Why Fantasy Football Owners Should Be Cautious About Picking Up Brian Quick

Brian Quick caught seven passes for 99 yards against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1. While that puts him on pace for 102 receptions and nearly 1,600 yards—but zero touchdowns, of course—you should be very careful about investing much into his Week 2 performance and beyond in fantasy football.

The Case for Quick

The case for Quick to make an impact as a starting fantasy wideout has some salient points. He’s one of those receivers entering the mythical third year for explosive fantasy production. You’re usually looking for the breakout in a receiver’s second year nowadays, but Quick was seen as a developmental prospect coming out of Appalachian State.

He’s also as close to being a former first-round pick as one can get without getting called in the first 32: The St. Louis Rams took him with the 33rd pick of the 2012 NFL draft. Quick nearly doubled his yardage total, while increasing his reception total, catch rate and yards per catch from his rookie to sophomore seasons.

In Week 1, Quick was targeted a career-high nine times and caught 77.7 percent of them.

Those are true possession-type numbers, but he added 14.1 yards per grab and converted three first downs, looking more like a downfield threat. The third-year man routinely made plays down the field in his first training camp playing alongside Kenny Britt, a more experienced big-bodied receiver in the league.

At 6’3” and 220 pounds, Quick is a pretty good red-zone target…

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

The Case Against Quick

…but so is Britt. And so is 6’5”, 250-pound tight end Jared Cook. And you can’t leave out Lance Kendricks (6’3”, 250 pounds). Meanwhile, the best receiver through Rams camp—in my eyes—was 5’10” third-round sophomore Stedman Bailey, who has three more games to serve in his suspension.

If Sunday’s game was any indication, St. Louis will continue to spread the ball around a lot: Nine players were targeted on just 36 throws. Aside from Quick’s nine targets, no wideout saw more than three passes thrown in his direction.

Cook was second in targets (eight), catches (four) and yards (56). Running back Benny Cunningham caught all four of his for 30 yards.

Shaun Hill left the game at halftime after completing four balls to Quick for 70 yards. Austin Davis, therefore, only got 29 yards from him on three catches in the second half.

Each QB saw one incompletion on a target to Quick.

There will be matchups that call for Britt and Austin to be featured; all of the receivers in the St. Louis offense will likely be inconsistent from a fantasy perspective. 

The Verdict

Quick is worth picking up immediately in deep leagues or leagues with deep benches as a speculative addition, if you can afford to wait a month on him. You can’t expect big-time production from him in the short term without the veteran Hill starting, the Rams have a Week 4 bye, and the target situation will be shuffled again once Bailey returns.

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