This is the non-Thanksgiving version of StarStreet Roster building.
If you read the debut of this series, you’ll remember that the Thanksgiving Day games were my first stab at attempting to look at how to build StarStreet daily lineups, by focusing on the quarterback position.
You can read the first edition of the series here, and it’ll give you an idea of what StarStreet is, what their roster requirements are, and how the scoring format is set up.
I’ve broken down the quarterbacks into three divisions: ‘The Rockers’, ‘The Mega Powers’, and ‘The New Age Outlaws’.
A quick refresher on what the three divisions mean:
-The Mega Powers (two high priced quarterbacks teamed together)
-The New Age Outlaws (two low priced quarterbacks teamed together)
-The Rockers: (one high priced quarterback teamed up with one lower priced quarterback)
Now that you know what the divisions mean, let’s see which quarterbacks to target on StarStreet this weekend to help you take home some daily cash money.
The Mega Powers
If you want to go with the most expensive StarStreet quarterback, that would Peyton Manning and his $15,100 price tag. Paying for Peyton would mean spending 15.1 percent of your budget, and that would be a risky move.
Why?
Peyton had one of his worst fantasy games versus the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11, who are his Week 13 opponents, and this time the game will be played at Arrowhead Stadium.
It wasn’t a bad game for Peyton in Week 13, as he did throw for over 300 yards, but it was the first time all year he didn’t throw more than one touchdown in a game.
If you’re looking to form a super Mega Powers quarterback tandem this week, you might want to consider the pricey duo of Cam Newton and Tom Brady. Newton comes in at $13,300, and Brady at $12,200. Each of them are in the top ten of quarterbacks on StarStreet, in terms of price.
The last time Newton faced his Week 13 opponents the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was in Week 8, when he was the fourth highest standard scoring quarterback for the week.
The Bucs haven’t been an imposing defensive unit since Week 6, where they have allowed every opposing quarterback to throw for at least two touchdowns.
In that seven game span, the Bucs have allowed a total of 17 touchdowns, to only nine interceptions. Two of those passing touchdowns were thrown by Newton, and four of those interceptions were thrown by Matthew Stafford in one game.
The Bucs’ defense has also given up three touchdowns on the ground, including one to Newton.
During Newton’s last seven games, he’s been on a hot streak, accounting for 11 passing touchdowns, and four interceptions, while also rushing for four touchdowns. Those totals include his one dud game against the 49ers in Week 11, where he accounted for zero scores.
It appears Newton, who is on a hot streak, and the Bucs’ defense, which has been struggling lately, form a good StarStreet match, making Newton worth the price tag this week.
As for the other half of The Mega Powers, Tom Brady comes in sporing his own mini hot streak, having thrown eight touchdowns to one interceptions in his last three games, while averaging 357.33 passing yards in those three games.
Brady’s upswing has come in correlation to the return of Rob Gronkowski and Shane Vereen, who are two of the more valuable pieces to that pass catching offense.
Brady faces the Houston Texans this week, who have stopped only Chad Henne in their last four games, and have allowed Andrew Luck, Carson Palmer, and Matt McGloin to throw a total of eight touchdowns, while only intercepting Palmer one time.
The Texans don’t give up a lot of passing yards, and have actually given up the fewest passing yards this season, at a rate of 172 passing yards per game.
Brady doesn’t need a lot of passing yards to produce, and a Matt McGloin-esque performance could be an example of what’s to come this weekend for Brady.
In Week 11 versus the Texans, McGloin only threw for 197 yards, but three of his 18 pass completions resulted in touchdowns, and his stat line that week was good or QB8.
Going Newton/Brady will cost $25,500, but that’s about the same as going Peyton Manning/Geno Smith ($25,400).
The New Age Outlaws
With Brady and Newton the two higher priced options, the opposite end of the spectrum, The New Age Outlaws division, has a few affordable quarterback options to choose from.
Brandon Weeden and his $8,800 price tag is the cheapest quarterback you can find on StarStreet, and a match-up versus the Jacksonville Jaguars looks good on paper.
Before they held Case Keenum in check last Week, the Jaguars had allowed three quarterbacks to score over twenty standard fantasy points three straight weeks, and even let Carson Palmer throw for 419 yards against them.
