December 13, 2016

Andrew Bua's top QB waiver wire pickups and fantasy football streamers for Week 15 of the NFL Season. Target these single-QB and two-QB streamers in your leagues.

RotoBallers,

Welcome back. As always this column will aim to highlight Week 15 waiver wire adds and streamers for quarterbacks, players that you should consider targeting on your league's waiver wire.

In recent years, the concept of streaming has become a popular one within fantasy football circles. Particularly with quarterbacks and defense/special teams, the idea of swapping players out every week based on attractive matchups has led numerous owners to victory (or to the basement, if such owners didn’t stream correctly). It’s not a bad idea – why invest a high draft pick on a player you may not want to use every week when you can use the upcoming week’s tilts to your advantage and play the projections?

Editor's Note: Once you're done here, be sure to read about even more Week 15 waiver wire recommendations, for all fantasy-relevant positions. Just click on any link: ALL - RB - WR - TE - QB - DEF - FAAB - CUTS

Strategy for Streaming Quarterbacks

The problem, as mentioned above, is that if you’re going to go this route then you need to stream right - or you’re going to find yourself in a lot of trouble. Fortunately, the purpose of this weekly article will help you do exactly that with the quarterback position. Every week, we’ll take a look at six streaming QB options: three for one-quarterback leagues, and three for two-quarterback leagues. The focus will be on streaming for the upcoming week, but if that particular player has a positive outlook beyond that point it will be noted for your benefit.

Options for one-quarterback leagues could be just about anyone – if a decent QB really has that tasty of a matchup, then who are we to not take advantage of that? Of course, the obvious names aren’t “streamers” – your Newtons, Rodgers, and Wilsons of the world are plugged into the starting QB spot for their owners week in and week out. Other than the head honchos at the position though, anyone is eligible. Two-quarterback leagues, however, work a little differently. In these leagues, most of, if not all quarterbacks are already owned. Thus, to be a streamer option in a two-quarterback league, the QB needs to be close to the bottom of the barrel. For example, you aren’t streaming Eli Manning in a two-quarterback league because under that setting, Eli should be starting every week anyway.

RotoBallers, stream away to your heart’s desire. If you have any questions or comments feel free to send me an email ([email protected]), tweet (@Andrew_Bua), or reach out on Reddit (/u/CitiStrikeouts).

One-QB Leagues - Week 15 Waiver Wire Streamers

Colin Kaepernick, SF (39% owned)

The three one-quarterback league streamer options for Week 15 are the same as those picked for Week 14, but this time the order of preference changes. After a so-so outing against the Jets in Week 14, Colin Kaepernick claims the top spot this week against the NFL’s worst pass defense.

The Falcons continue to be a defense to target in 2016, and for good reason. The 20.56 points per-week they’re surrendering to opposing quarterbacks is tops in the NFL, despite the horrendous outing from Jared Goff in Week 14. Colin Kaepernick is certainly a different player than Jared Goff, incase you were wondering. But back to the Falcons defense – in addition to allowing the most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks, Atlanta is fittingly also giving up the most passing yards-per-game in the NFL with an average of 280.80. Ride the Colin Kaepernick surprising resurgence wave as long as you can – in Week 15 he’s as good a bet as anyone to put up points.

Tyrod Taylor, BUF (70% owned)

Tyrod Taylor is in a very iffy position for Week 15 as a top one-quarterback league streamer option. On one hand, the Bills have the fortune of playing the Cleveland Browns – the benefit is obvious there. On the other, Rex Ryan was non-committal on Taylor after his mediocre day against Pittsburgh. For now, we’ll treat it as if Taylor is the starting QB because the matchup is too juicy to pass up, but do check back here for updates if he does get benched.

As stated above the benefit of playing the Browns is an obvious one, but we’ll take a dive into it anyway. Andy Dalton completed 20 of 28 passed for 180 yards and two scores against Cleveland in Week 14; he would have had a lot more if the Bengals actually decided to put the pedal to the medal in what should have been a bigger blowout. The effort still marked the fourth time in the last five games the Browns have allowed at least 16.90 fantasy points in standard leagues to opposing quarterbacks, and the 19.80 they’re averaging to quarterbacks per-week ranks second overall. Taylor is at risk of an in-game benching if he does start, but considering the opponent it shouldn’t get to that point.

