4. Marcus Mariota, QB, Atlanta Falcons at Cincinnati Bengals
Mariota is another QB that’s been picked up with his recent good streaks against a depleted Niners defense and the Bucs. Just understand what you’re getting in Mariota. He’s an average pocket passer (Averaging 175.8 passing yards) with above average legs, and that’s how you score points with him. He has 206 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. That’s 38 extra points he’s getting that most quarterbacks won’t give you.
How will he fair against Cincinnati? Probably not good. They surrender the 5th fewest fantasy points and have held all but two quarterbacks (Cooper Rush and Joe Flacco) under 200 yards passing. Ah, but as we said, that’s not how Mariota scores, right? Well, consider the Bengals held Lamar Jackson to 174 passing yards and 58 scoreless yards on 12 carries. The only touchdown he got was a passing one, coupled with one of five interceptions the Bengals have served to opposing QBs. There are better matchups for Mariota in the future (Week 8-13) but this ain’t one of them.
