1. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
There is little doubt that Brees is going to have himself quite the game tonight against the Atlanta Falcons, who are giving up an average of 19.83 fantasy points per game and is coming off an atrocious performance against Mike Glennon. The rookie quarterback tallied 231 yards and two scores with just three incompletions last week.
Brees is coming off a rather pedestrian fantasy performance by his standards. The No. 2 overall fantasy quarterback for the season finished with just one touchdown and one interception against the San Francisco 49ers in route to the 19th-best fantasy performance for a quarterback. The good news here is that he's going up against a defense that doesn't even remotely compare to the one he saw at the Superdome last week.
Projected Statistics: 365 passing yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions
2. Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions
Don't look now, but Stafford is now the No. 3 fantasy quarterback on the season and has been downright ridiculous as of late.
He has put up 14 touchdowns compared to five interceptions over the course of the last five games and is on pace to throw for over 5,000 yards for the second time in three seasons.
Stafford and the Lions will be taking on a Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense that has been atrocious against the pass recently after starting out the season relatively strong.
Even mediocre quarterbacks such as Ryan Tannehill have had success against this unit as of late.
That's not a good sign for a team looking to win a third consecutive game. That, however, is a great sign for Stafford' owners.
Projected Statistics: 340 passing yards, four touchdowns and one interception
3. Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos
Manning comes in at only No. 3 here? Yeah, that has to be a bit surprising. It's nothing against him, rather the two quarterbacks listed above seem to have better matchups than the top overall fantasy player thus far this seasons. Manning will be traveling to New England to take on a Patriots team that ranks in the middle of the pack against fantasy quarterbacks, but have allowed less than 200 passing yards in half their games this season.
Either way you put it, Manning is going to be a top-five projection for the remainder of the season. He's still on pace to break the single-season NFL record for passing yards and touchdown passes. That's enough for me to put him at the No. 3 overall slot.
Projected Statistics: 320 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception
4. Eli Manning, New York Giants
No, I haven't gone off the reservation and joined the crazies under a cave somewhere in Idaho waiting for frogs to fly from the sky. Manning has played pretty well during the Giants' four-game winning streak. While Manning has only thrown three touchdowns during that span, his two interceptions is rather impressive considering that he tallied 15 in the first six games. It's now all about getting the ball in the end zone through the air. The good news here is that New York lines up against a Dallas Cowboys defense that ranks dead last in the NFL against fantasy quarterbacks anad has given up 23 total touchdowns to quarterbacks in 10 games.
Projected Statistics: 275 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception
5. Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers
A lot has been made about Kaepernick's struggles thus far this season. Looking at it through a fantasy lens, the third-year player is the 16th-ranked fantasy quarterbacks through 11 weeks, ahead of the likes of Tom Brady and Joe Flacco.
While not terribly impressive for a player many expected to finish in the top 10 of the rankings, Kaepernick has a relatively easy matchup on Monday Night Football against the Washington Redskins.
They are yielding over 300 total yards and 20.24 fantasy points to quarterbacks this season. If Kaepernick cannot put up top-notch production in this one, there is a lot more wrong with him than we originally thought.
Projected Statistics: 220 passing yards, 55 rushing yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions