Fantasy Football rankings: 10 best quarterbacks for Week 3 of the NFL Season
By Leo Howell
Week 3 is almost here, and it’s time to start setting lineups and making sure you’re ready to win your fantasy matchup.
Every week, Fansided will bring you rankings compiled by our duo of fantasy experts. This week, the list was derived from averaging rankings from myself and Zachary Thompson.
Let’s take a look at the quarterbacks and how they rank for Week 3:
1. Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos
He’s Peyton Manning. He’s playing the Oakland Raiders. You know what to do.
2. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers
Aaron Rodgers has a slightly tougher matchup than Peyton Manning, which led to a bit of disagreement between Zach and I. But he’s still a great play, and if you have him, you’re starting him.
3. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
The Arizona Cardinals are no joke on defense, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers limited Drew Brees during Week 2. But there’s not a plethora of good matchups out there, and Brees has an unstoppable weapon at tight end which he used to tear apart a good Bucs’ defense. You have to trust Brees, even in a tougher matchup.
4. Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers
Kaepernick might be disappointed with his Week 2 performance, and he might be short one eyebrow, but he’s primed and ready to bounce back in Week 3. The Niners face Indianapolis this week, who are nowhere near as tough of a defense as the Seahawks. The Niners will likely win going away, but Kap will get points before San Francisco starts to run out the clock.
5. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles
As long as he’s healthy, you need to keep using Michael Vick as often as you can in every league and fantasy game you can. He faces Kansas City this week, who have a talented defense, but aren’t the dominating defense that will pose a threat to Vick’s fantasy value.
6. Tom Brady, New England Patriots
Brady has a fairly tough matchup with Tampa Bay this weekend, but he has enough talent to pick up 300 yards and a score like Drew Brees did against the Bucs. He’ll hope to avoid throwing the pair of interceptions Brees tossed against Tampa, and he falls outside the top 5 for a generally tough matchup against Revis and company.
7. Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions
Have you watched the Washington defense lately? Stafford is going to have plenty of chances to find Calvin Johnson against a porous Redskin pass defense.
8. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons
Ryan faces the Miami Dolphins this week, which worries me a bit, but doesn’t worry Zach at all. We disagree on where to rank him, but we agree that he’s a top-10 play this week at QB despite a fairly tough task against the Miami D.
9. Robert Griffin III, Washington Redskins
Zach doesn’t rank Griffin III as one of the 10 best quarterbacks this week, and I can’t blame him for his doubts. But the Lions aren’t a great defense, and RGIII at 60% is still good enough to score plenty of garbage time points as a limited pocket passer. Plus, you get the feeling that he’s going to turn it around eventually. Right?
10. Terrelle Pryor, Oakland Raiders
Finally I get the chance to include Pryor in the top 10! Pryor is one of the 10 best quarterbacks to play in fantasy every week, because his ability to run the football breaks the fantasy scoring system.
He is 2011 Tim Tebow, but with a better arm. Rushing yards and rushing scores earn more than passing yards and passing scores, so take advantage and use Pryor as your QB if you don’t have any of the options listed above.
Honorable Mention: Philip Rivers, Ryan Tannehill