What Week 2 tells us about QBs and Week 3 DFS salaries

Week 2 is (mostly) in the books and it was a weekend that saw some key injuries to the quarterback position — including Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger. For this week’s article, we’ll look at two quarterbacks who saw a salary change from Week 2 to Week 3 and examine the perception on them heading into this weeks matchup.

Mason Rudolph ($4,800) vs. San Francisco 49ers

Rudolph entered this game after Ben Roethlisberger made his exit with a non-contact elbow injury. Whatever happened to Big Ben, he was clearly favoring it while on the field as he looked to be in pain after every pass attempt. While he was never officially ruled out of this game, Rudolph took over after halftime and ran this Steelers offense well. He completed 12-of-19 pass attempts for 112 yards, two touchdowns and one interception despite the loss to the Seahawks. If Roethlisberger is forced to miss Week 3, which is a very real possibility, Rudolph could be someone to consider against the Niners.

Rudolph received an $800 bump in salary but this is coming from the minimum a quarterback can be, so the raise is still quite modest. I mean, Daniel Jones ($5,000) is more expensive and he’s not even starting (yet). On paper, the matchup is average at best, as the 49ers have improved significantly on defense compared to 2018 but Rudolph doesn’t have to do much to reach value on his $4,800 salary. Ideally, we’d like to see more than the 12.1 DKFP he posted in Week 2 but if he can replicate that performance into a full game, we’d be talking about a huge value play at quarterback. He certainly deserves some attention barring positive news from Roethlisberger as the week progresses.

Jameis Winston ($5,400) vs. New York Giants

We were promised a new look Winston now that Bruce Arians is the head coach of the Buccaneers. Instead, we’ve gotten the same ol’ Winston who makes poor decisions, turns over the ball and flat out disappoints on a week-to-week basis. Last week against the Panthers, Winston completed 16/25 pass attempts for 208 yards and a touchdown, good for only 13.22 DKFP. While the matchup wasn’t the best to target him in, we expect a bit more with the receivers surrounding him including Chris Godwin ($6,900), Mike Evans ($6,600) and O.J. Howard ($3,800).

The glimmer of hope I have here is that the Giants secondary is almost nonexistent. Over the first two weeks, the Giants have allowed the third-most passing yards to opposing quarterbacks with 658, as well as five passing touchdowns, which is tied with multiple teams for third most. Winston should have no problem getting the ball over to his receivers, who the Giants secondary has allowed the most passing yards at 550 and a 78 percent catch rate, which is second-highest in the league behind the Chargers. With Winston getting a $500 discount in Week 3, it looks like we’re going back to the well for most Winston.

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