Ladies and gentlemen, the return of Aaron Rodgers.
DO Bow Down Before Aaron Rodgers Once Again
Image by Patric Schneider / AP
Remember when people were talking about how disappointing Aaron Rodgers has been in 2012? HA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I mean, look no further than the fact that the fantasy-football-playing public was turning on a dude after he had two 10-point-or-lower outings as proof that people have no patience or sense of proportion. Three weeks later, Rodgers is on a string of 24-plus games and that 38-point monster last week, and his stats for the year are preposterous: 16 TDs, 4 INTs, 273 yards per game. This knowledge probably doesn't have a ton of impact on your fantasy life — if you have Rodgers, start him; if you're playing against Rodgers, most priests are happy to apply last rites — but it is a lesson: don't freak out if a stud player has a couple of down games. These guys are human.
DON'T Give Up On Cam Newton And Matt Stafford... Yet
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In ESPN fantasy leagues, Matt Stafford and Cam Newton were the fourth and fifth quarterbacks picked overall, on average, which put them as teams' second-round selections. There's a certain amount of pressure that comes with that high of a draft spot: the big contracts, the media attention, the cars, the drugs, the girls. (We're talking about fantasy football, right?) And so far in 2012, Stafford and Newton have not built on their fantastic 2011s. Stafford's the 16th-scoring QB, and Newton's the 13th — they both trail guys like Christian Ponder (in most leagues, he wasn't even drafted!) and Andy Dalton (19th QB off the boards.)
However, there's reason to keep hope. Stafford hasn't played well, and it would be foolish to suggest otherwise — he hasn't thrown more than one score in any game yet this year — but his DYAR, a Football Outsiders metric that tracks how many yards better a quarterback is than a replacement-level player, and also adjusts for the strengths of various defenses, is actually 9th-best in the league. That's because he's faced a brutal slate of defenses. And he has been putting up the yards, so the touchdowns will hopefully follow soon. Err on the side of caution with Stafford this week against Chicago and next week against Seattle, but expect to regret it if you drop him.
Cam's case is a little less clear-cut. Newton's problem is consistency, not potency: in his last four games, he's put up 25, 9, 30, and 7. And while he predictably lit up New Orleans and struggled against Seattle and New York, it makes less sense that he went for 30 against the Falcons. Any week, Newton's capable of dropping 25-plus; you just have to be wary of those off-weeks, and he isn't matchup-immune.
