Week 5 Fantasy Football Defensive Matchup Exploitation: QB

Sam Bradford
Sam Bradford
Sep 22 2013 Arlington TX USA St Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford 8 throws prior to the game against the Dallas Cowboys at ATT Stadium Matthew Emmons USA TODAY Sports

As we saw in Week 4 with Eli Manning facing the Chiefs, Andy Dalton facing the Browns, and Sam Bradford facing the 49ers, a bad matchup can downright ruin your fantasy week. A good one, however, like Philip Rivers against the Cowboys or Alex Smith against the Giants can give you a massive boost.

This week, it’s Andrew Luck‘s turn to face the tough Seahawks D and while Matt Schaub held his own against them last week, I wouldn’t rush to start him if I had other options. Andy Dalton has a tough test in the Pats but that D isn’t as good as the points would indicate. Outside of Matt Ryan, the Pats have only faced Josh Freeman, EJ Manuel, and Geno Smith.

Jay Cutler will have his hands full with the suddenly very tough Saints secondary so I’d consider alternative options if you have him. Aaron Rodgers will face off against an equally tough Detroit D but you still have to start him.

Carson Palmer against the Panthers, Ryan Fitzpatrick against the Chiefs, and Alex Smith against the Titans are basically unstartable this week unless you have no alternatives. Russell Wilson is also a tough start but I’d still go with Matt Ryan, Tom Brady, and Colin Kaepernick in their slightly unfavorable matchups.

On the flip side, whoever starts at QB for Oakland should see plenty of open field against a Chargers D that has allowed more QB fantasy points than any team in the league. Two of the easier matchups in the Redskins and Vikings are off the table this week with both teams on byes but Cam Newton, Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford, Michael Vick, Sam Bradford, Eli Manning, and Philip Rivers are all must-starts in their matchups. I wouldn’t rush to start Geno Smith, regardless of how many QB points the Falcons have allowed.

Let’s take a look at all of the QB matchups coming up in Week 5.

Browse Defensive Matchups by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE

Highly Unfavorable, Unfavorable, Neutral, Slightly Favorable, Favorable

Rank
vs
QB

AVG
QB
FPS
Allowed

Defense

Week 5 Opponents

1

9.83 Seahawks Andrew Luck

2

10.8 Patriots Andy Dalton

3

10.99 Steelers BYE

4

11.15 Saints Jay Cutler

5

12.03 Lions Aaron Rodgers

6

12.15 Panthers Carson Palmer

7

12.68 Chiefs Ryan Fitzpatrick

8

13.67 Titans Alex Smith

9

13.91 Colts Russell Wilson

10

14.11 Jets Matt Ryan

11

15.36 Bengals Tom Brady

12

15.45 Texans Colin Kaepernick

13

15.77 Buccaneers BYE

14

16.15 Dolphins Joe Flacco

15

16.65 Browns EJ Manuel

16

16.77 Bears Drew Brees

17

17.45 49ers Matt Schaub

18

18.19 Broncos Tony Romo

19

20.14 Bills Brian Hoyer

20

20.48 Rams Blaine Gabbert

21

21.02 Ravens Ryan Tannehill

22

21.07 Vikings BYE

23

21.4 Falcons Geno Smith

24

21.41 Raiders Philip Rivers

25

21.73 Jaguars Sam Bradford

26

21.85 Eagles Eli Manning

27

22.57 Giants Michael Vick

28

22.67 Cowboys Peyton Manning

29

23.09 Packers Matthew Stafford

30

23.69 Cardinals Cam Newton

31

27.67 Redskins BYE

32

29.31 Chargers Terrelle Pryor, Matt Flynn

*Values based on Yahoo standard scoring.

Browse Defensive Matchups by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE

author avatar
Igor Derysh
Igor Derysh is Editor-at-Large at XN Sports and has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sun-Sentinel, and FantasyPros. He has previously covered sports for COED Magazine, Fantasy Alarm, and Manwall.com. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');