Hello, friends, and welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football podcast. We've got week fifteen quarterback and tight end rankings. I'm Chris Welsh, joined by Pat Fitzmorris and Scott Pianowski. We're going through both positions. We're looking at one through twelve at each spot, maybe poking around at some outside of the top twelve, some debates that are
in there. If you guys have questions on the ranks that maybe we won't get to, or you want to see how they evolve throughout the week, go to fantasypros dot com slash rankings, where we have got the expert consensus rankings of one hundred and fifty, sixty seventy whatever
it is every single week. Can kind of adjust maybe as season goes on, but every single day, these are adjusting as more ranks are put in, and you can get the expert takes and you can kind of look through if you want to pick and choose between some expert rankers. Gentlemen, let's start with the quarterback ranks. Let's just jump right into it. Obviously this is going to
be very very important. There's some chalk, but then there's also some questions, and those people out there, these fantasy matchups are poking around at some big questions at quarterbacks because I feel like we've only gotten into the space where there's like seven safe quarterbacks and people are trying to see should I start Jamis Winston over really big guys Jalen Hurts. Last week, they were trying to get us with Fitz Lamar Jackson. People want to tinker with quarterbacks.
So let's discuss that the big quarterback rank board. Josh Allen's number one, Lamar Jackson's at two. We got Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts at your top five. Two is at six, Sam Darnold at seven, Brock perty Bo, Nicks, Kyler Murray, Jared Goff, and Justin Herbert. That's your top twelve. I want to ask one quick question fits that in the world of tinkering. We said this in a previous
episode that we all did together. Pinowski mentioned it where people will say, hey, you know, you start your studs and don't think about it, blah blah blah. Do you think there's a line at quarterback right now where people should not be tinkering? I went, we kind of went right at somebody on that at of we have a new show on YouTube out of Bounds that they were thinking about should I go Jamis over Lamar and it
was like, just don't, just don't overthink that. That's not the question, but like, what do you think the quarterback line is right now? Where you can start considering tinkering, Like is it the top five Hurts Daniels, Burrow, Jackson, Allen, Those you don't even question, and then you could start maybe tinkering with high volume guys over like a Donald or a Murray or something like that. What's your take on it?
I think those five that's a good cutoff. Those are the set it and forget it guys. And then the next two for me are Tua and Donald, Like it would take a lot for me to pull either of those guys out of my starting lineup at this point too cute, Yeah, and two and Donald don't have the best matchups. I mean, Donald goes against the Bears, who are much better against the pass than they are against the run. Tua goes against the Texans, not an easy
defense to face. But I feel pretty good about both of those guys.
Scott, what do you think the same thing. I know, like you said this and also in another previous show that you are much more willing to bench brain name branded players like big named guys if it suits on the matchups, but like what's the line at quarterback? Because I feel like people really this is the spot where people really want to manipulate and analyze and get cute with.
Yeah, I think my lines of demarcation we're similar to what Pat said where the top five don't even ask me. And then if you ask me about Tuah and Donald because of the matchups, I'd say, I understand why you're asking what You're still playing Tua and you're still playing Darnald. And then it's like, Okay, what do I do with Purdy? What do I do with Nicks? I never know what to do with Kyler Murray? How much help does Justin
Herbert have. Mayfield is a little bit of that Winston type where he makes some splash throws and he throws them to the other guys.
Every week.
Goff does a lot of handing off Patrick Mahomes. We've been saying for over a year now, why isn't he producing like the Patrick Mahomes were used to? Those are all discussions. We have to have what's happened to CJ.
Stroud?
You know, what's happened to Jordan Love? Can we trust Anthony Richardson? Can we dress Aaron Rodgers?
On?
And on it goes.
So I feel like we have five unbelievable locks that you feel thrilled that they're on your roster. Tua and Donald make up a very sturdy B plus tire, and then I think everything else is in play.
Yeah, well there's not a lot of wiggle room anymore. So let's talk about a couple of these quarterbacks. Here. Bo Nicks one of my favorites this week, if I'm being honest, he comes into ECR nine. You guys both have him in this general vicinity. But what I like the conversation around him is he's just outside of that super crazy comfort line that you guys talked about where it's like it's going to take a lot for Darnald
or to to come off of that roster. Bo Nicks coming off of the buy is going up against Indianapolis. I'm very pro bo Nix if you watch some of the shows. But Scott, you've got him a QB nine this week. So your take on getting bo Nicks in those starting lineups.
