Once three weeks of the NFL season are complete, the dreaded time in every fantasy owner’s season comes in Week 4. Bye weeks.
Some of the best players are snatched away by the NFL schedule for a game, but for the first round of byes, owners are thankfully only missing out on Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton.
Although that only forces owners to find replacements for two potential starting quarterbacks, these three quarterbacks should also be avoided, even though they’ll be stepping on a NFL field in Week 4.
Andy Dalton, Cincinnati Bengals
Dalton is one of those potential replacements for Newton or Rodgers owners looking for a spot start. He’s likely available in most leagues and would make for an easy add, but look elsewhere on the waiver wire this week.
In the first half of games, Dalton has really struggled, throwing three interceptions in the first 30 minutes of game time, according to ESPN, and only completed 55.6 percent of his passes in Week 2 against an aging Pittsburgh Steelers defense. He was pretty impressive in Cincy’s win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, throwing two touchdowns and only throwing an incompletion eight times.
But against the Cleveland Browns, he won’t be repeating his Week 3 performance. The Browns have allowed the seventh-lowest number of fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks, according to Yahoo!, and have forced five turnovers in three games. The Bengals should win this game given their strong defense, but Dalton won’t put up big numbers against Cleveland and will rely more on his running backs in this one.
Jay Cutler, Chicago Bears
A lot of owners will put a lot in Cutler’s stock because of his high number of touchdowns. Cutler has thrown six touchdown passes this year, which puts him at No. 4 among quarterbacks, according to our ranks, but is only 20th in passing yards. In Week 4, Cutler could see an increased number of starts because most people look at the Detroit Lions and assume the Bears are going to have to get in a shootout with Detroit to win.
But the Lions defense has been much better against quarterbacks than most fans realize, averaging 1.7 interceptions per game and allowing the fourth-fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks, according to Yahoo!.
Matt Forte will get the majority of the work here, considering the Lions are the second-worst defense in the league against running backs. Linebacker DeAndre Levy has had an exceptional year for Detroit, recording 21 tackles, defending two passes and interception two others. The Lions also have three other players with at least one interception. This will be a big Forte game, but not a big Cutler game.
Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts
Luck should be an exceptional professional quarterback this season, and the Colts are looking like an early favorite to surprise some teams this season and make the playoffs, especially after their upset over the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3.
But being a solid pro quarterback doesn’t necessarily translate to being a good fantasy quarterback. The Colts have the Jacksonville Jaguars this week, arguably the worst team in the NFL (although the Steelers are starting to make a strong case). Teams get up early on the Jaguars and start to run the ball and run out the clock for the remainder of the game. Russell Wilson even got benched halfway through Seattle’s game in Week 3 against Jacksonville.
New running back Trent Richardson didn’t get much love against San Francisco, but with a week under his belt to learn the blocking scheme of the Colts, he should get some more work and the combination of Richardson and Ahmad Bradshaw will take away short-distance touchdowns from Luck, an effect that will be exacerbated because the Jaguars are the Jaguars.