J.J. McCarthy

Everyone wrote him off, and he didn't write back. Last week, J.J. McCarthy had a nice bounce-back game that hopefully serves as a building block for the rest of the season as the QB9 in weekly scoring. It was his second QB1 outing of the season. Last week, among 29 quarterbacks with at least ten dropbacks, McCarthy ranked 13th in yards per attempt, fourth in highly accurate throw rate, seventh in catchable target rate, and third in hero throw rate. McCarthy could be a QB1 again this week. Since Week 10, Dallas has allowed the second-most passing yards per game, the tenth-highest yards per attempt, the third-highest passer rating, and the eighth-highest CPOE. McCarthy will have to deal with a defense that, during that same span, has ranked fourth in pressure rate. If he can navigate pressure this week, he could stack another strong game.

J.J. McCarthy threw 3 touchdowns for the first time in his NFL career against the Commanders, completing 16 of 23 passes for 163 yards.
Two TDs to Josh Oliver (helping no one) and one TD to T.J. Hockenson. Oliver out-snapped Hockenson.
McCarthy averaged 2.56 seconds to throw, his quickest in any game this season by more than a quarter of a second. He completed 10 of his 11 quick throws for 85 yards and 2 touchdowns (Next Gen Stats).
An efficient day for the second-year QB versus a terrible defense, where he wasn't asked to do too much.
The hope is he can build confidence after this game...and build on it against a bad Cowboys secondary in Week 15.

Sometimes it's obvious when the real NFL doesn't align with fantasy. A great example of that is when J.J. McCarthy and Justin Fields are decent waiver wire pickups. In a dominant 31-0 win against the Commanders in Week 14, McCarthy came through with three passing touchdowns and zero interceptions. After the disastrous Max Brosmer experiment in Week 13 while McCarthy recovered from a concussion, it was surprisingly refreshing to see McCarthy back under center for the Vikings. In Week 15, he has another plus-matchup against an exploitable Dallas defense. The Cowboys also have a high-flying offense, so McCarthy will need to try to keep up, which is great for fantasy (but also a little terrifying). It's hard to trust McCarthy, but his six rush attempts in Week 14 and the projected shootout game script should make him a decent streaming option in Week 15.