Who Should I Start? Baker Mayfield or J.J. McCarthy

Friday, November 7, 4:47 PM

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield was off to an excellent start to the season, but has been held in check lately. In Week 8, Mayfield completed 15-of-24 passing attempts for 152 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions in the win over the New Orleans Saints. He has been banged up lately, but is hopefully close to 100 percent healthy after the bye last week. The hope is that Mayfield will be able to get back to his QB1 ways against the New England Patriots in Week 10. The Bucs are limited with offensive weapons, but that hasn't stopped Mayfield before. Fantasy managers should plug in Mayfield as a QB1 for this weekend.

Friday, November 7, 6:17 PM

Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy is coming off the best victory of his young career last week against Detroit, and can be considered a quality Superflex option when the Baltimore Ravens travel to U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 10. The second-year quarterback completed only 14 passes for 143 yards last week, but made several key plays that spurred the Vikings to victory by accounting for three touchdowns and sealing the game with a perfect throw on a late third-down conversion. He'll take on a Baltimore defense that is allowing points on 48% of drives, which ranks 28th of 32 teams, but has played much better recently, as none of the past three Baltimore opponents surpassed 17 points. McCarthy is still acclimating to being the full-time starter, so it's reasonable to expect some mistakes along the way, but the Week 9 victory gave plenty of reasons for optimism that he can be a fantasy-relevant quarterback as he gains additional experience.