You know, I like Knicks. I'm a big Courtland Sutton guy. I'm a Sean Payton believer in the passing game. I just wish the bow Knicks, who ran aggressively and have goal line equity would come back, because he hasn't been that player over the last four weeks. And I do think we talked on the Running Back Show how difficult it is to land on a Denver running back you
can trust, and that is true. I feel like somebody is going to run against the Colts, though teams have running against the Colts all year, so this feels like a knixt game where he throws for two hundred and forty five yards probably two touchdowns, won't have a ton of rushing production, won't have a rushing touchdown, and he'll be like quarterback thirteen, quarterback eleven, quarterback fifteen. He'll be
perfectly fine. I just don't think the ceiling that we were excited about with bow Nicks a few weeks ago, I don't think that's present in this matchup.
So I'm gonna actually put two quarterbacks together here because I think this is really fascinating because when I say, what are those lines you know where you'll start to play volume. Jamis Winston, by the way, is the He's the example. He's the player that really always comes up in the question. But there's not a lot of other guys. It's usually, Hey, Jamis Winston throws forty eight times a game, there's volume. Do I play him over bo bop Fits?
And we'll come back to you on Winston, Scott, but Fits, I specifically bring this up because you are very high on Jameis Winston. This week. You have Winston one spot above bow Knicks. So bow Knicks is like, hey, I'm this line of like, I'm one of the top guys. After that, I don't even think about it players yet, Jamis Winston is one. You are jumping over him. So Nicks versus Winston.
Yeah, and what Scott said about bow Nicks' is curtailed running. Over the first nine weeks of the season, Nicks averaged six point four rushing attempts a game and thirty two point eight rushing yards, and he had four touchdown runs over those first nine games. Over his last four games,
nine rushing attempts, nine yards, no touchdowns. So yeah, that's on the other hand, like his passing has He's become more productive as a passer, like multiple touchdown passes and six of his last nine games he's thrown for at least two hundred and seventy three yards in each of his last three. So that's good, But yeah, we don't have quite the ceiling that we did before. Meanwhile, Jamis Winston, he has averaged forty three point two pass attempts over
his six starts. He has thrown forty one pass attempts or more in all but one of those games, averaging three hundred and fifteen passing yards two touchdown passes a game. Yeah, it's a tough matchup against Kansas City this week, but you can't run on the Chiefs. How do you think the Browns are going to try to move the ball against the Chiefs. They're gonna let Jamis throw it forty eight times this week. Yeah, maybe he has like three pick sixes mixed in there, but they're going to keep
letting that dude throw it around the yard. And like, unless your league is severely penal for interceptions and pick six is I want that passing yardage in the TD potential with Jameis Winston, Like I can't believe his ECR is QB eighteen or whatever it is, Like, are you not seeing this guy like throw it every snap on offense practice?
Well that's the question. Then, Caz Scott, you've got him pretty lot. I don't know if you made any rank adjustment, but you've got him around that ECR range. So you guys are like on the opposite ends of the rank side of Jameis Winston. But it's tough, and that is a really tough defense. Like, yeah, you can't run, but like, can you also thrown?
You?
Can you be efficient? What's your take on Jameis Winston with your much lower rank?
Yeah, I have bumped him up to QB sixteen. I realized that doesn't match the enthusiasm that Pat was giving. But you have to look at the shape of this offense, right, I mean they most games, they seem to junk the running game. Nick Chubb is a compromise player this season, which is no fun to say because we all love Nick Chubb and Winston has receivers pass catchers who can elevate him. I mean, Judy can make yards after the catch.
