With the dog days of August upon us, that means one thing; Fantasy Football draft season is almost here. Managers are prepping their draft boards to get ready to dominate their work colleagues, friends, and families in fantasy leagues.
Every year, there are players that managers will target as must-have guys. Sleepers that they think are going too late in drafts that they will pounce on when the time is right. Those players will help win your league.
But, some players will hurt your team as well. Maybe it is a guy drafted too high because of lofty expectations. The quarterback position is one that is deep and drafting too risky of players should be avoided.
Here are three quarterbacks you should steer clear of in your fantasy football drafts in 2021.
3. Ben Roethlisberger
The Pittsburgh Steelers once again look like they will have some excellent production offensively. They are deep at the wide receiver position with JuJu Smith-Schuster, Chase Claypool and Diontae Johnson. Najee Harris was drafted to shore up the backfield.
With weapons like that, Ben Roethlisberger would make sense as a solid quarterback option in fantasy leagues. However, there are a lot of risks involved in selecting him, namely his health.
Roethlisberger is now a full season removed from his elbow reconstruction, but at 39-years old, it is anyone’s guess how his body will respond. He is also playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, which will hurt an already eroding deep passing game even more.
In single quarterback leagues, Roethlisberger should be avoided outside of the most pristine matchups. He is even a low-upside player in Superflex leagues, as he offers nothing in the run game and the Steelers will look to get the ground game back on track with Harris this season.
2. Matt Ryan
The Atlanta Falcons traded away the best wide receiver in franchise history this offseason in Julio Jones. That is enough reason to avoid Matt Ryan in fantasy drafts this year, but there is more to it.
People will be excited about Kyle Pitts being added to the offense and Calvin Ridley has the makings of a legitimate No. 1 receiver. But, Ryan’s effectiveness is waning with age, and the Falcons struggled to block for him last season as well.
Ryan only cracked the weekly top-12 six times last season, while finishing 18th or worst seven times. The volume will be there as the Falcons will likely be losing a lot of games, but this is a quarterback best left for someone else to find the hard way that quantity does not always equal quality for fantasy football.
1. Jalen Hurts
As of this writing, Jalen Hurts is being selected within the first 10 quarterbacks on average in fantasy drafts. Given his dual-threat ability, it does make some sense as he has a weekly floor other quarterbacks don’t have because of his rushing stats. But, we could be getting ahead of ourselves when it comes to Hurts.
Hurts probably helped some fantasy managers down the stretch of 2020 when he took over as the starter, but there are still some risks. He has to improve his accuracy, as he completed only 52 percent of his passes as a rookie.
It is also anyone’s guess what kind of offense head coach Nick Sirianni will deploy, as he may opt for a more traditional one despite having Hurts’ legs as a weapon to use. Sirianni has yet to even commit to Hurts as the team’s starter in Week 1.
If his own team won’t even commit to him being the starter in Week 1, how can a fantasy manager be confident doing that right now? Options such as Tom Brady, Ryan Tannehill and Mathew Stafford are going right after Hurts and are much more proven commodities.
