Week 6 QB Rankings: What to do with Peyton Manning

I have Peyton Manning ranked 18^th this week. That’s behind Cam Newton, who draws Seattle, and only directly above Blake Bortles and Brian Hoyer. The truth is, though, that he could be much lower. A question I had to ask myself was to rank Josh McCown or Manning higher, and Manning has the much easier matchup.

If you own Manning, what do you do? If there are viable free agents, Manning is droppable. It’s a reasonable expectation for this performance to continue. But where that is not the case, I’d hang on, figuring that a player as smart as Manning should be able to adapt to his weakened arm. The crowd has turned on Manning, including many smart people who know what they’re talking about. But from a purely contrarian perspective, I might take a flyer on a player that might be hiding the fact he still has gas in the tank.

Here’s how last week’s recommendations performed.

Joe Flacco vs. Cleveland Browns

Week 5 Finish: 6

A pair of rushing touchdowns boosted mediocre passing stats. He remains in play as a streamer.

Alex Smith vs. Chicago Bears

Week 5 Finish: 18

Smith is playing his way out of the streaming class. Losing Jamaal Charles either means the offense will worsen or Smith will have the opportunity to air it out to Travis Kelce and Jeremy Maclin.

Josh McCown vs. Baltimore Ravens

Week 5 Finish: 1

Well, I would have felt bad if I excluded McCown from this space last week. With 457 passing yards and three total touchdowns, he would have been a must-add if he had an easier schedule.

Blake Bortles vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week 5 Finish: 3

Bortles threw a career-high four touchdowns, but we now know he is dealing with a shoulder injury. If he can play, he’s still usable.

Kirk Cousins vs. Atlanta Falcons

Week 5 Finish: 24

He would have finished higher if we exclude the overtime interception, but that’s not how this works. Cousins’ accuracy was again subpar and should be ignored in fantasy unless things turn around.

Now let’s move on to this week’s streamers.

Week 6 Streamers

Joe Flacco vs. San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco has been an easy defense to target, as the only opposing passer to fail to throw a touchdown pass was Teddy Bridgewater in Week 1. Joe Flacco has been boom-or-must, with two games with fewer than eight points and three with more than 20 points.

Colin Kaepernick vs. Baltimore Ravens

With the way the Baltimore pass defense has looked, I’m not afraid to go after it with Colin Kaepernick, who has been shaky behind center for San Francisco all year. It should be an informative game in that it’ll demonstrate the usability of Kap in a game that might not have garbage time.

Jay Cutler vs. Detroit Lions

Alshon Jeffery’s presence on the field would make this pick stronger, but Jay Cutler played relatively well without Jeffery against the Chiefs. Detroit has allowed usable fantasy weeks to all five quarterbacks it has faced, so Cutler has a good chance of turning in fantasy numbers.

Blake Bortles vs. Houston Texans

The Houston defense is a tough one to understand for fantasy purposes, and in a way that makes this pick risky. Their numbers on the season look encouraging, but also somewhat boosted by quarterback rushing touchdowns. Blake Bortles isn’t much of a threat in that department. But he is a top-10 quarterback on the year and will probably get his yardage regardless of the strength of the Houston defense.

Brian Hoyer vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

I had a rough time choosing between Bortles and Brian Hoyer, and there really isn’t much difference from my perspective. It is worth noting the Jaguars have only allowed two 300-yard games, but the quarterbacks who failed to reach 300 were Cam Newton, Matt Hasselbeck, and Jameis Winston. Hoyer is certainly in play here.

I'm not too strict with my ranks, so please don't be either. The gap between a lot of these players is so small there's no reason to fret about what looks to be a poor rank. For the column 'Pass Defense Rank', I used numberFire's Adjusted Defensive Pass Net Expected Points per Play, which adjusts for strength of schedule and measures how good a pass defense was on a per-play basis. After previously using 2014 statistics, I have listed the 2015 ranking. You can learn more about Net Expected Points here.

Rank	Player	Team	Opponent	Pass Defense Rank
1	Tom Brady	New England Patriots	Indianapolis Colts	28
2	Aaron Rodgers	Green Bay Packers	San Diego Chargers	15
3	Carson Palmer	Arizona Cardinals	Pittsburgh Steelers	16
4	Joe Flacco	Baltimore Ravens	San Francisco 49ers	25
5	Matt Ryan	Atlanta Falcons	New Orleans Saints	31
6	Marcus Mariota	Tennessee Titans	Miami Dolphins	32
7	Eli Manning	New York Giants	Philadelphia Eagles	8
8	Philip Rivers	San Diego Chargers	Green Bay Packers	7
9	Drew Brees	New Orleans Saints	Atlanta Falcons	17
10	Colin Kaepernick	San Francisco 49ers	Baltimore Ravens	13
11	Jay Cutler	Chicago Bears	Detroit Lions	27
12	Russell Wilson	Seattle Seahawks	Carolina Panthers	2
13	Sam Bradford	Philadelphia Eagles	New York Giants	21
14	Andrew Luck	Indianapolis Colts	New England Patriots	10
15	Andy Dalton	Cincinnati Bengals	Buffalo Bills	6
16	Cam Newton	Carolina Panthers	Seattle Seahawks	12
17	Peyton Manning	Jacksonville Jaguars	Cleveland Browns	23
18	Blake Bortles	Jacksonville Jaguars	Houston Texans	20
19	Brian Hoyer	Houston Texans	Jacksonville Jaguars	30
20	Ryan Tannehill	Miami Dolphins	Tennessee Titans	11
21	Ryan Fitzpatrick	New York Jets	Washington Redskins	14
22	Kirk Cousins	Washington Redskins	New York Jets	3
23	Josh McCown	Cleveland Browns	Denver Broncos	1
24	Matthew Stafford	Detroit Lions	Chicago Bears	24
25	Teddy Bridgewater	Minnesota Vikings	Kansas City Chiefs	22
26	Alex Smith	Kansas City Chiefs	Minnesota Vikings	9
27	Michael Vick	Pittsburgh Steelers	Arizona Cardinals	4
28	E.J. Manuel	Buffalo Bills	Cincinnati Bengals	18