RADIO
Offensive scoring continued to stabilize in Week 6. Six teams had more than 30 points in the week. We also had a team that scored 40 points (Houston) and a team that scored 50 (Tampa Bay). It wasn’t a big passing yardage week, but there were still some excellent passing performances in the touchdown department.
The NFL had just four 300-yard passers, but three quarterbacks with four passing touchdowns (Baker Mayfield, Jordan Love, and Caleb Williams) and three other quarterbacks with three passing scores (Brock Purdy, Drake Maye, and C.J. Stroud).
There are two teams on bye in Week 7, so you may need to stream a quarterback. In this article, I will be focusing on players under 65% rostered in fantasy leagues while adding a couple of deep sleepers for two-quarterback leagues (less than 25% rostered).
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Single-QB Waiver Wire Pickups and Streamers
Sam Darnold, Minnesota Vikings
Yahoo: 56% rostered
A subpar performance in London combined with a Week 6 bye week dropped Sam Darnold back into the thresholds for this article. If he’s available in your league, he should be a priority quarterback ahead of Week 7.
Justin Jefferson 97 YARD TUDDY!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/0PJs9mheCK
— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024
Darnold had a brutal showing in London against the Jets' stout defense, finishing with a sub-50% completion percentage, a modest 179 passing yards, and zero touchdowns with one interception.
Even if we got a vintage Darnold performance in Week 5, we can’t ignore how good he was during the first four weeks of the season. Before the dud against the Jets, Darnold had posted three straight 20.0 fantasy point weeks. He also hadn’t scored fewer than 14 points this season.
Minnesota has an extremely fantasy-friendly schedule in the coming weeks with games against Detroit, the Rams, Indianapolis, and Jacksonville. All four of those teams have had struggles throughout the season with opposing passing attacks.
Darnold may not have completely gotten rid of the bad plays that plagued him early in his career, but he deserves the benefit of the doubt for this season given how good he started the season.
Daniel Jones, New York Giants
Yahoo: 21% rostered
Daniel Jones is still frustrating in fantasy, but he does have a lot of appeal at the quarterback position. Jones has three of five games with over 18.0 fantasy points scored. In each of those games, he’s thrown for two passing touchdowns.
Daniel Jones has been impressive the last 4 games. pic.twitter.com/zp7VlTkU1K
— NFL on Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) October 12, 2024
Jones also has at least four rushing attempts in every game this season and four games with 15 or more rushing yards. The veteran quarterback had arguably the best game of his season in Week 5 against the Seahawks without Malik Nabers on the field.
There is always a chance that Jones will implode (he does have two games with fewer than 10 fantasy points this season), but he still has enough upside to warrant rostering and streaming in fantasy as we get into the thick of bye weeks.
Drake Maye, New England Patriots
Yahoo: 6% rostered
Drake Maye certainly delivered in his first start against a strong Texans defense. Maye completed 20 of 33 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions. He also added five carries for 38 yards.
Drake Maye - Week 6 BEST Highlights:
Patriots got their guy. pic.twitter.com/gr935vYYpZ
— SCOUTD (@scoutdnfl) October 13, 2024
Maye was consistently under pressure, but still put up stats behind a bad offensive line in garbage time. He finished the week with 22.5 fantasy points, which was a top-10 mark in Week 6. It took Maye just 33 attempts to throw for more passing touchdowns than Jacoby Brissett had in five games.
Things won’t be consistent for Maye behind a terrible offensive line and a questionable wide receiver room but he’s shown that he can put up fantasy points despite the situation around him. He could be poised for a big week in Week 7 against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
Two-QB Waiver Wire Pickups and Stashes
Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams
Yahoo: 38% rostered
The Rams' offense has been decimated by injuries to the receiving corps and offensive line to start the season, which has led to a series of underwhelming fantasy performances for most of the team’s key players.
Matthew Stafford has just three games with more than 10.0 fantasy points this season and has yet to have a game with at least 15 fantasy points. He has just two games with more than 250 passing yards and has yet to have a game with more than one passing touchdown.
The bye week could not have come at a better time for the team. Cooper Kupp may be able to return from his injury in Week 7 and Puka Nacua should only be a couple of weeks behind. The offensive line should also be getting healthier.
Stafford will have at least one good matchup on the horizon against the Raiders in Week 7. It will be hard to trust him beyond that with the Rams’ schedule, but he will be an appealing streaming option if the offense can get to full strength.
Aidan O'Connell, Las Vegas Raiders
Yahoo: 2% rostered
There are just two teams on bye during Week 7, but there will be more in the coming weeks. A quarterback that can be considered is Radiers’ signal caller Aidan O’Connell.
O’Connell doesn’t do much to move the needle, but he has three good matchups on the horizon before Las Vegas’ Week 10 bye (L.A. Rams, Kansas City, and Cincinnati). The Raiders do have some interesting pass-catching pieces that can help O’Connell get there in fantasy, even if Davante Adams gets traded or continues to miss games.
It’s hard to believe that O’Connell has a long leash going forward, but the team will likely wait to see if he can jumpstart an underwhelming offense.
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