Eli Manning’s fantasy football owners have enjoyed a spectacular touchdown run as of late, as he has thrown for three or more scores in three of his last four games, including Monday Night Football’s 240/3/2 run. The problem with Eli is those two intreceptions. In all three of the previously mentioned 3+ TD games, Eli has also thrown two interceptions every game. This certain limits Eli’s upside, given that he has already thrown for multiple interceptions in 44% of his games this year. Eli’s predilection for the blowup moment and the matchup this week makes him a poor streaming option for you, and a player you should edge against in any platoon quarterback matchups you might have.
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Eli has been on quite the tear, as mentioned above, throwing for 10 scores across his last four games, but the unmentioned game in that span is a 196 yard, zero TD effort against the Rams wherein Eli was one of the worst quarterback options out there. Let’s not forget Eli’s prior four games before the 10-TD-in-four-game streak, wherein he managed only two touchdowns while throwing three interceptions. While Eli is usually a good real-life quarterback, he is very susceptible to absolutely cratering. While he has lit up three very good pass defenses recently, the Bad Eli games still loom large this season. In fact, much of what has made Eli great these last four games has been on the back of Odell Beckham, Jr’s amazing productivity.
Depending on a single player for your productivity, even one as great as ODB, isn’t going to work out well for Eli in the long-term. This weekend, he takes on a Bears team that is going to try to do one thing: keep Jay Cutler from beating them, like he almost singlehandedly did last week against the Buccaneers. They are going to slow the ball down and run it a lot, and count on their defense to win the day for them against the Giants. They don’t want to get into a shootout because they saw what YOLO Jay Cutler could do to them. Why is this bad for Eli? The Bears are 17th in the league at yielding fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. This would be lower if they had any interception machines in their secondary, but just five all season tends to keep mistakes from snowballing against them. Still, only Aaron Rodgers has put up 325 yards against them, and Rodgers is also the only quarterback to put up 3 touchdowns, as well. Only he and Dak Prescott (buoyed by 36 rushing yards and a rushing TD) have crossed the twenty fantasy point plateau against the Bears this season.
Eli has ridden a hot streak lately, but too many good quarterbacks have too many good matchups to risk Bad Eli rearing his ugly head against a defense that has been surprisingly stout this season. He could continue his hot streak, but there is too much stacked against him, and I would avoid him this week if possible.