Fantasy Football

Fantasy Football QB Index: Week 7

Who are the top rated passers through week 7?

By Paddi Cooper@PaddiCooper Oct 25, 2018, 10:00am EDT

Another week and another strong outing from the league’s top passers, as for the sixth consecutive week, the average QB Index rating is above 50%. This week we saw an average rating of 52.2%, which means season to date average rating of 52.8%, over 3 percentage points higher than the same point last season (49.4%).

We had a seventh different quarterback in seven weeks lead the weekly rankings as the top passer of this week was Matthew Stafford, who posted an 86.4% rating in the Lions’ 32-21 win over the Dolphins in Miami. It was Stafford’s joint highest ever rating, having achieved an 86.4% rating twice last season. Stafford has moved up seven places and now sits in 9th place in the season long rankings, though his fantasy output continues to be below his ADP as the 18th scoring QB vs an ADP of QB 10.

Just behind Stafford this week we have two of the top rated quarterbacks of the season to date in Philip Rivers and Patrick Mahomes who posted ratings of 83.3% and 78.8% respectively. Rivers has now overtaken Drew Brees for the top rated passer of the season to date, despite not leading the league in any of the six categories that drive the QB Index ranking. Mahomes also moves up one spot into 3rd overall and continues to lead the league in both touchdown passes and touchdown percentage. Drew Brees sits in second place overall after another steady week with a rating of 66.7% as he completed over 70% of his passes for the fifth time in six weeks as he led the Saints to a 4th quarter comeback victory over the Ravens.

Andrew Luck had his best rated game of 2018 as he posted a 74.4% rating as the Colts rolled over the Bills and their top 10 rated pass defense. It was Luck’s best rating in two years and one of the top 10 performances of his entire career. That Luck managed this attempting his fewest passes of the season is a positive sign for both Luck and Colts as they stay in touch in the AFC South. Luck is currently the 9th highest scoring quarterback in fantasy with an average of 21.2 points per game, exactly in line with his ADP.

The worst rating of Week 7 came from Josh Rosen, who managed a rating of just 9.1%, by far the lowest of his short career to date. Rosen threw three interceptions and was sacked six times in the 45-10 defeat to the Broncos. Fellow rookie Sam Darnold was the second lowest rated quarterback of the week with an 18.2% rating in the Jets’ defeat to the Vikings at home. Both Rosen and Darnold are suffering typical rookie growing pains and sit at 33rd and 35th in the overall rankings, separated by Blake Bortles, who himself posted his third consecutive below par performance with a 36.4% rating as Jaguars made it three defeats in a row. Bortles was benched for Cody Kessler in the Jags’ defeat to the Texans, though Kessler himself also only managed a 36.4% rating in his time on the field.

Derek Anderson, who can’t expected to have found himself on the field for the Bills when he signed to mentor Josh Allen, understandably struggled and posted just a 24.2% rating and a grand total of -1 fantasy points.