Who Should I Start? Matthew Stafford or Trevor Lawrence

Monday, September 9, 9:14 AM

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford turned in a gutsy performance in an overtime loss at the Lions in his return to Detroit on Sunday night. However, for fantasy football purposes it was just an average output from the Rams signal caller. Stafford was 34-of-49 passing for 317 yards with one touchdown and one interception doing most of his damage on quick, underneath routes. Stafford did demonstrate an excellent connection with receiver Cooper Kupp (14 catches, 110 yards, 1 TD) as his other favorite target Puka Nacua was forced to leave the game with a knee injury. With 14.68 points in a standard fantasy league, 13 quarterbacks ranked ahead of Stafford in Week 1, so he is still not really an option to start in one-quarterback leagues. He could see better matchups ahead but the health of Nacua is a concern and he will have to start pushing the ball downfield more to see an uptick in fantasy scoring.

Monday, September 9, 7:18 AM

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence had a solid first and rough second half, finishing with only one touchdown and 162 passing yards in a 20-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins. Lawrence and the Jaguars scored all 17 points in the first half, allowing the Dolphins to make a comeback, which they topped off with a last-second field goal. The fourth-year QB didn't have the highest expectations from a fantasy perspective entering this season, but this performance does not bode any confidence for his fantasy managers. Lawrence only had one rush for eight yards, a pattern that can't continue for his future fantasy relevance. The Clemson product was already a borderline QB1/QB2, so this performance means he will move to many benches in Week 2. The impatient move would be to drop him, but one bad performance isn't enough to warrant that. However, managers should move Lawrence to the bench next week, where he faces a tough Browns secondary in Week 2.