Trade and waiver deadlines are right around the corner, but Week 9 introduced a couple of viable options for the short and long terms that could help position your fantasy football team for the homestretch.
First, if it seems as though we’re talking about a new replacement quarterback every week, it’s because we are. As we enter Week 10, there have been 42 different starting quarterbacks this season. That means nearly one-third of all NFL teams have, at some point, relied on a backup quarterback.
That’s sometimes good news for fantasy football players, but can often lead to devastating outcomes. Clearly, if your starter was the one who got hurt or benched (see: Drew Bledsoe, Matt Hasselbeck and Trent Green, for example), you’re stuck in the lurch. But if you came up short in the draft, a good waiver pickup could help save your season (see: Tony Romo, Seneca Wallace and Damon Huard).
But there’s the rub. Romo should keep starting for the rest of the season, while Huard and Wallace’s days on the field could end very soon.
Fortunately, a couple of new options are surfacing from way down in the corner of the world we call Florida. Jacksonville’s David Garrard looks poised to finish out the year as the Jaguars’ signal caller as starter Byron Leftwich has an ankle injury that likely won’t heal by the end of the season and reportedly will need surgery.
Unfortunately for Leftwich, we know all too well what Garrard can do and he’s a more-than-viable replacement. In five years as Jacksonville’s backup, Garrard has been called into action 20 times, including 10 starts. He’s passed for 11 touchdowns and thrown just four interceptions. He has also run for six scores and possesses the kind of mobility that Leftwich lacks.
Week 8 was a defensive struggle where Garrard didn’t post much in the way of offense, but he broke out last week for 264 passing yards, three touchdowns and 50 rushing yards.
Another Floridian you might be interested in looking at is – gulp! – Miami’s Joey Harrington.
Here’s hoping I don’t get my Fantasy Football Writers of America card yanked for that one!
I’m not suggesting you grab him and start him every week, but it’s clear that Harrington is developing into a serviceable fantasy starter, especially if you’re in a pinch. In Week 8, he nearly threw his arm off, hurling 62 passes and completing 33 for 414 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Last week, on the road against the best defense in the NFL in the Chicago Bears, he tossed three touchdown passes.
Harrington is still making too many mistakes and turning the ball over too much, but it’s clear that head coach Nick Saban is confident enough to let Harrington throw the ball, which is good news for fantasy owners.
Down in Dallas, Romo is shaping up into solid fantasy consideration on a weekly basis. In two and a half games, he’s had just the kind of progression you’d like to see from a new starter. In his first game, getting tossed in after halftime on a Monday night, he threw more interceptions than touchdowns (three to two). The next week he evened it out with one of each. Last week his 284 passing yards, two touchdowns and no picks helped propel Romo into legitimacy.
Columnist Victor Balta: vbalta@heraldnet.com
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