Fantasy Football Preview 2013: Top Sleeper Quarterbacks

4. Matt Schaub – Houston Texans (Overall ADP 169)

Matt Schaub is Kurt Warner circa 2006, the version who was losing games on botched center exchanges and getting benched for a milk carton with Matt Leinart’s face on it. Two years later, an aging and increasingly brittle Warner threw for 4,582 yards, 30 touchdowns, and led the Cardinals within seconds of a Super Bowl title.

Matt Schaub aired it out for 4,770 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2009, a couple years before everybody was doing it. He tied Peyton Manning for third place among fantasy quarterbacks and bested Tom Brady. If you don’t think Schaub has upside, it’s just because the Texans subsequently allowed their receiving weapons to decay at an unprecedented rate.

In 2012 Matt Schaub averaged 9.9 yards per attempt when throwing to Andre Johnson and 5.0 YPA when throwing to everybody else. On passes to wide receivers he finished with eight touchdowns and nine interceptions. Lest you think this is entirely Schaub’s fault, he managed a 14-2 TD-INT ratio when throwing to backs and tight ends. The Schaub of 2012 was a poster child for the half-life of organizational negligence.

Those days are over. Schaub’s savior has arrived and his name is DeAndre Hopkins.