Garbage time fantasy report: Week 10's garbage timers

I guess it’s a good thing that every week isn’t as interesting in garbage time as Week 9 was. All things considered, I’d rather have exciting football. But Week 10 reminded me a lot of Week 7, when there were plenty of teams that trailed multiple scores in their games, but most failed to produce fantasy points in those easier circumstances. This time, it was the Redskins, Broncos, Cardinals, Giants, Bills, Cowboys, Browns, Jets, and Texans that each had 10 or more garbage-time plays, and none produced more than a single garbage touchdown.

Quarterbacks

With such limited garbage scoring, Josh McCown was able to “win” the day with his 4.3 extra fantasy points.

Most Fantasy Points Gained in Garbage/CG Time, QBs, Week 10
	Week 10			2017 Season
Player	Yards	TD	Std Pts	Yards	TD	Std Pts
Josh McCown	53	0.5	4.3	90	0.8	6.8
Eli Manning	41	0.5	3.8	218	1.5	14.2
Kirk Cousins	66	0.0	3.5	130	1.4	10.8
Nathan Peterman	29	0.5	3.3	29	0.5	3.3
Brock Osweiler	34	0.5	3.2	95	1.1	7.4
Ben Roethlisberger	22	0.5	3.0	-42	-0.3	-2.1
Drew Stanton	53	0.0	2.1	72	0.0	2.5

McCown has been a pleasant fantasy surprise this season. He’s No. 11 among quarterbacks in standard scoring and had not prior to Week 10 relied on garbage time to carry that production. Instead, the Jets have leaned heavily on the pass in general. McCown is tied for the sixth among quarterbacks with 313 pass attempts and is third with a 69.0 percent completion percentage. McCown has done a nice job of distributing the ball to his different receivers, including his 88 completed passes to his backs and tight ends, which is fifth-most in the league. He is a fine play in deeper and two-QB leagues.

By virtue of longevity and health, Eli Manning has gained the sixth-most fantasy points because of garbage time since 2009, but he has rarely finished near the leaders in any individual season. As quarterbacks like Blake Bortles, Carson Palmer, and Matt Schaub have threatened and even exceeded 40 extra fantasy points in single seasons this decade, Manning has only once topped 20 extra points. That was in 2013, when he sabotaged any game-script benefit he would have provided his fantasy owners with a career and league-leading 27 interceptions.

Through 10 weeks this season, Manning has already gained 14.2 extra fantasy points because of garbage time, which is 2.5 more points than the No. 2 player at the position, Jay Cutler. Those extra points when the Giants fall behind in games are keeping him viable in fantasy — he’s a middle-of-the-pack QB2 — but they are also masking the fact that Manning’s efficiency has cratered this season. In normal game situations, Manning’s 6.1 yards per pass attempt are by far his lowest since 2009.