Crazy as it sounds, I'm staring at Cam Newton after weeks of sub-par games, and wondering if I should be playing one of these waiver guys instead.
Home vs. San Diego isn't a daunting matchup, but the OL is in absolute shambles. In my league, Newton has posted 12, 21, and 12 points in the last 3 weeks with the one high scoring game coming against Oakland. San Diego, on paper, is a better matchup than Oakland, but Newton still makes me nervous with the terrible play calling of Shula and the collapse of the Carolina offense in general.
My other primary option is Andy Dalton, which without AJG doesn't sound great, until you consider he just dropped 332 and 2 TDs on Philly and now gets Cleveland. However, like Newton, Dalton's been inconsistent the last month with 13, 17, 13 prior to last week's 22.
Other options on the wire are Alex Smith, Palmer, RGIII, and Siemian (if he even plays). Not sure what I should do.
Not that any of you especially care, but I chickened out ultimately on benching Cam. And my reward? A whopping 12.5 points, just like Week 13 and week 11. Three of the last four weeks, Cam has posted fewer than 12.5 points in a standard scoring format for QBs. Now, Palmer wasn't good by any stretch, but he totaled 12.3 eventually and really wouldn't have screwed me any worse than Cam did. Dalton, the floor play of the trio, scored 16.9 in a game where they really didn't need to throw at all.
I'm staring at the same 3 again this week with a new QB thrown in the mix after proving he was healthy last week -- Trevor Siemian. Siemian in my league has totaled 16.3, 16.8, 29, and 17.4 points in his last four starts against Oakland, NO, KC, and Tennessee. Now he gets NE, who statistically ranks middle of the pack in pretty much all pass defense categories. We know Denver's going to struggle to run the ball, and Tom's probably going to put up some points, forcing Denver to chase the scoreboard. I'm seriously considering Siemian.
Palmer gets NO at home, which would typically be a good matchup for him. He's posted 15, 18.6, 23.9, and 12.3 in his last 3, but he just flopped in a major way against a Miami defense that Flacco just ravaged the week before. I'm not sure how I could trust him now against a statistically better pass defense.
Dalton plays Pittsburgh, which scares the heck out of me. If you've never looked at Joe Goodberry's common opponents theory with Andy Dalton, go search on google or twitter. Essentially, Dalton tends to lay a massive egg when he plays Pittsburgh or Baltimore, but plays much better against teams that rarely see him.
So I'll be deciding between Siemian at home vs. NE or rolling Cam back out there once again vs. a Washington defense that's not very good against the pass, but is 4th in the league in sacks, and can absolutely take advantage of Carolina's piecemeal OL.