Elijah Moore has been productive the last few weeks, David and Joku's one of the best tight ends we'll see if they get Tillman back this week. So I feel like whatever Cleveland does do against a good Kansas City defense will be through the air. It's just a matter of how much does he give back. There's going to be at least one interception, maybe two, maybe a fumble. So you there's always you're pouring water into the Winston bucket. There's a hole in that bucket. Some of it's going
to leak out. That's part of the game, and you have to play to your scoring system. I just to give you an idea, I have him over Jordan Love, I have him over Anthony Richardson. I have him over Aaron Rodgers, Drake May. I don't really know what to do with Matthew Stafford. Him and Winston will be a call I would probably make very close to kickoff on Thursday.
Of course, Stafford's tied to two really good receivers, so that helps him out, but no Russian component at all, and a lot of times Williams is going to steal the touchdowns. But so Winston. It's a cheap thing to say. Always a really good quarterback too, and mostly people only start one quarterback, and I think you probably have somebody better than Winston. The good news is you'll want to use him next week against Cincinnati.
Boy after watching SINCEINTI hundred percent one last quarterback question, because again our hyper focus is on like the top twelve guys is justin Herbert. So I do find this one difficult. It's a good matchup. We want to know the health of Ladd. Obviously, they've their running game is kind of black right now. Herbert comes in at twelve, and you guys are on opposite end. So Scott, let's go back to you, because you are the high man.
So it's like what you guys have done is you've essentially flipped where your version of Winston is Herbert or you guys are just on the opposite ends where you have Herbert, Fitz has Winston and then the opposite end of you're really low and Fits is really low on Herbert. So talk to us about Herbert in this Tampa Bay matchup.
Yeah, I'm gonna need to get good news on Maconkey because if I don't, I'm not going to want to play Herbert. But Tampa Bay's the team you can certainly throw on. And Herbert's a tough call because he's been really good for efficiency, but a lot of fantasy football is volume and opportunity, and the Chargers have just not played that way.
Now.
You would think they would lean more into the passing game with Dobbins Herd and with Gus Edwards just going nowhere. And I don't know when they're going to lean into Vidal as somebody they trust. It hasn't happened yet.
But Herbert.
If mconkee is a clear go, then I think Herbert is somebody you can play this week. And if he's not, you know, even with the Tampa Bay matchup, I don't trust Quinton Johnson.
I know we had a touchdown last week.
Guys like Palmer I feel like can disappoint anytime. Even Will Disley, who was a useful tight end, is now hurt. We'll see if Smart can be a sleep attend and for some people, but to me, it all comes down to mconkie. I'll have Herbert inside the top twelve and Maconkey's ago, and if he's not, I'm going to have to push him into that non startable range.
Fits is your rank with the assumption that Mconkie is not playing or currently because he's questionable all or there a just bigger concerns.
Kind of a hedge. I'm sort of that ranking is based on fifty to fifty. I'll move him up a couple of spots if Lad plays, for sure, but not that high. Like for instance, in one of the leagues where I've got a wild card game this week, we have deep rosters, so everyone carries multiple quarterbacks. I'm carrying Brock Purty and Justin Herbert, and ECR has Purty at QB eight and Herbert QB twelve, So ECR does prefer Purty, but maybe it's close enough where you would compare carefully
before making a decision. For me, just a snap call with Purty. Like Herbert is banged up, he's dealing with that leg injury after the big hit by Nick Bolton last week in the game against the Chiefs, and he's not going to have Will Disley, and he may not have Ladd McConkie, and he's certainly not going to have one hundred percent Ladd McConkie since Ladd is dealing with
these knee and shoulder issues. I mean, Herbert is left with a pretty poor group of pass catchers if he doesn't have Ladd in this game, because we know Quentin Johnston is wildly undependable. Josh Palmer has kind of hit or miss Jalen Rager, Darius Davis like with Herbert playing on a bad wheel and with a depleted group of pass catchers, like he's just not a guy want to bet on.
You have two things fighting against each other in this game, because Tampa Bay wants to play a shootout and the Chargers are one of those Steelers type teams. They want to play seventeen thirteen football, and Jim Harbour wants to beat you with fiscality and controlling the clock and with a very boring style that's been effective and it's made the Chargers of playoff team. So what wins out? Does Tampa Bay get their carnival or do the Chargers play
they're boring? Where the first game to end in our window, which is so often Charger games are. I'm curious to see which style of play wins out.
