Ryan wrote yesterday on three quarterbacks you might want to bench after two weeks of poor performance. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll give you the reasons why you should bench a QB over a backup. I’ll use my own fantasy roster to illustrate.

In my draft, I went with offensive weapons at RB and WR and a top rated defense before I even considered drafting a QB. The reasoning was simple: I can start 2 WR and 1 RB, with an optional 3rd WR or 2nd RB: the pool of top performers for these two positions was much bigger than the top QBs. Our league also is pretty liberal with points for defense. If you can hold a team under 10 points, get a couple of turnovers and score once, chances are your defense will be in the running for most points on any given weekend.

So naturally I wanted the best of these two skill positions and defense before looking at the QB. Also historically the top tier QBs are gone by the third round anyway. And by top tier I am referring to the elites like the eldest Manning, Brady, Rodgers, Brees, Rivers. Going into the fourth round there are still quite a few marquee flankers and backs still available, and there had not been a run on defense yet either.

Getting into the mid rounds it was now time to consider a quarterback. So, when it got to the 6th round there were still serviceable QBs to choose from. I took Eli Manning, thinking his numbers really improved last year over his first three as a starter in the league. His touchdown total remained virtually unchanged, but his interceptions really decreased, going from 20 to 10. And by playing the AFC West t draft day thinking was he ought to have a couple easy weeks for good stats potential this season (Kansas City, Denver, Oakland). I was happy with the pick.

As I got into the late rounds, I began drafting by looking at my deficiencies in terms of bye weeks. In the 12th round Jason Campbell was still on the boards, and the Giants’ bye week was week six. Washington was week eight so that would make for a potentially good pickup. Plus, Jason was a bit of an enigma this offseason as by all accounts it seemed the Washington brass had no faith in his abilities by trying to trade for Cutler. So if anything, Campbell was out to prove the front office wrong.

The Process

Week to week, you should analyze your roster and obviously set your line up for the most potential points for that week. In my case, Week 2 already presented a QB controversy. The G Men were travelling to Dallas and historically Dallas mauled Eli: Over his last 5 games, he was sacked an unbelievable 18 times, picked off six and fumbled five times. Granted he threw for 10 touchdowns, but to me the risk was not worth the reward. So Jason Campbell was considered. While his numbers were not stellar, they were serviceable. Plus, the Rams were coming off a loss in which they were shut out. This was a low risk decision and Jason got the start.

Such factors will be considered in future games. Manning’s numbers are pretty poor against Washington too. The scary part of this approach is in the past three seasons he doesn’t have any games against the NFC South or AFC West to consider. Those will just be best guess and gut check decisions.

Similar Posts:

• 3 Fantasy Quarterbacks to Bench
• Steve’s 2009 Fantasy Football Draft Results
• My 2009 NFL Fantasy Draft Results
• Fantasy Football Week 4: Bench Dallas’ Defense?
• Top 3 Fantasy Disappointments of Week 5