The great thing about fantasy football is that in the short time span of just three weeks your best laid plans can get totally fucked! Like having to start a rookie quarterback, making his first ever start, on the road against a perennial playoff contender fucked. Pardon my french.
With stud Russell Wilson on bye, and not wasting a second roster spot on a back up quarterback, I’m rolling with Mr. Bortles this week. It sounds crazy, but this what the No. 3 overall pick has going for him:
- In relief of the dreadfully inefficient (and that’s the nice way of putting it) Chad Henne, Bortles went 14/24, 223 yards, 2 TD, 2 Int. Impressive numbers for a half of football; granted it was against soft coverage schemes from Indy’s defense (they aren’t exactly world-beaters). But what I like the most is the 2 rushes for 30 yards. The rushing totals help eliminate the mistakes and give him a reasonable secure scoring floor.
- Bortles showed well in training camp, the preseason, and practices this year. By all accounts he’s outpracticed Henne (doens’t that go without saying) however the Jaguars were so gun-shy to start a rookie QB (we call that the Blaine Gabbert effect) that they all but committed to “red-shirting” Bortles this year. Remember what I said three weeks of football could do to your fantasy team? Yeah, now just multiply that but $100 million, add in media scrutiny, a fan base to contend with, an owner that can shitcan you whenever he wants and you get a sense of the pressure that forced the Jags hand to play Bortles this week. No pressure kid.
Not Blaine Gabbert…trust me!
- In deeper leagues, Bortles (17% owned) offers more upside than the likes of Joe Flacco (38%), Josh McCown (16% – who appears to have lost his job to Glennon), Ryan Fitzpatrick (15%), Geno Smith (13%) and fellow rookies Teddy Bridgewater (12%) and Derek Carr (7%).
My one reservation in starting Bortles is San Diego’s, ball-control, clock-chewing offense which ranks second in the league (while the Jags rank….dead last. What’s new!). Regardless, Bortles will have opportunities, and I think (fingers crossed) he comes through. If Bortles football game is anything like his mack-daddy game, then hell, we’ve got nothing to worry about………….
Good Knight!
This might be so crazy that it actually works! Only one way to find out…