Countless fantasy football owners are scrambling to replace Ben Roethlisberger or, to a lesser degree, Ryan Tannehill amidst COVID-19 postponements. Many others are rightfully fed up with Carson Wentz or Gardner Minshew, especially in two-QB fantasy formats.
Thankfully, an absolute God-send Week 4 QB streamer lingers the waiver wire:
Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Only 16% owned in Yahoo leagues, FitzMagic was born for this moment. If you’ve got QB questions, stop reading and go pluck The Beard before you miss your shot. Then return to find out why he’s hitting 25+ fantasy points this week.
1) Fitzpatrick routinely flashes his fantasy ceiling… and no one seems to care
Last Thursday, Fitzpatrick steam-rolled yet another poor defensive back en route to a 24+ FP day, I wondered aloud: just how good has this man been?
My research left my jaw on the ground and pants slightly tighter between the legs.
After flipping with Josh Rosen to open 2019, FitzMagic took over the full-time Dolphins role in Week 7. From this point on, only Lamar Jackson outscored Fitzpatrick’s 241 FPs.
Yes, that’s right. The Harvard Madman chucked for more points than Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson, Josh Allen, Deshaun Watson, whoever else you want to throw out there not named Lamar.
It wasn’t just a mirage of 1-2 massive blow-ups scattered amidst pure shit, either. Via RotoViz’s NFL Stat Explorer:
Top-12 QB in 64% of games (9 of last 14). Eight with over 25 FPs. In fact, in this span, Fitzpatrick averages over 22 FPs, while he’s finished as the fantasy:
- QB9
- QB19
- QB5
- QB20
- QB19
- QB8
- QB3
- QB19
- QB7
- QB3
- QB3
- QB32
- QB10
- QB7
In short, we shouldn’t have to sell you his upside so hard. Yet very few want to accept it.
Even better, it’s not like the floor is completely disastrous. FitzMagic has fallen out of the Top-24 QBs just one time across these 14 games, and that came against a brutal Pats defense.
In short: FitzMagic has been a weekly 2QB lock, with a much better shot at QB1 numbers, that remains available in nearly every league.
That’s before even factoring in…
2) The Seahawks Matchup is beyond delicious
Only the Atlanta Falcons have surrendered more fantasy points (36.5) than the Seahawks (33.3) through three weeks. Indeed, they’ve squared off with some high-end passers (Matt Ryan, Cam Newton eh, Dak Prescott), but the secondary has been truly embarrassing.
They also might be without their best player in Jamaal Adams in Week 4.
On the year, Seattle has allowed a whopping 1319 passing yards — nearly 440 per game. This would have them on pace to surrender 7034 passing yards on the season.
Who better to exploit this than Bombs Away Fitz himself?
Even better, the Dolphins are +7 underdogs. The Seahawks have finally unleashed Russell Wilson, who’s currently on pace for 74 TDs. He’ll have no problem building a 2+ TD versus a similarly abysmal Miami secondary, who ranks 4th in most FPs allowed to QBs.
Thus, the Dolphins should be down early and often, and scrambling to put up points. No one is better at racking up oodles of fantasy goodness in these scripts than Reckless Ryan.
Summary: Stream Ryan Fitzpatrick with Zero Hesitation
Is there any player more fun to root for than Fitzpatrick?
Beyond the joy of inserting a National Treasure into your lineup, the “logic stars” all align for a monster blow-up. Piss-poor secondary minus its best player? Check. Ideal “bombs away” game-script? Check. A willingness to push the ball and long-body WRs that should dominate these CBs? Check check check.
Fitzmagic slides in at my QB14, ahead of Jared Goff and Tom Brady, and just below Joe Burrow. He’s an ideal play @ $5400 on DraftKings, making for a tasty stack with Devante Parker ($5700) and/or Preston Williams ($4500) as you run-it-back with Tyler Lockett ($7000) and DK Metcalf ($6800).
