Fantasy Football Week 6 waiver wire: Top 5 Quarterback pickups
Michael Vick and Matt Ryan are off the board for this week while Eli Manning and Joe Flacco continue to struggle. Those are just some of the reasons that fantasy football owners are searching on the waiver wire for quarterback options this week as the NFL hits week 6.
To help you strike waiver wire gold, here are the top 5 QB’s available in over half of ESPN leagues who are worth a look on the waiver wire. They’re listed in the rough order that I would pick them up in most formats. The Percentages in parentheses are the ESPN ownership as of Tuesday night.
If you have a team-specific question drop it in the comments at the bottom of the page or find me @ZT_Sports on twitter, and I’ll do my best to help you out with your roster calls.
1. Terrelle Pryor-Oakland Raiders (32.5%)
I’ve spent all last week driving the Pryor bus, and he paid off Sunday night as he threw for 221 yards and a pair of scores while adding 31 yards on the ground. Perhaps even more impressively, he threw only five incompletions as he kept the Raiders moving against San Diego all night long while leading them to a win. This week, Pryor’s matchup isn’t quite as good as the Chargers as he travels to Kansas City to face the Chiefs who allow the sixth most fantasy points per game to opposing QB’s. Pryor isn’t quite a top ten option this week due to the matchup, but he’s still the best widely available option for this week.
2. Geno Smith-New York Jets (5.0%)
Smith led his Jets to a huge Monday Night win, but his overall numbers weren’t great. He finished with 199 yards passing and 21 yards rushing but he did avoid turnovers and threw three passing touchdowns. He’ll be on a short week this week and will come back against a Pittsburgh defense out for blood after starting 0-4. Smith is a solid option if Pryor is gone, but his turnover rookie season still makes me a little hesitant to go all in against Dick LeBeau and the Steelers.
3. Chad Henne-Jacksonville Jaguars (0.4%)
Henne will get the start for the Jags as they keep Blaine Gabbert out with a hamstring issue. Henne has had some nice games in the last few years when he’s filled in for Gabbert, and takes on the Broncos in Denver. The Broncos will score a ton, but their pass defense is beatable as we saw last week with Tony Romo’s huge game. Henne probably won’t be anywhere near those numbers, but I think he’ll end up in the top half of QB options this week since he’ll throw the ball so much and has some talent at WR with Cecil Shorts and Justin Blackmon.
4. Matt Schaub-Houston Texans (35.5%)
Sometimes you have to go against the flow in fantasy football. Everyone is all over Schaub and rightly so since he’s looked horrible the last few weeks racking up interception after interception and getting pulled from last week’s game against San Francisco. As long as he stays the starter, he’s actually in a nice matchup this week against the Rams who have allowed multiple passing TDs in every game this season. Last week, the Jags even had some success against their secondary, so it could be a nice bounce back week for Schaub and the Texans against a struggling D.
5. Nick Foles-Philadelphia Eagles (0.5%)
If all the other options on this list are off the table, rolling the dice with Foles in Chip Kelly’s up-tempo attack could pay off. This week the Eagles are in Tampa where the Bucs are coming off a bye. It’s a high-risk play with so little track record, but Foles looked solid last week meaning the gamble could pay off
This list of QB’s is part of my weekly waiver wire focus. If you need further help constructing your team, check out my top ten waiver wire picks of the week as well as my top waiver targets at each of the following positions: RB, WR, TE, D/ST.