Tyrod Taylor hasn’t been all that great this season. He had the massive Thursday Night Football explosion that came on the back of three very fluky plays and little else for his fantasy football owners. This is the type of week that the man formerly known as TyGod could get his magic act on and torch the 49ers.[embedit snippet=”jeff-ads”]
Since the 49ers fired head coach Jim Harbaugh at the conclusion of the 2014 season, they have been disgusting on the road defensively. This makes sense, as the 49ers cleaned house and canned Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio. Oh, and that’s when the 49ers lost Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Chris Borland, Dan Skuta, Chris Culliver and Perrish Cox all ceased their time with the 49ers in one way or another. The Niners started all over on defense, and while they have been relatively stout at home, they are a disaster on the road.
Since the beginning of the 2014 season, the 49ers have yielded, on average, 301 yards, two touchdowns and 0.6 interceptions per game. That comes out to 20.74 fantasy points per game, on average, for quarterbacks playing against the 49ers, a rate that measures out to over the course of an entire season that would put “QB at home against the 49ers” as the #5 QB on the season last year. They were a disaster against quarterbacks, and this number includes three games against quarterbacks who are no longer starters. Whether that’s getting run out of town on a rail for Case Keenum and Sean Mannion (Nick Foles), getting run out of your mind with rails (Johnny Manziel) or getting benched after getting hurt and your backup rails on oppositions (Jay Cutler). Those three players had 14.3, 13.34 and 7.08 fantasy points against the 49ers. They are also the only home quarterbacks to not throw for multiple touchdowns against the Niners since 2015. The 49ers yielded at least 18 fantasy points to quarterbacks in every other road game since the beginning of 2015. If you remove the three games against QBs who have been laughed out of relevance, you leave eight QBs averaging 24.7 fantasy points per game against the Niners.
Since firing Greg Roman, the Bills have taken down the Rams, Patriots, and Cardinals, and Tyrod Taylor has gotten increasing fantasy football production as the Bills took a hard right and switched up the offensive play calling. He’s stepped up from zero to one to two passing TDs. I earnestly believe he will make that next step to three touchdowns, and one may just be on the ground.
Tyrod isn’t that great of a quarterback, but the 49ers are an awful defense and a defense that will be without All-Pro linebacker NaVorro Bowman for the rest of the year. While you may not have the gumption to start Tyrod this week, especially given the lack of desperation, he should return top-twelve QB value and is a great option for DFS.