Looks like I picked the wrong season to roster the tandem of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in one of my leagues. I did it, waiting until the latter rounds for durable, reliable quarterback options and now, the former is out until perhaps November and the latter will not play again ... until perhaps 2020, if ever again. Teddy Bridgewater and Mason Rudolph are NFL starting quarterbacks for Week 3 and perhaps, presuming health, myriad more. After all, who thought Brees and Roethlisberger would get hurt? These fellows rarely miss games and now, they are missing big stretches.
Fantasy investors of other Saints and Steelers are going to panic, of course, because that is what fantasy managers tend to do. They cannot help it. While I avoid this narrative, the fact is the Saints and Steelers are likely to score fewer points with their backup quarterbacks starting games for them, and other individuals are affected. However, I rarely presume these backup quarterbacks will be truly awful. Yes, we saw what happened with poor Nathan Peterman of the Bills a season ago, but once upon a time I kind of liked Bridgewater's upside and Rudolph certainly did not embarrass himself in his debut Sunday, coming on in relief and showing poise.
Let us start with the big names: Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, James Conner and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Sometimes NFL teams actually rely more on the running game when the new quarterbacks are inexperienced, and one of these fellows is hardly lacking experience. Bridgewater started 28 games for the Vikings in 2014-15 before a devastating knee injury ruined things. He played competently for the Vikings, though his passing numbers were rather ordinary.