Week 16 QB Waiver Wire Pickups & Adds: Jalen Hurts Can Win You Your League

Lineups.com is your all-in-one fantasy football shop! Check out our stats, projections, offensive, and defensive rankings. For the Daily Fantasy Sports players, check out our DFS projections as well. Week 16! For many of us, that means the championship week. If you’re still looking for a starting quarterback, look no further. Here are five quarterbacks with great matchups this week. We’ll also look at who you could hang on to for week 17 as well if it is needed in your league.

NameTeamOpponentFAAB%Own%
Jalen HurtsEaglesCowboys100%21.5
Jared GoffRamsSeahawks100%67.6
Baker MayfieldBrownsJets100%30.5
Mitch TrubiskyBearsJacksonville100%7.4
Tua TagovailoaDolphinsRaiders100%24

Jalen Hurts

 

This is less of a “stream,” and more of a “you’re lucky if he is still available in your league and you either have the top waiver priority or enough FAAB to scoop him up” type of deal. If you’re unsure of who to play at quarterback, and you have the means to acquire Jalen Hurts, make it happen. Over his first two NFL starts, Hurts has combined for 505 passing yards and four passing touchdowns, as well as 169 yards and one touchdown on the ground on 27 carries. Sunday against Arizona, in NFL standard scoring formats, Hurts squeaked past Josh Allen and Ryan Tannehill for the top performance of the week with 37.82 points. To make matters even more exciting, Hurts gets to play Dallas, who is worse against fantasy quarterbacks than either of his two previous matchups (New Orleans and Arizona). While not yet mathematically eliminated from winning the division, expect the Eagles to play at 100-percent this weekend. If it is needed in your league, Philadelphia plays Washington in week 17. This is not an ideal matchup, but Hurts’ rushing baseline still makes him playable.

Jared Goff

 

Many picked up Goff in anticipation of his week 15 and 16 matchups, the Jets and the Seahawks. While he didn’t destroy you against the Jets (15.26), he certainly didn’t help you win (currently the QB23 in standard NFL scoring formats prior to Monday night’s game). Nonetheless, you could do much worse than Jared Goff against Seattle. Currently, Seattle is the fifth-worst team against opposing quarterbacks. While admittedly they have been better as of late, their recent opponents might have more to do with their improved stats. From weeks 12 through 15, here were Seattle’s opposing quarterbacks: Carson Wentz, Colt McCoy, Sam Darnold, and Dwayne Haskins. If Hurts is not an option, my next choice would be Goff. If you need him for week 17 as well he has another solid matchup against Arizona, and both teams will likely be playing at 100-percent for playoff seeding purposes.

Baker Mayfield

 

Here is Baker’s point totals over the last four games in standard NFL scoring formats: 18.42, 28.96, 30.02, 20.98. Needless to say, he has has been on fire. While his season-total completion percentage of 64-percent is relatively low, over this stretch of four games, Baker has completed 70-percent of his attempts in addition to his 10 touchdown passes and just one interception. The even better news is Baker gets to play the Jets this week, who are the third-worst team against opposing quarterbacks in 2020. Starting with week 11 after their bye, here is how quarterbacks have finished on the week playing the Jets in standard NFL scoring formats: 2, 6, 1, 8, 22. Goff was the only player to not finish as a top-10 option in what ending up being an outlier of a game. Don’t be afraid to play Baker, as not only has he been playing great, but the matchup is there and so will the scoring opportunities be. Have a second option for week 17 though if needed, as Cleveland plays Pittsburgh (second-best against opposing quarterbacks).

Mitch Trubisky

 

I recommended Mitch Trubisky in each of the last few weeks and once it paid off and once it did not. Trubisky followed up his QB6 performance against Houston in week 14 with a 13.48 disappointing finish against Minnesota in week 15. Make no mistake, it wasn’t that the Bears offense was non-existent. His poor fantasy finish had more to do with David Montgomery and Minnesota’s inability to stop the ground game. Montgomery had 146 yards (199 overall as a team) in addition to the two touchdowns he vultured on the ground. This week Chicago takes on Jacksonville in a must-win game as they fight Arizona for the last playoff spot. While admittedly the game-script could end up similar to the game they just played against Minnesota that resulted in a run-heavy attack playing with the lead, there is no doubting the scoring opportunities will be there for Trubisky. Additionally, the Jaguars give up points to opposing quarterbacks much more consistently than Minnesota does (Jacksonville is the second-worst team against opposing quarterbacks). Over their last six games, not only is Jacksonville’s defense giving up an average of 29.3 points per game as a team, here is the fantasy finishes of each of the opposing quarterbacks in those six games: 5, 15, 10, 11, 18, 5. Three top-10 finishes, and nobody finished with less than 16.48 points. I’ll admit it would take some guts to play Trubisky in your fantasy championship game, but the Bears offense has been playing great and the matchup is superb.

Tua Tagovailoa

Only for the most desperate of players, consider Tua Tagovailoa as a sneaky start in week 16. In six full games (excluding the games he didn’t play entirely), Tua is averaging 17.28 fantasy points per game. However, one of these was 21.42 against Arizona and another was 27.04 a few weeks ago in a tough matchup against Kansas City. Additionally, he’s now scored at least 16.14 points in three straight starts since taking back over the starting job from Fitzpatrick in week 13, with an average of 20.63 points in those three games. This week Miami, who is fighting for a playoff spot, will take on the Raiders, who are the 10th-worst team against opposing quarterbacks. Over their last five games, Las Vegas has allowed two top-10 finishes and have given up an average of 20.24 points per game. Most recently, their depleted defense (four starters missed the game on the COVID-19 reserve list) gave up a QB6 finish to Justin Herbert with 27.96 points. In deeper leagues, Tua has the opportunity to put together a solid week, particularly if he gets some of his weapons back.

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Zach Boeder is a high school math teacher that has a passion for sports and data journalism. Zach received a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and a Master's Degree in Education from the University of Arizona. He currently teaches in Saint Paul and Lives in Minneapolis with his partner Sarah, their dog Dozier, and cat Remy. Zach plans to argue for a very long time that "2020 would have been the Twins' year if baseball hadn't been shut down."

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