Fantasy Football: Nick Foles to Start, Cam Newton Heads to IR
Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports; Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
Tuesday was a dark day for fantasy managers enthralled by Minshew Mania or hopeful for the return Superman Cam. Nick Foles will start the Jaguars’ next game after their bye, and the Panthers have placed Cam Newton on IR with his Lisfranc injury.
The Jaguars will turn to their $88 million man when they take the field in Week 11 against the Indianapolis Colts. Foles gets some extra time to heal up and prep while Jacksonville is on bye, after Gardner Minshew’s dreadful two-interception performance against the Texans in London in Week 9.
After five weeks of Minshew Mania, the rookie came back down to earth. Aside from his three-touchdown performance against the Jets in Week 8, Minshew has struggled since the New Orleans game in Week 6. Minshew ranked as the QB17 in fantasy points per game since taking over as the starter in Week 2.
We don’t really know who Foles has chemistry with in a crowded wide receiver corps in Jacksonville because we’ve only seen a total of eight passes this season from the former Super Bowl MVP. However, D.J. Chark’s big season kicked off with a 35-yard touchdown pass from Foles, so there’s hope that production can continue—especially as fantasy managers have watched his production wane as Minshew struggled. Same story for Dede Westbook who has struggled lately after having a ton of hype coming into the season and starting off incredibly strong. Chark is a WR2 the rest of the way, while Westbrook is a high-end WR4.
Foles has shown a penchant for targeting tight ends in the past, but with the top two options on the depth chart on IR, there is no fantasy relevance there.
Moving on to Carolina, the weekly will-he-or-won’t-he-start is now over. Kyle Allen will be the starter for the remainder of the regular season for the Panthers, but that shouldn’t exactly excite fantasy owners. Allen ranks as the No. 30 QB in fantasy points per game since taking over as the starter (minimum three starts). He’s averaging 12.6 points per game, and has as many performances above 15 points (2) as he does below 4 points. He’s not relevant in single-QB leagues.
What does this mean for D.J. Moore and Curtis Samuel? More of the same. Both wide receivers have had sporadic success this season. Moore has been more consistent, topping 12 points in four of Allen’s six starts. But Samuel has been better overall, ranking as the No. 23 WR in half-PPR formats (minimum three games played) since Allen took over, as opposed to Moore’s ranking of WR32. Both are WR3s for the remainder of the season. Aside from a huge performance in Allen’s first start of the season, Greg Olsen hasn’t been fantasy relevant and he’s solidly outside of TE1 territory moving forward.
As for Newton, he finishes with 16.7 fantasy points this season (his total in Week 1 and 2) after being drafted as a top 10 quarterback in many fantasy leagues. He finished as the QB5 in fantasy points per game in 2017 and the QB7 in 2018. His fantasy status for 2020 is up in the air, as it is possible he’s played his last game as a Panther.
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