Fantasy Football Week 4: Joe Flacco Over Ben Roethlisberger?

With AFC North quarterbacks looking inconsistent up to now, who is the best play in fantasy football Week 4: ‘Big’ Ben Roethlisberger or Joe Flacco?

Fantasy football weeks are being decided by third- and fourth-string running backs at this point. Wide receivers are being shuttled in and out. Even the top tight ends are injury question marks. The only position with some level of playing-time certainty is quarterback.

Yet even some of the best quarterbacks have seen their performances vary drastically week to week.

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, discuss Fantasy Football Week 4 in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

One of those quarterbacks who has seen a large discrepancy between his ceiling and floor is Ben Roethlisberger. Another is fellow AFC North signal caller Joe Flacco. I have seen enough from these two guys to believe one is on his way down while the other is on the rise. In Week 4, despite a large chasm between rankings, I prefer to take the underrated Flacco over the inflated Roethlisberger.

Expert consensus rankings have Big Ben as the sixth-rated quarterbacks this week against the Kansas City Chiefs. Meanwhile, Joe Flacco facing the Oakland Raiders comes in at 12th, barely even a starter in standard leagues. Not only that, the highest expert ranking for Flacco of the 53 polled was sixth. His highest of high rank is still just even with Roethlisberger’s average. I don’t understand it. I would prefer to start Flacco this week on my team.

Flacco’s performance thus far this season has been uneven. He failed to throw a touchdown pass last game, but did find receivers running open underneath all game long. The interesting thing for the Ravens offense is Flacco has found success in short and intermediate routes, but isn’t going deep with the ball recently. That’s despite the fact that the deep ball is his greatest strength and he has receivers on this roster to take advantage of that. With short routes pulling the defense up, expect Baltimore to eventually hit big plays down the field again, unleashing Flacco’s arm.

And there is no more likely week to see Baltimore go deep again than Week 4 against Oakland. The Raiders are dead last in the league in passing defense and are 31st in yards per attempt allowed. They have been picked apart through the air in every game this season. That should continue against the Ravens.

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For Big Ben, the Steelers have a tough test ahead of them. The Chiefs are one of the best overall defenses in football through the early weeks. They rank fourth in the NFL according to DVOA and are the number one passing defense by that metric. Thanks to Ryan Fitzpatrick, they also have a healthy lead in interceptions forced. It isn’t easy to beat KC deep as it ranks fifth in yards per attempt allowed.

Roethlisberger obviously has weapons in the passing game. But outside of Antonio Brown, none of the other guys have been steady in their production. And Ben’s own production has dipped each week of the season, reaching a low of 257 yards and no touchdowns last time out. With Le’Veon Bell set to return to the lineup, the rushing attack might take an even greater portion of the offense to boot.

I prefer the Steelers quarterback the rest of the season. But he isn’t the better option over Flacco for Week 4.

Dan Salem:

I know we must set personal bias aside when talking fantasy football. Personally I’m not a big Joe Flacco fan and Big Ben has been cash-money for years. Personally, I dislike the Ravens more than the Steelers, although neither team makes me feel good about myself. But in fantasy football Week 4 we are presented with a true dilemma as Flacco trends up and Roethlisberger trends down.

Both quarterbacks are coming off bad games and each man has seen his yards per attempt drop week after week this season. Flacco owns the better completion percentage, while Big Ben owns the better touchdown-to-interception ratio. Is this truly a close call on who to start? Do the opponents factor heavily into the decision here? While they do, I can’t honestly make an argument for starting Joe Flacco.

I tried really hard to be on your side. Big Ben did not play well against a questionable Eagles team. It’s true that Kansas City looked excellent last week, but they also looked bad against the Chargers and Texans. I see the Jets game as an outlier for both teams. The Steelers will run a lot in this football game, but Roethlisberger will produce. I trust him to put up better numbers than Flacco against the Raiders. It’s as simple as that.

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Baltimore has been winning in spite of its quarterback. Last week, they survived against a boringly average Jaguars team, a game in which Flacco tossed two picks and no touchdowns. He’s giving the ball away too often this season and has only crossed the 300-yard passing mark versus the lowly Browns. I think Oakland is very good. They give up yards, but that’s not the game the Ravens like to play. The Steelers love to play that game and Kansas City is due to fall back to Earth a bit this week. These two quarterbacks have been rather even thus far, except that Big Ben has found the end zone. I don’t see that changing in week 4. He gets the start.

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