The latest Weekly will be coming out soon, and there's some guesswork on the starting quarterbacks around the league. Some won't matter much to many fantasy lineups, but several will. Here are a few of the situations worth following -- and which will be clearer on Friday.
A report says the Jets are going with Joe Flacco at quarterback. Mike White (bandied about as a possible contender to be the team's long-term starter just a week ago) is apparently being benched, after throwing 4 interceptions last week. Zach Wilson either isn't ready to return from a knee injury, or maybe the Jets don't want his confidence shattered by facing a Dolphins defense that blitzed the daylights out of Lamar Jackson last Thursday. Any explanation is hard to understand since it means starting Flacco, who's 36 years old. The Jets are 2-7, so it's not like getting a win against the 3-7 Dolphins means much of anything.
Speaking of Lamar Jackson, he was sent home today with a non-COVID illness. We'll see if that is indeed the case. Most likely it is, but it's a situation to at least keep an eye on until Jackson returns to practice and is a-OK.
Pittsburgh may not have Ben Roethlisberger back at quarterback. He landed on the COVID list last week, missing the tie with Detroit, and was symptomatic early in the week. Might be Mason Rudolph again. The Steelers are at the Chargers, last in run defense, so whoever starts should be doing a lot of handing the ball off and ideally not passing much.
Kyler Murray (ankle) has missed the last two games, and the Cardinals are on their bye next week. So it's possible Murray will sit out one more game. But Murray was spotted at practice today, usually a good sign for him playing on Sunday. Maybe they want to see how it reacts early on; if he's sore tomorrow or whatnot. Or maybe he's recovered enough that they think he'll be good to face the Seahawks. Would be a nice upgrade over Colt McCoy, certainly.
Jared Goff (oblique) was playing hurt against the Steelers; he missed practice today. So it might be David Blough at quarterback for the Lions, facing Myles Garrett and the Cleveland defense. Investing in the Lions passing game beyond T.J. Hockenson looks unwise regardless, and even Hockenson is an iffy choice these days. Debatable whether Blough could be worse than Goff was last week.
We'll monitor these situations over the next couple of days, hopefully having more clarity in the Friday update.
--Andy Richardson