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Charge ahead with LA Defense

Watson to Winston OK for opposing fantasy Ds

With Deshaun Watson out for the year, the Browns have Jameis Winston at quarterback. This is a big boost for the passing game and the receivers, obviously, as shown in the upset over Baltimore last week. But I believe the Browns will still be a fine matchup for opposing fantasy defenses, like the L.A. Chargers this week.

The Ravens had 2 sacks and recovered a fumble off Winston last week. That's not great production; they'd have likely done more against Watson. But the larger body of work suggests that teams will be getting plenty of good numbers from Cleveland's current starter.

Using the search tools at pro-football-reference.com, I looked at all quarterbacks to start at least 60 games in the last 10 years (that's the length of Winston's NFL career, and slightly fewer starts than Watson has made since entering the league). The opportunities are slightly different, but the overall results are similar.

Among the 33 quarterbacks to fit the criteria, Watson had the highest sack percentage -- sacked on nearly 10 percent of his pass plays. But Winston has the highest interception percentage (3.4 percent). The Chargers may not be getting as many sacks against Winston, but they look pretty good for takeaways. Winston, by the way, is also slightly worse than average in terms of sack percentage among those quarterbacks -- 19th out of the 33 eligible passers.

QB SACKS AND INTS, 2015-PRESENT
PlayerGSIntInt%SkSk%
Aaron Rodgers129551.22896.07
Tom Brady126691.42013.95
Drew Brees85491.61203.73
Justin Herbert69431.61455.25
Alex Smith62331.61526.92
Russell Wilson142801.84138.46
Kirk Cousins144981.93035.67
Patrick Mahomes103721.91604.03
Joe Burrow60401.91677.18
Derek Carr148992.02765.20
Matt Ryan124922.03006.19
Jared Goff124862.02345.17
Dak Prescott121822.02535.77
Carson Wentz93672.02396.74
Kyler Murray73492.01606.08
Lamar Jackson85472.01817.16
Matthew Stafford1361002.13306.46
Deshaun Watson72482.12449.57
Daniel Jones67452.12048.56
Joe Flacco75662.21514.86
Ben Roethlisberger89802.31353.73
Josh Allen101792.31855.21
Andy Dalton104842.42356.29
Ryan Tannehill103732.42768.17
Eli Manning67592.41314.96
Philip Rivers96872.51794.92
Marcus Mariota74552.61878.02
Baker Mayfield94832.72306.89
Cam Newton82692.71806.59
Blake Bortles60582.71406.09
Jimmy Garoppolo63512.71326.60
Sam Darnold63613.11707.83
Jameis Winston81993.41986.32

Winston's presence in the lineup is a great thing for Cedric Tillman and David Njoku, and a negative I guess for Joey Bosa and the Chargers pass rush. But the secondary should get some opportunities to make plays on the ball. I'll be using the Chargers defense where I can this week.

--Andy Richardson

Fantasy Index