Boy, when that injury bug bites, it hurts. Week 7 knocked out a trio of quarterbacks that could be leaving some fantasy football players in the lurch.
Matt Hasselbeck is out with a messed up knee.
Ben Roethlisberger could be out with a concussion.
Drew Bledsoe is out with a bruised ego.
Only one of these three – Hasselbeck – should have any significant impact on your fantasy football team. Roethlisberger is a fraud and rarely does much to contribute as a fantasy football player, regardless of a couple of decent games in the past two weeks.
Yes, I’m still bitter.
Bledsoe is too erratic to have been your top fantasy option.
But their replacements are what will have fantasy players burning up their waiver wires and wondering whether they’ve stumbled onto the next big sleeper.
Word is that Hasselbeck will be out at least three weeks, the jury’s still out on Roethlisberger. At least Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells has confirmed he is benching Bledsoe and starting backup Tony Romo on Sunday.
This kind of uncertainty kills fantasy football teams, especially at the halfway point in the season. Besides Romo, the backups that would fill in are Seattle’s Seneca Wallace and Pittsburgh’s Charlie Batch.
If you are in need of help at quarterback and if there is confirmation that Roethlisberger will miss significant time, Batch is your best option.
In one and a half games filling in for Roethlisberger, Batch has thrown for 404 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. Batch is a veteran who can handle the pressure and demands of filling in, maintaining his composure and leading the Steelers to something short of a return to the playoffs.
Yes, I’m still bitter.
Next on the list is Wallace, who is elusive enough to avoid some of the pressure that Hasselbeck has had to face behind the Seahawks’ shaky offensive line this season. Wallace has also been around the system for four years and has a strong and fairly accurate arm. Also, entering the game in crunch time last week was a good thing for Wallace, although it resulted in a few mistakes.
Viewers could see a sort of stunned look in Wallace’s eyes as he played the first significant minutes of his career on Sunday. After a week of practice and with at least some real playing time under his belt, Wallace should be able to settle down and be effective in the coming weeks, especially with a fleet of quality receivers who want to help the team weather this storm especially while running back Shaun Alexander is gone.
Dallas’ Romo made his grand entrance in the second half of a nationally televised “Monday Night Football” game. On his first play, he threw an interception. It was a fluky play, but a microcosm of the kinds of mistakes that happen to new quarterbacks. Wallace, too, threw a bad-luck pick and fumbled after being blindsided.
We’ll have to see more from Romo before recommending him, but he should remain the starter, so he might be worth picking up as an investment. But for immediate help, he’s not your guy.
But he’s better than Roethlisberger.
Yes, I’m still bitter.
Columnist Victor Balta: balta@heraldnet.com.
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