The New Orleans Saints have been very generous in terms of opposing skill players and fantasy points, but do we trust a guy like Brian Hoyer? At $6600 he’s a steal and has DeAndre Hopkins to blow up the suspect Saints secondary. Is this a good week to roll the dice on him?
Maurile Tremblay : I trust him. It's hard to imagine any quarterback putting up a complete dud against that Saints defense. The Texans are likely to throw the ball a lot, and nobody can cover Hopkins. At $6,600, Hoyer is the 15th most expensive quarterback this week, but I'm actually projecting him to score the second most points. Hoyer against New Orleans and Bortles against San Diego are going to be my two primary quarterbacks this week at FantasyScore.
Chad Parsons: Hoyer has played well with Week 10, a tough game in Cincinnati, the lone exception. I am more tolerant to lower cost quarterbacks in general, even in cash games, and Hoyer is a green light as one of my top-5 used quarterbacks (and stacks) for Week 12.
Andrew Garda: Add me to the chorus of support for Hoyer this weekend, especially as a stack with Hopkins, though the young wide receiver makes everyone look good. With a generous Saints team across from him, it’s hard to not like what he can offer.
How much do we like Thomas Rawls this week against Pittsburgh? The sick game he had against San Francisco boosted his price to $7400 and he has the carries going forward but the defense he faces is a little bit better than the Niners. Do we like him at this price?
Tremblay: He's still a very good value, but not an extreme bargain. For just $100 more, I like DeAngelo Williams from the same game better. I'll probably have at least one of those guys in every lineup. The question, in GPPs, is whether to start both of them. I think it's likely that just one of the two will have a big game rather than both. It could be either one, but if I lean slightly toward Williams.
Parsons: The main thing is Rawls' price to usage ratio. His floor is about 15 touches. In the second tier of running back salary, Rawls is a solid value. I prefer him rather easily of similarly-priced options like Chris Johnson, LeSean McCoy, and Chris Ivory of note.
Garda: This is what happens when a guy becomes a starter – he becomes less a bargain. That said, I still think he holds really good value this weekend. I don’t know that I worry about only one guy – DeAngelo Williams or Rawls – having a big game. I think this will be a hard-fought, close game and both teams will focus on running the ball, so I think both will be productive, though like Chad I lean towards Williams as a better start – just not worlds better.
Last week Jameis Winston had the game of his life against Philadelphia. We can’t expect five touchdowns each week, even against the Colts, but is he going to come close to value on a $7700 price tag or did Fantasy Score amp up that cost too much?
Tremblay: He's too expensive this week. He's significantly more costly than Bortles or Hoyer (by $800 and $1,100, respectively), and he's also more expensive than Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson, all of whom I like a lot better than Winston.
Parsons: Winston is too costly for me this week and I am a big supporter of the Winston-Evans stack most weeks. Winston $600 over Russell Wilson or $1,100 more than Brian Hoyer are the key comparisons on my board.
Garda: And ‘me’ makes three – I agree Winston’s price shot up too much for me. I think he’s a decent starter but as pointed out, there are better values this week. As we talked about, I would rather roll the dice with Brian Hoyer at his price than spend more for Winston.
That said, I think you have to like the glimpse into the future Winston might be providing.
Tyler Eifert has been really up and down the last four weeks—it’s like the Star Trek movie franchise where every other movie is just terrible. Either Eifert scores multiple touchdowns or he barely gets any yards and can’t find the end zone. How confident are you that he can be worth the $7700 he costs this week?
Tremblay: There are much better values out there. Delanie Walker is $700 cheaper. Gary Barnidge is $1,400 cheaper. Travis Kelce is $1,500 cheaper. I would take any of them over Eifert even if they were the same price.
Parsons: I am fading Tyler Eifert this week. The $500 gap to Rob Gronkowski is not enough and Eifert is much more costly than options like Delanie Walker and nearly double that of Heath Miller, who I like as a low-cost sleeper. The Rams have allowed only three touchdowns to tight ends all year (two to Zach Miller) and Eifert is on a Gronkowski-type pace of touchdowns this season. I will wait to go back to Eifert for a down game and some salary relief.
Garda: And again, what the other guys said. I think Eifert is too streaky to play the price he costs and there are better bargains this week, especially Walker.
