Wednesday, August 10, 2016

2016 Fantasy Football QB Rankings (1-5)

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The Quarterback position is in my opinion one of the deepest and probably the most important position in fantasy football. They usually aren't the first selected, but they are an key element and selecting the right one is critical for success. The talent and quality level of your QB is basically your baseline for your team. Especially in deeper leagues with multiple Quarterbacks. So who are the top Quarterbacks to target in your upcoming fantasy football draft? I have listed my Top 5 below:

1. Aaron Rodgers - Rodgers is the best Quarterback in the NFL and you don't have to look far why to see why, either. He is a big time player with a big time arm. Rodgers have a dangerous group of weapons and he doesn't make many mistakes. Even if in a down year (on film), he still posted awesome numbers. In 2015, he posted 3821 yards (on 347 of 572) with 31 Touchdowns and 8 Interceptions. So statically speaking, those are pretty respectable numbers overall. Probably somewhere just inside the top 15 overall as a Quarterback. So why did he struggle and will it be different in 2016? He struggled because he didn't have his favorite target in Jordy Nelson and none of his receivers could create distance from the defenders. But really the players he worked with were either inexperience (such as Cobb, Janis, Adams,etc) or declining in age (Such as James Jones). Not a great combo, when everyone expect dominating numbers. You can expect Aaron Rogers to be one of the top scorers in fantasy football once again in 2016.

2. Cam Newton - Newton had best year of his career in 2015 and that was without his star Wide Receiver in Kelvin Benjamin. Add in weapons like Greg Olsen, Devin Funchess and Kevin Norwood. Obviously having a staggering guy like Kelvin Benjamin alone makes Cam Newton's passing potential pretty good, but having Greg Olsen as well is kinda unfair. Those two players gives Cam a elite 1-2 punch. That doesn't even take into the fact how effective Cam can be with his legs. Last season he posted the most fantasy points among Quarterbacks (28.5 per game/ 455.5 TFPs - Per FFToday based scoring). Through the air, he went 296 of 496 on 3837 yards with 35 Touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also racked up 636 rushing yards and 10 Touchdowns. How much did his rushing ability contribute to being the highest scoring Quarterback? Well he was ranked 16th among starting Quarterbacks last season in passing yards. In fact, only 3 players among the top 10 highest scoring Quarterbacks rushed for more than 150 yards. Another amazing fact? Among the top 10 highest scoring Quarterbacks, the other nine players had a combined 14 rushing Touchdowns. Kirk Cousins had 5 of those 14 by the way. So the other 8 players had a combined 9 rushing touchdowns. His legs takes him to a whole new level.

3. Russell Wilson - If I were drafting a team right now, Russell Wilson would be at top of my draft board as my primary pick. Why? Well, if there was such thing as a safe fantasy pick then he would be it. He doesn't have a injury history to start off. Then he is just a reliable fantasy pick overall. Since entering the league in 2012, he have not threw more than 10 interceptions in a season and have threw least 25 Touchdown passes in 3 of 4 seasons. He threw 20 touchdowns in 2013, but he also had his lowest interception total (7) that season as well. He also is a very effective rusher,too. He have ran for 500+ yards in 3 straight seasons, however he posted 12 rushing touchdowns in 4 seasons though. On the plus side, he have improved his total TFPs (total fantasy points) and points per game in every season. In 2012, he was averaging 20.8 points per game. Last season, he averaged 24.9 points per game. With all of that said, I do think the pressure will be more on Russell Wilson with no more Marshawn Lynch. However, I am not worried about that too much. I expect Russell to step and take his game to the next level. He has enough talent around him to be a elite Quarterback and continue posting strong numbers.

4. Big Ben - Not sure if this is too high of a ranking for Big Ben as he have dealt with some injuries over the past few seasons, but he is definitely capable of backing up this ranking. He known for a big time arm and finding the league's best Wide Receiver in Antonio Brown. Last season he posted 3933 yards with 21 Touchdowns and 16 interceptions. Last season was his second highest number of turnovers of his career (he threw 23 interceptions back in 2006). However, he matched his career-high 23.6 fantasy points per game. What season did he match? 2014. He had a career-year that season with nearly 5000 yards and 32 touchdowns. If he didn't miss those 4 games last season, he probably would have came close to posting 5000 yards and 30 Touchdowns. Honestly I feel like most fantasy players out there will overlook Big Ben for some reason. A lot of players in your draft will let him slip to the later rounds, due to there some many options out there who are more of a ''sexy product''. If Big Ben slip past the 6th or 7th round in my draft, you can bet I am taking him with a smile on my face.

5. Andrew Luck - Luck is coming off multiple injuries during the 2015 season where he struggled to stay healthy and eventually got sent for to the IR in a messy Indianapolis season. Last season, many people considered him to be a top 2 Quarterback headed into the season. And for good reason, as in first few years in the league he was one of the most serviceable fantasy picks in the game. In his first three years in the league, he have averaged 4000+ yards and 28 Touchdowns with roughly 300 yards rushing as well per season. And he's still developing as a Quarterback, so he will only get better as the seasons goes by. Obviously he has major upside, if he can stay healthy. However, that remains a question mark in my opinion. Why? Well for starters, the offensive line is still pretty concerning to me. I know the Colts will do everything they can to make sure Andrew can stay upright. But I still question why they gave away their 2nd Round pick in May to Green Bay. Both teams were in need of depth and Jason Spriggs is going to be something special as a Tackle in this league (in my opinion). Of they added some depth in the draft anyhow, but still I would have kept the 48th overall pick and took a guy like Spriggs. So how will Luck do in 2016? If he stays healthy, I would say around 3800-4200 yards, 30-34 Touchdowns, roughly 15 interceptions and about 275 rushing yards.

Twitter - @WilliamFrang