The AFC West has an interesting mix of young and old quarterbacks. Peyton Manning, Alex Smith and Philip Rivers all represent the aging veterans who are on their way out. Derek Carr and Brock Osweiler represent all that's hip and new. Carr and Rivers are going to be matched up against each other on the field in the final Thursday Night Football game of the season, as the Oakland Raiders take on the San Diego Chargers.
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It's true that this game really doesn't mean anything in the standings, but that isn't going to keep either Rivers or Carr from playing at a high level.
We'll start with Rivers, a man who has been handicapped by just about everything this year. He hasn't had Keenan Allen for basically the whole year, Stevie Johnson is battling a groin injury, Melvin Gordon isn't likely to play with a knee problem, and three starters along the offensive line, Chris Watt, Johnnie Troutman and King Dunlap are all out as well.
However, Rivers just keeps on battling. He's doing a lot of checking down to Danny Woodhead out of the backfield, and his tight ends are really his best receiving threats from on the line of scrimmage. The end result sees him completing a ton more passes than the average quarterback, particularly knowing that San Diego has played from behind so often this year.
With two games to play, Rivers has already set a career-high in completions. He's also still got an outside shot at 5,000 passing yards for the first time in his career as well.
Let's not forget that San Diego has failed to reach the end zone three times in its last five games. That isn't stopping Rivers from shining, though. He's averaging 22.8 fantasy points per game this season, including dropping 30.2 fantasy points on these Raiders in the middle of the season.
Of course, most of those yards and touchdowns came in garbage time, knowing that the Raiders opened up a 37-6 lead before San Diego tacked on three relatively meaningless touchdowns.
Carr had already done his damage, throwing for 289 yards and amassing 30.4 fantasy points.
Carr has at least two touchdown passes in four games in a row, but there's reason to be concerned. He has surpassed a quarterback rating of 80 just once in his last five games, he hasn't averaged even six yards per pass attempt in three straight games, and in his last two, he has completed just 48.9 and 41.4 percent of his passes.
However, we really still like what Carr is bringing to the table. He's got a healthy set of receivers at his disposal, and it appears that the donut that Amari Cooper was held to against Denver was a blip on the radar after he had six catches for 120 yards and two TDs last week against Green Bay. Michael Crabtree has proven to be a consistent No. 2 receiver, while men like Clive Watford and Seth Roberts are emerging as strong red zone threats.
The Chargers won their Super Bowl last week, beating Miami in what legitimately might've been the final game ever played in San Diego. Now, they've got two road games to finish out the year, and it would only seem fitting that they pump the breaks and hit the skids just a bit. With Khalil Mack running a one-man wrecking crew of late with a total of 15 sacks for the season, it would be easy to see a situation where Rivers could be knocked out of this game, if not due to injury, than due to the fact that Mike McCoy might want to see what he has with Kellen Clemens under center.
Carr might be the slight favorite in this fantasy matchup, but we still prefer him to Rivers on Thursday.
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