If you’re looking to set you apart from the StarStreet pack, spending almost no money on Weeden could be one route to go.
Compare Weeden to Peyton Manning, and Weeden comes in $6,300 cheaper. Paying for Weeden means spending that money somewhere else, and it could be one way to find room to fit Adrian Peterson and his $13,000 cost into your lineup.
Other low priced options to look into, if you’re not feeling risky enough to insert Weeden into your lineup are:
Josh McCown – $10,900
Ryan Fitzpatrick – $10,600
EJ Manuel – $9,500
I would prefer to spend the extra money on each of those three options, with McCown the most appealing.
The current starting quarterback for the Bears, Josh McCown gets to feast on the Minnesota Vikings defense this week.
We’ve seen how bad the Vikings are at stopping quarterbacks this year, as they have allowed every opposing signal caller to throw at least one touchdown against this season, with eight out of the 11 games being of the multi-passing touchdown variety.
Five quarterbacks have also rushed for at least 20 yards against the Viking this year, and McCown has two such rushing performances to his name this year, providing you with a way to score some cheap fantasy points.
McCown and Fitzpatrick, who finished as a near QB1 versus his Week 13 opponent the Indianapolis Colts in Week 11, are evenly priced, which means you’re left with Manuel, if you don’t want to cheap out and go with Weeden, but also don’t want to pay for McCown/Fitzpatrick.
One reason to not go with McCown, is that at his price tag, and matchup, many others will be paying for him, cancelling out his points.
However, if you only care about your teams, and building the highest scoring team, that might not matter to you
About Manuel, the matchup and price is right, as Manuel faces the reeling Atlanta Falcons, and is the fifth cheapest starting quarterback option on StarStreet his week.
The last time we saw Manuel, he was putting up QB1 numbers against the New York Jets in Week 11, and now he goes up against a Falcons defense that has allowed three straight quarterbacks to finish the week as a Top-12 scoring fantasy quarterback (Drew Brees, Mike Glennon, and Russell Wilson) and Cam Newton was less than one fantasy point scored away from making that four straight.
What not to like about Manuel is the Bills also have a strong rushing game, as they lead the league in rushing attempts at a clip of 33 per game, and their defense is no joke, meaning a ground control/clock eating game could be in the cards.
However, 23 passing touchdowns allowed on the season, compared to only six interceptions for the Falcons’ pass defense is a tempting play, and can’t be ignored. Plus, the Falcons have sacked quarterbacks only 22 times this season, which is fourth worst in the league.
The Rockers
Okay, so we’ve gone over the studs (The Mega Powers), and have looked at the cheaper quarterback options (The New Age Outlaws), so that leaves us with the remaining ‘Mega Powers’ division.
Combining a stud daily quarterback with a ‘dud’ quarterback option is a great way to combine the best of both worlds, as you try to balance out your quarterback spending.
Not everybody will want to spend heavy on the quarterback position, and if you were to go with a Newton/Brady combination, for example, that would cost you $25,500.
Spending for those two studs, would take away a quarter of your spending budget, while still having to fill out your other seven StarStreet roster spots.
This is where cost management plays a large role in roster building on daily sites, and gives you an idea as to why the stud+dud approach can be an appealing one in 2-QB daily sites like StarStreet.
A combination of EJ Manuel and Tom Brady, which is just one example, would cost you $3,800 less than the Brady/Newton combo, and a Brady/Weeden combo would be $5,300 cheaper than Newton/Brady.
When you have an extra four or five thousand dollars to spend, all of a sudden you find yourself with an opportunity to improve at another position, such as wide receiver, where maybe you get to upgrade from Harry Douglas ($10,700) to AJ Green ($13,000).
Whichever way you decide to go at quarterback will help you fill out the rest of your StarStreet line-up, and gives you a greater idea of how much money you’ll have to play with when trying to figure out how to fit the likes of Adrian Peterson, AJ Green, and Brandon Marshall this week.
Play around with the quarterback combinations to see which one your virtual pocketbook likes the most, and then go from there.
If you feel like trying out StarStreet for free, you can always challenge me to a free game here.
Good luck, and may the daily fantasy fortune shine on you this week!
