Fantasy Football: Cam Newton or Carson Palmer
By Dave Fuqua
Who Do I Start: Cam Newton or Carson Palmer
We are rolling on with our series called ‘Who Do I Start?’. This week my conundrum is a quarterback battle and it involves Cam Newton and Carson Palmer. The league is a 12 team PPR league which really the PPR does not matter, but the passing touchdowns are also weighted at six instead of the standard four.
Cam Newton started off week one with a pretty bad week. In this particular league he wound up with 14.5 fantasy points against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Then in week two he picked up his game against the Houston Texans and had 31.4 fantasy points. In both games he threw for close to the same yards with a 175 yard week one total and 195 yard week two total. The biggest difference in his jump from week one points to week two is that he threw for an extra TD and ran for an extra TD. He also managed to double his rushing yards from 35 to 74 on four less carries.
Carson Palmer has been a steady performer and finds himself as the #2 overall QB in that league at this early stage of the season. On paper it probably seems that given his early consistency he would be the more logical choice to be my starter this week. However I am not so sure that is how I will proceed as we now look at Palmer’s stats and the match-ups for both players. Palmer has had a 31.7 points fantasy game in week one and a 29.2 fantasy points game in week two. In week one he threw for 307 yards and three TDs, but in week two that dropped to 185 yards while improving to four TDs.
Newton is lining up at home against the New Orleans Saints who are currently listed as #28 overall in giving up fantasy points to quarterbacks. The Saints have a pretty lackluster pass defense so this could be the week Newton finally puts together a solid passing day. We can rest fairly certain that he will be a typical producer with his legs and if he can manage around 250 yards and two TDs through the air which is roughly what the Saints average giving up then Newton should make for a great fantasy play in week three.
Palmer gets to face off with the San Francisco 49ers at the Cardinals home stadium. The 49ers were just ripped by Big Ben Roethlisberger and chances are that they will be ripe for the picking against the Cardinals high-powered offensive attack. This is going to be a very tough decision and for me I think it is gong to come down to the fact the when you use Cam Newton it is almost like you are starting a QB and a RB in one player. Both players are probably going to have excellent weeks and I would use either player in Fanduel leagues, but in this league I will roll with Newton and hope to see him possibly rack up a 250 yard passing, 75 yard rushing and maybe three to four total touchdown kind of day.
As always we thank you for stopping by and wish you fantasy footballers the best of luck!!