Agree to Disagree: Quarterbacks fantasy football experts are split on this draft season
By Hayden Winks, Rotoworld
Special to Yahoo Sports
Today I’m going through some of the players that our writers are split on, beginning with quarterbacks. It’s a good exercise to see which situations are most uncertain. For a lot of players on these lists, it’s a combination of injuries and changes of scenery that cause the most debate, but in the end, we’re talking about a difference of a half dozen or so spots in positional ranks so we’re really just splitting hairs at this point into our offseason research.
Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
High: Patrick Daugherty (QB1), John Daigle (QB1), Hayden Winks (QB1)
Low: Josh Norris (QB2), Nick Mensio (QB2)
First off, Norris and Mensio aren’t actually “low” on Mahomes. Nobody is. It’s impossible, but this essentially is a debate between Mahomes and Lamar Jackson for the top quarterback spot. Lamar crushed Mahomes in fantasy points last season after setting the rushing record at quarterback and leading the NFL with 36 passing touchdowns, but more than half of the Rotoworld rankers believe in Mahomes’ floor (and ceiling) in 2020. I personally have them next to each other on my top-200 big board and am only drafting either quarterback if I have already drafted one of their teammates. For example, I’ll only draft Mahomes if I took Clyde Edwards-Helaire earlier, or Lamar if I’m within striking distance of Mark Andrews.
Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers
High: Nick Mensio (QB10), Patrick Daugherty (QB12)
Low: Hayden Winks (QB17), John Daigle (QB16)
This disagreement is pretty straight forward. Is Big Ben healthy? I’m not sure either side can be confident one way or the other, at least until we see how he progresses throughout actual training camp practices. If reports are positive then, I’ll start sliding Roethlisberger a few spots up in my rankings because the last time we saw him healthy, he threw for 5,129 yards and 34 touchdowns. Granted that was with Antonio Brown in black and yellow. For the same reasons, the Rotoworld staff is equally as split on JuJu Smith-Schuster this season.
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Daniel Jones, New York Giants
High: Patrick Daugherty (QB14), John Daigle (QB14)
Low: Hayden Winks (QB19)
The skill-position talent surrounding Jones is insane with Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram, Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate, and Darius Slayton, but the new coaching staff is a total wild card. Will OC Jason Garrett call the reserved offense he led in Dallas throughout the mid-2010s? Or did he learn modern approaches alongside Cowboys OC Kellen Moore last season? I’m betting on the offense turning to a slower-paced, more run heavy approach, and Daugherty and Daigle are buying these skill-position pieces masking my worries.
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Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns
High: Josh Norris (QB14), John Daigle (QB15)
Low: Hayden Winks (QB21), Patrick Daugherty (QB20)
All of us at Rotoworld admit that Mayfield was bad last season. What we can’t totally agree on is how much the new coaching staff and Odell Beckham’s expected health will help Mayfield in year three. Even as the lowest Mayfield ranker, I’m projecting him for notable gains in the efficiency department, largely because of new head coach Kevin Stefanski’s installment of a heavy play-action attack. What I’m concerned with is passing volume. Stefanski called an offense that was 31st in pass percentage last season, and I’m expecting the Browns to be somewhere in the 20s in that category this year. He’ll have to make big leaps to get into the high-end QB2 tier, but that’s well within the range of outcomes given the offensive talent around him.
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