and try and identify any mistakes. Miami’s defense had allowed multiple scores in their previous games. Jacksonville’s offensive pace had increased after running just 46 plays in Week 1. Minshew was still rushing. D.J. Chark was announced out that morning, but all of the elements were there and the result highlights an important aspect of fantasy.

Other Week 4 Streaming Articles: TE | K | DST

Wins and losses ultimately define our season, but we should be confident in our decisions before and after the game. Similar to poker, you could hold the best starting cards and still lose a hand. Our job is to react to the information we’re given to make optimal decisions. With information coming throughout the week, we’ll need to continually make adjustments and shift our expectations. I’ll continue to update the plays with any relevant information with my thoughts as to how we approach the streamers. Now, let’s dive into the Week 3 review before we get into the Week 4 streamers.

Week 3 Review

The Miami-Jacksonville game was the right game to target. My focus was on the wrong side. We still came out of Week 3 with at least one QB1 performance, but we’ll need to go a bit deeper this week to find some more targets.

Top Streamers

Gardner Minshew – 9.2 pts (QB30)
Ryan Fitzpatrick – 25.2 pts (QB6)

Deep Play

Mitch Trubisky – 11.6 pts (QB26)
Justin Herbert – 14.7 pts (QB20)
Philip Rivers – 12.7 pts (QB25)

I discounted Chark’s inactive status as his target share didn’t reflect his 2019 usage. Chark was efficient on his touches, but Minshew had used almost 10 receivers the week before. I viewed the loss of Chark as minimal. I was wrong. Minshew’s aDOT dropped from 8.7 to 7.5 and 59.5% of his passes were five air yards or less. Chark may not have produced as a WR1 the previous two weeks, but he is Jacksonville’s alpha receiver.

Trubisky was benched in the second half and Nick Foles threw three touchdowns. While a starter for Week 4 hasn’t been named, the Bears host the Colts in Week 4 limiting any excitement to start either Chicago QB. Two pick-six interceptions limited Rivers’ day and a lost fumble plus an interception ruined a possible QB1 performance from Herbert. The game environments set up well for each and we’ll look for similar situations in Week 4.

Key Defensive Injuries

Week 3 wasn’t as bad as Week 2 on the injury front. Regardless, there was one that caught my eye that could help the outlook of our potential streaming targets. I’ll monitor their status and update my thoughts on our streaming targets as the week progresses.

Avonte Maddox (Eagles, Ankle) – Joe Burrow continuously picked on Maddox and his replacement (Trevor Williams) in Week 3. Maddox was consistently beaten by Tyler Boyd from the slot and Williams gave up the first touchdown to Tee Higgins in the second quarter. The Eagles had a tough time with interior passing concepts will have some trouble against San Francisco as Nick Mullens primarily looked to the middle of the field. While the Eagles’ strength remains their defensive front, their secondary will be tested against San Francisco even without some of their starters.