On Sunday, let's go over to the tight end ranks. Here your top twelve for the week. As per always, he's very chocky at the top. Rock Bowers at one Trey mcbrided too. I think that's just no brainer. George Kittle at three again where no brainer territory. Things start to open up a little bit. Travis Kelty, Kelsey, David and Joke. Who rounds out your top five? We've got John news Smith, TJ. Howkinson, Sam Laporta, Mark Andrews, Tucker Craft, Evan Ingram and Pat Pryermouth. So the line starts to
open up, I think right after seven. Obviously Andrews and Laporta have been a little bit better. The touchdown equity is up there, So that's I think where the tight end questions start to exist. So let's jump over to Tucker Craft. There's an interesting one tight end ten. Scott's got him at ten and fits you got him at eight. So talk to us about any optimism on tucker Craft.
Yeah, it's really hard to pin down target counts with the Green Bay pass catchers. It's just really wildly unpredictable week to week. And Matt Lafleur has talked about this and like he gets angry at press conferences when people ask him about the disappearances of pass catchers such as oh, for instance, Jaden Reed, who had one target in that
shootout game against the Lions last week. But Kraft has been a guy who Jordan Love has kind of leaned on, and he leans on him, especially when he gets close to the red zone. In the ten games the Packers have played since Jordan Love came back from that early season knee injury, Kraft has seven touchdowns in those ten games. Like, he does seem to be the preferred red zone target for Jordan Love, and he's averaged a pretty respectable forty four point four yards per game over those ten that
ten game stretch playing with Jordan Love. Yeah, so the touchdown upside here and a decent yardage floor, I think he's a pretty solid play here. You know, not one of the guys obviously you wish you had a no brainer start like Brock Bowers or Trey McBride, But if you're one of those people who's kind of scraping by a tight end, I mean, I think Tucker Craft looks pretty good in Week fifteen, Scott.
If the top four guys are the first tier Bowers, McBride, Kittle, even Kelsey, and you just like don't think about them, then there's that next tier where it's like in Djoku, john Ou Hawkinson, Okay, great, does Tucker Craft belong in this third tier, which I would say the third tier is the last of like should I get crazy and stream and that tier can theoretically consists of Tucker Craft,
Evan Ingram, maybe Pat Fryarmouth in there. Do you think Kraft is in that spot where I know I created like three different tiers, but like three, the third tier is the I'm not getting too cute unless I had some incredible matchup. I'm not starting a Juwan Johnson from last week or anybody like that like that. He is trustworthy at ten, though he doesn't have the upside clearly of like, you know, Hawkinson.
Yeah, you know, I'm not even sure he's that far from Hawkinson. In my revised ranks, I have Craft more in line with Pat. I think he said tight end eight for me, and it's because not just of that touchdown equity, which is always going to be a huge part of any tight end question. But I love the way they use creatively Kraft, where he gets a lot of those tight end screens where the blockers are downfield, he catches it and there's a twenty yard splash play
waiting to happen. He's got thirteen point four yards per catch, which is outstanding for a tight end. That's passable for a wide receiver. So in a year where the Green Bay pass, the opportunities are splintered, and Matt Laford's answering those questions he doesn't want to answer. He's getting kind of surly about it because of Jayden Reed disappearing, or you never know what you're getting from Christian Watson, and Dobbs has been in the lineup, and Wicks has been
in and out of relevance. I actually feel like Kraft has a reasonable four. The thing is he's just never going to be peppered with targets. But this is the tight end position. We can live with five or eight targets. It's goal line equity. Maybe he hits one of those
screenplays for twenty yards. I feel pretty confident he'll be inside the top ten if you have Tucker Craft, if you landed on him and I realized you may have picked him up and I already had a good tight end, I feel like he's probably been locked into your lineup more often than not, and I'm totally fine with it. I will sleep like a baby with Tucker Craft in my week fifteen lineup.
I have a lot of Tucker Craft shares.
I want to start him just for that cool kip up he did after the crushing hit he took last week against the Lions. That was very impressive.
I did not know how long ago it was that I could actually do that, you know, seven or nine or eleven, I don't know.
My kids are both in dance and I didn't know that that move. If people know, it's like the thing you flip back up. I didn't know that was called the kip up until they were in dance, and now I've learned it, and all I could think about is like, how difficult that had to be with a helmet and pads on.
