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Dan Fornek's fantasy football quarterback waiver wire pickups before Week 6 of the 2021 NFL season. His free agent QBs to add, stream and stash off waivers.
Week 6 marked the last week with a full complement of games before bye weeks start coming into effect. Thankfully, we had a bunch of excellent offensive performances out of the quarterback position before having to start paying attention to waiver-wire streamers. Tom Brady led the way in Week 5 with 411 passing yards and five touchdowns, but he was far from the only quarterback to erupt this week. Seven quarterbacks topped 300 passing yards and there were two four-touchdown passing games (Justin Herbert and Jameis Winston), two quarterbacks with three passing touchdowns (Davis Mills and Dak Prescott), and eight quarterbacks with two passing scores.
Unfortunately, there were some injuries at the quarterback position this week. Russell Wilson suffered a torn finger tendon that required surgery on Thursday night, which will knock him out for about a month. Additionally, Daniel Jones missed a significant portion of his game against Dallas with a concussion, and Joe Burrow was hospitalized after his game with a potential throat bruise, although both of those are short-term injuries. Beyond that, four teams (Atlanta, New Orleans, San Francisco, and the New York Jets) are on bye, meaning the waiver wire will be getting a lot of work at the quarterback position this week.
In this article, I will be focusing on players who are under 65% rostered in fantasy leagues while adding a couple of deep sleepers for two-quarterback leagues (less than 20% rostered).
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Quarterbacks to Stream and Add for Week 6
Sam Darnold (QB, CAR)
Yahoo: 59% rostered ESPN: 46% rostered
Sam Darnold came down to Earth in Week 5 against the Eagles after beginning the season on fire. Coming into the week, Darnold had three straight games with at least a 67% completion percentage, 300 passing yards with four total rushing touchdowns. Philadelphia was able to generate pressure on Darnold with their front four and took D.J. Moore out of the passing game, leading Darnold to pass for 177 yards and one touchdown with three interceptions. Hopefully, this game is just an aberration in what is amounting to a career year for Darnold.
The Panthers’ signal-caller has a great schedule coming up in the next few weeks with games against the Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, and Atlanta Falcons. Given the questionable secondaries and generally weak pass rushers (minus the Vikings), Darnold should be ready to get back to his 20-point fantasy scoring floor.
Trevor Lawrence (QB, JAX)
Yahoo: 50% rostered ESPN: 42% rostered
After two bad weeks against the Broncos and Cardinals, Trevor Lawrence is showing the upside that made him the consensus top overall draft pick in the 2021 NFL draft. Lawrence followed up a 17-point performance on Thursday night in Week 4 with a 21-point effort in Week 5 against the Titans. Lawrence completed 69% of his passes for 273 yards and a touchdown and an interception. He also added 28 yards on the ground and a rushing touchdown. It was the fourth straight week Lawrence had at least 20 rushing yards and his second consecutive game with a rushing touchdown.
The rookie has another fantastic matchup in Week 6 against a Dolphins’ defense that has struggled to generate consistent pressure, which has led to opponents having big days through the air. The Jaguars have a bye in Week 7, but Lawrence is worth stashing on the bench when he comes back and gets the Seattle secondary in Week 8.
Jameis Winston (QB, NO)
Yahoo: 34% rostered ESPN: 24% rostered
The Jameis Winston experience was in full effect Week 5 against the Washington Football Team. Winston threw an interception and lost a fumble, but also took several deep shots down the field on his way to 279 passing yards and four passing touchdowns. It was the first game this season where Winston attempted over 23 passes and he put up strong stats despite a 50% completion percentage. With numerous injuries at the quarterback position, Winston is a starting quarterback with huge passing upside and solid weapons in Alvin Kamara, Marquez Callaway, and potentially Michael Thomas (sooner than later hopefully).
Winston has a bye in Week 6 but gets matchups against the Seahawks, Buccaneers, Falcons, Titans, and Eagles. The first four teams all rank in the bottom-15 in terms of passing yards allowed and the Eagles have been up and down in the secondary all season. With Kamara getting back in the passing game, Marquez Callaway developing, and Michael Thomas getting closer to returning, Winston could have some serious boom weeks in-store and is a great add during his bye week when other league mates won’t be on him.
2 QB Waiver Wire Options and Stashes
Mac Jones (QB, NE)
Yahoo: 18% rostered ESPN: 16% rostered
Mac Jones hasn’t been the most prolific passer for the Patriots, but he is getting plenty of volume throwing the ball. Jones has at least 30 attempts in all five of his games this season and has thrown for at least 230 yards in four of five games this season. Jones had just one touchdown and one interception against the Texans but was able to move the ball to keep the Patriots from falling victim to a surprising upset. Ultimately it may not be pretty, but Jones is getting good passing opportunities and has solid weapons in the passing game.
The Patriots have games against Dallas and the Jets in the next two weeks. New England will have to air it out to keep up with Dak Prescott and the Cowboys and can exploit the Jets' awful secondary. With injuries and bye weeks impacting the Week 6 quarterbacks, Jones gives a solid floor and has shown flashes of a high ceiling on several occasions.
Jacoby Brissett (QB, MIA)
Yahoo: 3% rostered ESPN: 2% rostered
Jacoby Brissett has done a great job filling in for Tua Tagovailoa in his last three starts with consistently negative (pass-heavy) game scripts. Brissett completed 27 of 39 passes in Week 5 for 275 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. It was the third straight game with at least 30 passing attempts and his second consecutive game with at least two touchdowns. Brissett’s day was even more impressive considering the Dolphins were missing both DeVante Parker and Will Fuller. There is a chance that Tua practices again this week (if so he’s worth grabbing since he’s only 15% rostered in Yahoo leagues), so there is some risk going all-in on Brissett.
If Brissett stays at the helm, he has juicy matchups against the Jaguars and Falcons on the horizon. Both teams have consistently struggled to stop the pass this year and have solid passing games, so Brissett could find himself in a couple more shootout situations before giving the starting spot back to Tua.
Geno Smith (QB, SEA)
Yahoo: 1% rostered ESPN: >1% rostered
Russell Wilson will be out for roughly a month after having surgery on a finger tendon, which makes Geno Smith an intriguing add at the quarterback position to navigate bye weeks (Seattle has a Week 9 bye). Smith looked good in relief of Wilson, completing 10 of 17 passes for 131 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Smith is best known for his rough tenure with the Jets, but he has plenty of weaponry in the passing game to be a fantasy-relevant quarterback in the right matchups thanks to D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.
Smith will start with a couple of tough matchups against the Steelers and Saints but gets a matchup against the Jaguars in Week 8. Pittsburgh and New Orleans can move the ball on offense, so the Seahawks could find themselves leaning on Smith’s arm more than they would like. He’s worth monitoring as a fantasy option and is worth a bench stash in deeper leagues.
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