Monday Man Crush: Joe Webb, UAB
We’ve been hyping up a certain Conference USA Quarterback all off-season as the top option in 2009 college fantasy football.
In week 1 of the college football season, that top-ranked QB was overshadowed by another QB in his own conference who didn’t even make our preseason rankings of the top college fantasy QB’s for 2009.
Our first Monday Man Crush of the 2009 college fantasy football season is on Joe Webb, the dual threat signal caller from Alabama-Birmingham.
Webb, the Blazers senior QB, had a monstrous first week leading his team to victory over Rice, 44-24. Compiling over 400 total yards of offense, Webb completed 12 passes for 221 yards and 2 TDs, then ran for 194 yards and 2 TDs on 20 carries. The 194 on the ground was a C-USA record for rushing by a QB.
In addition to being recognized by CFC as our Monday Man Crush, Webb has also been named Player of the Week by Fantasy College Blitz, selected as the C-USA Offensive Player of the Week by media members, and chosen by the College Football Performance Awards as Quarterback Performer of the Week.
In his first full season at QB for the Blazers in 2008, Webb completed 177 passes for 2007 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also ran for 866 yards and 10 more touchdowns on 161 attempts. Webb also played QB for the Blazers in seven games in 2007 and two games in 2006, but he spent most of ’07 as a wide receiver.
With the dual threat capability of Webb, there is definitely some possibility that he could finish the year with over 2000 passing yards and over 1000 rushing yards. The Blazers have an fantasy football friendly schedule, as well. They play Troy, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss out of conference. While Troy was the preseason favorite to the win the Sun Belt, they gave up 389 through the air to Bowling Green in week 1. Texas A&M looked decent defensively in week 1, but was picked to finish last in the Big 12. Ole Miss gave up 150 on the ground to Memphis in week 1.
Plus, the C-USA isn’t exactly renowned for its stifiling defenses.
With the numbers Webb is capable of producing, we recommend him right now as a low-end QB1 in deep college fantasy football leagues (12 teams or more). We can’t recommend starting him each week over the likes of Keenum, McCoy, Tebow, and Bradford (when healthy), but he could make a great month-long replacement for the injured Bradford if he’s available in your league. When he gets into conference play, too, he could make a great fill in during bye weeks for any major starting quarterback.