Alex Smith, KC (48% owned)

After starting off Week 14 red hot against the Raiders, Alex Smith cooled off as the game went on en route to finishing with 264 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Week 15 brings another favorable matchup for Smith. While it’s far less certain he’ll put up QB1 numbers in a golden situation at this point, the ownership rate and matchup dictates Smith’s place on this list.

The Chiefs remain home in Week 15 as they play host to Tennessee. After quite a few above-average performances by the Titans’ defense early in the year, the unit has deteriorated into one that opposing quarterbacks have been able to shred. They’ve allowed a minimum of 20.64 fantasy points to quarterbacks in five of their last seven games, and at least 18.78 in all seven. That includes some of the elite guys such as Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers, but also includes the likes of Cody Kessler and Matt Barkley. Smith won’t have to do much against this defense to put up points for fantasy owners.

Two-QB Leagues - Week 15 Waiver Wire Streamers

Sam Bradford, MIN (30% owned)

Sam Bradford has quietly put together two consecutive quality fantasy outings against Dallas and Jacksonville after two duds against Arizona and Detroit. With the steam Bradford has been picking up as of late, he’s a no-brainer streamer against the Indianapolis Colts for Week 15 in two-quarterback leagues.

The Colts’ defense has been one to target all year long, but you’d never know it after the last two weeks saw them give up 5.40 points to Bryce Petty and 3.68 to Brock Osweiler. Still, in the three weeks before that they surrendered 26.18, 22.50, and 20.84 to opposing quarterbacks. Make no mistake about it – a competent QB will take advantage of this horrendous unit. Even with the back-to-back incredible showings against terrible quarterbacks, they still rank third overall in points allowed to opposing quarterbacks. Given Bradford’s increase in effectiveness lately, he should finish with an above-average point total in Week 15.

Matt Barkley, CHI (5% owned)

I would love to see the odds Vegas would have given me in August that Matt Barkley would be on a quarterback streamer list at some point in 2016. Alas, here we are. Barkley had a very QB2-esque showing in Week 14 at Detroit when he threw for 212 yards and a touchdown. Against Green Bay in Week 15, he should once again finish as a viable starter in two-quarterback leagues.

The Packers are coming off a week in which they somehow kept Russell Wilson in check, but don’t let that one week delusion of grandeur fool you: Green Bay’s defense has been bad, and it will continue to be bad. Prior to their miraculous effort against the Seahawks, the Packers went four straight games in which they allowed the opposing quarterback to score at least 17.28 fantasy points in standard leagues – including at least 27.40 in two of them. Did I mention that two of those quarterbacks were Carson Wentz and Brock Osweiler? Yeah….if you’re in need of a QB streamer in two-quarterback leagues, Matt Barkley is a guy you should take a shot on.

Matt Moore, MIA (0% owned)

Whatever the odds were two paragraphs above for Matt Barkley, they’d be about 100x worse for a quarterback with a 0% ownership rate in Week 14. Fantasy football is a strange thing. Matt Moore entered Week 14 as a guy a lot of people forgot existed (he hasn’t started a game since 2011), and he enters Week 15 as (likely) one of the top quarterback waiver-wire pickups.

Given the late-game injury to Ryan Tannehill in Week 14, Moore barely saw any action but did complete three of five passes for 47 yards en route to a last-second Dolphins victory. While it’s tough to say a guy with the rust he has will be worth a starter spot, what we do know is the matchup is too good to pass up as Miami heads to MetLife Stadium to take on the Jets. Gang Green did a solid job of keeping Colin Kaepernick in check in Week 14, but it was a game that put dozens to sleep as the 49ers were killing clock nursing a lead until the very end of the game. That doesn’t change the fact the Jets have allowed at least 19.04 fantasy points to quarterbacks in two of their last three games and own the NFL’s 24^th-worst pass defense. Who knows what we’ll get from Moore – but the matchup is certainly right for QB2 streaming.