Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Week 5: Why Owners Must Avoid Curtis Painter

If you were considering picking up Indianapolis Colts quarterback Curtis Painter in your fantasy league, instead of gently suggesting you get your head examined, I'm going to provide you with a list of reasons why that would be a terrible idea.

Painter is expected to remain the Colts starter this week when the Kansas City Chiefs visit Lucas Oil Stadium. While Painter's quarterback rating of 99.4 from his first career start against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looks promising, if you go deeper inside the numbers—or if you watched the game—it's clear he really isn't very good.

Painter completed just 13-of-30 passes for 281 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. While that doesn't sound that terrible, bear in mind that Painter's two passes for scores—to Pierre Garcon for 87 and 59 yards—made up more than half of that yardage, and were both the result of blown coverage and missed tackles. Other than that, Painter was terrible.

He threw at least four passes that should have been intercepted, but thanks to drops from Tampa Bay's defense he walked away with a clean ledger in that category. However, he did fumble the ball away once.

While Painter does have a strong arm and threw several very nice spirals, his timing, footwork and decision-making need lots of work. Don't let his yardage and quarterback rating numbers from his first start fool you, the guy is a mess and he will be playing behind a pretty terrible offensive line.

Painter shouldn't even be on your radar for a pick up. It will take a long, long time for him to become an even reasonably competent quarterback, even with the offensive talent the Colts have around him.