Week 11 QB projections   •  KC Stats

QB Matt Cassel, Kansas City Chiefs

HT: 6-5, WT: 230, Born: 5-17-1982, College: USC, Drafted: Round 7

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Stats and Week 11 Projection

Week 11 Injury Status and Other News

Week 11 Matchup Info

Game Summaries

Week 2 vs OAK - The Good: Cassel was not affected by knee, at least not that we could tell. He scrambled and gain great yardage as a runner, and wasn't afraid of contact. Cassel threw the ball with great zip and confidence, and he was decisive about finding his checkdowns in Todd Haley's offense. Cassel also threw a very nice deep pass to give Dwayne Bowe a chance to make an athletic play, and he did just that to give the Chiefs the lead late in the game. The Bad: Cassel was victimized twice by Michael Huff on interceptions in Oakland territory, even though he looked him off on one of them. The other was an overthrow of Dantrell Savage that Huff made a nice diving catch to convert. Cassel also cost the Chiefs a scoring opportunity by completing a pass inbounds inside the 10 in the last seconds of the first half, even though the Chiefs had no timeouts. He didn't look bad in his return, against a defense that got in Philip Rivers face last week, but Cassel was still a bit out of sync running the offense, and it's clear that his numbers will suffer from a lack of quality targets.

Week 3 at PHI - Matt Cassel was under pressure often in Week 3 as Philadelphia's pressure defense was in his face early and often. Without his top receiver (Dwayne Bowe) in the game and the ground game not working, the Eagles pinned their ears back and went after Cassel. He was able to pad his stats a little in the fourth quarter with a meaningless late touchdown pass to Bobby Wade with under two minutes to play. Cassel should be on fantasy benches at this point.

Week 4 vs NYG - The New York Giants were all over Matt Cassel in Week 4, putting constant pressure and forcing him to step up or out of the pocket whenever he could. The Giants secondary played well even when he could get passes off and none of his receiving options could get open consistently. His first half numbers tell a better story (6-11 passing for 36 yards) of how ineffective the Kansas City passing game was against the Giants up until the final quarter after the game was decided. Better matchups do lie ahead (Dallas, at Washington, San Diego) so the ship may get righted soon, but for now Cassel is not a startable fantasy quarterback.

Week 5 vs DAL - Cassel had a wild game, but made some big plays when it counted. He was under pressure all day, but used his legs to create yardage when nothing came open. He had trouble putting the right touch on the ball, often putting too much heat on short passes. Cassel did have a good feel for eluding pressure when it came, and he settled down in the second half when the Chiefs called more quick passes to offset the Cowboys pass rush. He made the game-tying TD pass on 4th and seven in the red zone, and his other TD pass was on a third and goal throw to Mike Vrabel at the one. He generally was more accurate on throws over the middle of the field than throws to the outside, and looked as good as he has in his short career with the Chiefs.

Week 6 at WAS - Matt Cassel did not look bad against Washington as a passer, which is a double-edged sword. The fact that he completed over half his attempts and looked average is actually an improvement, but the other side of the argument is that this was the Redskins and Kansas City should have looked good or better against a struggling team. Cassel had just one pass completion over 20 yards, a 32-yard catch and run by Dwayne Bowe very late in the game where Bowe really helped him out on the play. Cassel does not have enough playmakers outside of Dwayne Bowe, who had well over half of the passing yards in Week 6. You should be able to do better for your fantasy quarterback, even in bye weeks.

Week 7 vs SD - Cassel had by far his worst game of the season. He entered with the third-most passes in a row without an interception, then spent most of the afternoon either getting picked off or coming close to it. In fact, he completed nearly as many passes to San Diego defenders (3) as his own receivers (7). He was nearly picked on the opening drive third down pass off a deflection, and was later bailed out of an interception when LB Shawne Merriman lined up in the neutral zone. But rather than taking advantage of his second chances, Cassel proceeded to make sure he was picked off later on. He was under a lot of duress in the second half, which was when all of the turnovers happened. Each of the last two interceptions came on overthrows as he tried forcing it into coverage while being hit. He came into the game with only two interceptions all season and then threw three in about fifteen minutes of real life time.

Not ALL of Cassel's passes were awful, mind you, just most of them. He did toss a perfect touch pass to Dwayne Bowe for a score along the sideline of the end zone, and made a perfect pass to Long in the end zone for what should have been a score but the wideout couldn't hang on. But those nice throws were far outnumbered by the overthrows on what should have been touchdowns and the near-interceptions that were just dropped by Charger defenders.

Week 9 at JAX - You might think that Cassel played well from the final score and his stat line, but he didn't. The Chiefs only found the end zone late in the fourth quarter when they were already down 18 points. They moved the ball well on the first drive by feeding Jamaal Charles, and then they abandoned him until the fourth quarter, when they started moving the ball again. Cassel threw a lot of short passes to try to establish makeable down/distances, but the Jags caught on and started blitzing and playing more aggressive in the second half, putting Cassel under consistent pressure. Cassel was at his best in the end of half hurry-up offense, getting the Chiefs close enough for a long FG attempt in the first half, and two garbage time TDs in the second half. He was able to hit Chris Chambers with a lollipop deep ball when he got behind the safety for one TD, and a lollipop deep ball to Dwayne Bowe set up the second TD, a play Cassel kept alive and then found Chambers on in the front corner of the end zone. At this point, the Chiefs offense has no identity and Cassel looks like a very talented, but limited top-end backup masquerading as a starter.

Week 10 at OAK - Cassel didn't have an outstanding game, but he didn't make any big mistakes and kept the Chiefs offense viable enough to win the game. His interception was an underthrown deep ball, and while Cassel continue to have much better accuracy on short and intermediate throws than downfield throws, he was throwing the ball downfield into small windows and trusting his wide receivers to make plays. Both Dwayne Bowe and Chris Chambers played well enough to merit that kind of trust. Cassel did fumble an exchange and also missed a wide-open Dwayne Bowe for a TD on 4th and 1 in the red zone, reminding us of his limitations, but his offensive line didn't do him any favors, although it seemed like he had more time to throw than he has in recent weeks. Cassel remains only a desperation start in fantasy leagues.