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Six Backup QBs Who Could Win You A Fantasy Title
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- Six Backup QBs Who Could Win You A Fantasy Title
I had no idea what was about to experience last Nov. 20, when I picked up Jacoby Brissett during my home league's Free Agent Auction Bidding, or FAAB.
My then-unbeaten team didn't need a quarterback. Tampa Bay Buccaneers starter Baker Mayfield was mixing MVP-caliber performances with Blake Bortles-like garbage time glory, and behind Mayfield was the Seattle Seahawks' Sam Darnold , whom I'd started during Tampa Bay's open date in week nine — when Darnold put together perhaps the most perfect first-half quarterbacking exhibition of all-time against the Washington Commanders .
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Still, I knew the Darnold gem was the outlier for a quarterback in an efficient, run-first offense. Mayfield was a little banged up, and the Buccaneers were starting to tailspin. And even if Brissett was just a backup, a la real life, real-life executives slightly smarter than me can always attest that you can never have enough quarterbacks.
So I spent three fake bucks on Brissett, who'd won the Arizona Cardinals ' starting job with a few weeks worth of Bortles-esque performances in place of the injured Kyler Murray .
And then Brissett won me a repeat championship in the most outlandish way possible.
Wait, Who Did I Beat In A Playoff Game With Jacoby Brissett As My Starter?
With Mayfield skidding, I started Brissett in the semifinals, when my wife and I TIED and I won the tiebreaker (bench points). Brissett scored 16 points in our system that week…one more than Mayfield.
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In other words: Had I not picked up Brissett, I would have lost by one point. TO MY WIFE. Which I assume feels as bad as tying your husband and losing on a tiebreaker. (Sorry honey, thanks for not leaving me…especially since she had the most points in the league the following week by far and would have cruised to the title)
I started Brissett again in the title game, when Mayfield outscored him by one point, but I still won by six points. But this was like the bizarro world version of my Dwight Gooden/physics exam experience nearly three decades earlier : The karma was already established. There was nothing I could do to lose the title game. And goodness knows I tried by starting Tony Pollard over Jonathan Taylor .
(So if you're keeping score at home, I cost my wife a no-hitter AND a fantasy championship. It really is a wonder I'm not sleeping in a racing car bed and trying to find a home for my cover of "Can I Borrow A Feeling?")
Anyway, I'd waited more than 30 years to experience this kind of fantasy football miracle. This is the stuff I always read about. And now I'm writing about it — and trying to figure out the next potential Brissett-esque league winner, because none of us who play fantasy are ever smart enough to get up from the table with all our chips.
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Thus, here are six backup quarterbacks who could emerge as a late-season points machine. I didn't include the San Francisco 49ers ' Mac Jones , who is a candidate to get drafted in traditional leagues after establishing himself as better than half the starting quarterbacks in the league last season by going 5-3 in place of Brock Purdy .
Joe Flacco , Cincinnati Bengals
As will be the case with most of our picks here, Flacco will only get the job if the starter is injured. But Joe Burrow has missed 16 games over the last three seasons — including nine games last year, when Flacco continued his incredible late-career second act by throwing for 1,636 yards, 13 touchdowns and four interceptions. Of course, the Bengals were 1-5 in his six starts, but do you think I care the Cardinals went 1-11 in Brissett's starts?
Even at 41, Flacco still has a howitzer of a right arm and can win fantasy games. And as a clear backup to a franchise quarterback, he doesn't have to worry about mentoring his replacement, which he had no interest in doing in Baltimore or Denver or Cleveland . Instead he can just be that guy eating dinner alone and having the time of his life as he crafts a fascinating Hall of Fame case.
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Jameis Winston , New York Giants
Winston's fire and brimstone act is a little tiresome, but nobody plays quarterback in a more entertainingly dangerous manner. Jaxson Dart just plays it in a dangerous manner , which makes it more possible than not that Winston will be pressed into duty, perhaps for an extended period of time.
Related: Top-5 Fantasy Football Pick Could Miss Start of the Season
Winston has thrown multiple touchdowns and interceptions in a game 15 times — including most memorably on Dec. 2, 2024, when he threw for 497 yards, four touchdowns and two pick-sixes in a 42-31 loss to the Broncos . So if your league deducts points for interceptions, tread carefully. Otherwise, buy the ticket and take the ride.
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Davis Mills , Houston Texans
Here's the most interesting candidate to wrest the job away from the starter. C.J. Stroud 's historically bad performance against the New England Patriots in the playoffs in January — when he threw four first-half interceptions, including a pick-six, in a 28-16 loss — called into question his long-term future with the Texans, who picked up the fifth-year option on his rookie contract without extending him.
Mills , meanwhile, looked like a guy who'd figured it out midway through his career last year, when he went 3-0 with five touchdowns and one interception while making a trio of starts when Stroud was sidelined with a concussion. The 27-year-old was 5-19-1 with 33 touchdowns and 25 interceptions in his first 28 NFL appearances from 2021-22.
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Houston is forever winning the AFC South, playing a Saturday afternoon wild card game and getting smoked in the second round. But with Patrick Mahomes and Bo Nix recovering from serious injuries, Lamar Jackson potentially in decline, Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert in prove-it mode, Drake Maye in prove-it again mode and Josh Allen still operating as a one-man team, the AFC is more winnable than it has been in years. It wouldn't be stunning if the Texans made a late-season pivot to Mills in hopes of finally taking the next step.
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Justin Fields , Kansas City Chiefs
Let's hope we never see this one come to fruition, because it'd mean another serious injury for Mahomes, the three-time Super Bowl champion. But it would be interesting to see what Fields — who has endured stints with the forever incompetent Chicago Bears and New York Jets as well as the stuck-in-the-mud Pittsburgh Steelers — could do with a head coach like Andy Reid who is capable of maximizing his dual skill set.
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Gardner Minshew II, Cardinals
We probably should have started with the Cardinals' backup. But if Brissett gets hurt or is ineffective, Arizona is more likely to turn to rookie Carson Beck , who was selected in the third round and opened his professional career in impressive fashion in the Hall of Fame Game last week .
Still, there are few better backup signal callers than Minshew , the Uncle Rico lookalike who is playing for his sixth team in an eight-year career. Minshew is 17-30 as a starter yet has thrown almost twice as many touchdowns (68) as interceptions (35). He has thrown at least two TDs in a game 22 times, including six times in week 15 or later, which is the type of thing that can make him a Brissett-like legend.
Joshua Dobbs , Detroit Lions
Jared Goff has been durable (he's started the Lions' last 69 regular season games) and is in little danger of losing his job, even if he seems to have peaked as a classic just-good-enough-not-to-get-you-to-the-Super-Bowl guy. And I'm not going to lie: I'm at least partially putting Dobbs here because I saw his cousin, Kansas City Royals utilityman Tyler Tolbert, tie the big league record by collecting hits in 12 straight plate appearances last month.
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But Dobbs authored his own impressive out-of-nowhere performance Nov. 5, 2023, when he came off the bench for the Minnesota Vikings and accounted for three touchdowns in a 31-28 win just five days after he was acquired from the Cardinals.
Dobbs won his next start before the magic ran out and bounced between the 49ers and the Patriots the last two seasons before signing this week with the Lions, who needed a backup quarterback following Teddy Bridgewater 's retirement. But would you bet against Dan Campbell scheming some fun stuff up for a guy who interned twice for NASA and has plenty of experience in learning the playbook on the fly?
This story was originally published by Lindys Sports on Aug 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the Fantasy section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