So yes, athletically, I didn't know he was called a kip up until Pat fitzmoorri said it about fifteen seconds ago. But which goes to show you for the Mary Tyler Moore references, not for the kipup references. Maybe Pat of course, showing his ability to weave in between errors, which is why he's so great.
But like mister Welsh, I had a child in dance, so you know my daughter actually had to learn how to do that.
So that Yeah, both of my kids are doing that all day and I'm like, please stop it. Please.
You know these things when you're a dance dad.
Now that's one hundred percent right, all right? Final one here is Jake Ferguson, a streaming tight end for the week. He usually is ranking outside of the top twelve. His ECR this week is fourteen. Scott, you have him, I think right on cube. But FITZI you've got him at twelve. So fits Ferguson streaming tight end this week.
Yeah, I think you could stream him. And it's mainly matchup driven. The Panthers have allowed the most fantasy points to tight ends, and they've allowed a league high ten touchdown catches to tight ends. Ferguson has played three games with Cooper Rush at quarterback. He missed two with a concussion, and really it's more like two games because one of those three games he sustained that concussion after only seven snaps. So in those two games plus, he's had eight catches
for sixty seven yards. Not that impressive, but like, there's not a lot of pass catching firepower on this Cowboys team other than Ceedee Lamb obviously, Brandon cook starting to work his way back in, but man like, this matchup does drive me to Jake Ferguson, who's been a pretty reliable tight end for the Cowboys in the past yet hasn't looked great so far with Cooper Rush. But I wouldn't say that it can't in this plus matchup, Scott.
If you're staring at a guy like Pat Fryarmouth, is Ferguson a streaming tight end, You're getting over a guy like that.
Yeah, it's rare where Pat and I have a sharp disagreement, but I'm gonna have it here. No touchdowns for Ferguson this year. I realized he's been hurt for a decent chunk of the season and also eight point seven yards per catch. I need one or two things to work. I need to touchdown equity. I need the ability of a splash player, maybe even a quarterback to elevate. He doesn't check any of those.
Boxes right now.
I get it. You want to gang up on Carolina, and I think Ricco Dolla will do that. I think Ceedee Lamb will do that. Cooks did have a touchdown last week, so there's another month to feed. I just want I don't mind going set on seating some guys, but Ferguson's has been hurt so much this year. Other Schoomaker has actually looked pretty good. I think he's still going to have a role even with Ferguson back on the field. We saw that in the Monday night game.
So Ferguson is somebody I have to really be in a pinch before I played him.
You mentioned Friarmoth.
He's an easy preference for me, even something as ugly as Evan Ingram, the Jaguars man Max Jones. I hate what he's doing to that offense. I hated what Trevor Lawrence is doing into it. I hated what Doug Peterson is doing to it. But Ingram I could play over Ferguson. I could play Friar Mooth over him. Even k dott And, who's become kind of unreliable of late, is somebody I have ranked above Ferguson.
A lot of tight end questions that are going to be out there Thursday, three pm Eastern. We got you covered. If you got more of them, you can literally throw your would you rather this tight end or this tight end? As we got to start and sit live stream on YouTube YouTube dot com Slash Fantasy pro so podcast listeners, you know what to do, Go and subscribe. Get notified, ladies and gentlemen. That is it for the week fifteen tight end and quarterback ranks. Scott Pianowski, thank you for
joining us all season long, my friend. We have thoroughly enjoyed you.
It's been a blast. Thanks so much for having me, guys. I've enjoyed these spots tremendously. I think it's helped me make better lineup decisions and give up better fantasy advice. I am not you know, I'll listen to anybody with a good idea, and you guys always have great ideas. So thanks so much for having me and just fantasy pros. Thanks for being a great just a great place to get stats, to get data. I use it so much for my own minding because you're The way you present
stats is really really good. So it's along with Football Reference and some other websites, I think it's indispensable source for information and I'm just happy to be a small part of it.
Well, we love you, we love the audience and for Pat fits more as I'm Chris Welsh, you guys have a fantastic one, and good luck in those up off frunds for Week fifteen right here on Fantasy Pros, We'll talk to you next time.
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