Fantasy Football Week 10: Andy Dalton and More QBs You Should Bench

Today’s NFL is great for the quarterback position, whether in real life or in the fantasy realm. However, these three quarterbacks should not be in your starting lineup come Sunday.

Alex Smith

The New York Giants are going to give the San Francisco 49ers their toughest offensive challenge of the season on Sunday. Smith has been great at not turning the football over and being efficient, but he hasn’t put up fantasy yardage numbers. He currently ranks No. 30 in passing.

Frank Gore will get his load of the carries, and rightfully so, seeing how he has had five-straight 100-yard games. If the Giants can slow down Gore it will put pressure on Smith to deliver timely balls. There is a reason why he has struggled in his career and we haven’t seen it come to fruition yet. I think we will on Sunday, especially in the fantasy world.

John Beck

How is this John Beck experiment working, coach Shanahan? I’ll answer for you—not very good. Clearly Shanahan has a quick trigger with his quarterbacks, but he must remember that not every quarterback is John Elway.

Grossman shouldn’t have ever been stripped of his starting status, and now we are seeing why. Three fumbles, four interceptions and 6.50 yards per completion later and we know that Beck isn’t giving the Redskins any more of a chance to win than Grossman did.

He will play a Miami team that is coming off their first victory of the season against the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that seemed to be moving in the right direction. If Tony Sparano has done anything in his tenure with Miami, it’s indicative with how hard his players play despite having one win. They are going to play hard again on Sunday, and Beck will struggle to be a quality fantasy quarterback.

Andy Dalton

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton has been a pleasant surprise this season, in more ways than one. Carson Palmer became expendable because of how well Dalton has played, and the 6-2 start doesn’t hurt either.

However, their weak schedule is about to come to a stop because of their next two opponents. While Baltimore waits in the wings, Pittsburgh gets their crack at the rookie QB. The Steelers are angry, distraught and confused after their loss to the Ravens on Sunday Night Football. Their defense allowed Joe Flacco—a quarterback who was known for struggling against the Steelers in the clutch—drive 92 yards for the game-winning touchdown.

This defense will be fierce, aggressive and ready to beat up on the Bengals. Dalton is the guy who’s going to get the brunt of the aggression on Sunday.

While Dalton isn’t a fantasy football god at this moment in his career, starting him in previous weeks wouldn’t have been a bad idea given his 1,696 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2011. However, this week, against the third ranked pass defense, benching him would be the best option.

If anything, we haven’t seen Dalton go up against a great defense, but we have seen one game against a solid defense and that was Week 3 against the San Francisco 49ers. How did Dalton play? He went 17-32 for 157 yards and two interceptions.

Bench Dalton.