Josh McCown has been shockingly competent this year.

His 0.03 Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per drop back isn't a strong mark, ranking 26th among the 39 passers with at least 20 drop backs on the year, but it does separate him from the lowest tier of quarterbacks in that group -- the 13 who have generated a negative Passing NEP. He also has a trio of respectable fantasy weeks, scoring at least 16 points in three of his five games this year,

The New England Patriots have been struggling against the pass, ranking as a bottom-five pass D, per our numbers, and that has translated to a huge amount of fantasy scoring. They are allowing the league's most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks, and the gap between the Patriots (25.0) and the 2nd-worst mark (20.8) is bigger than the gap between the 2nd- and 13th-worst clip.

McCown may not be an exciting play, but as things stand right now, it doesn't take much more than a bit of competence to make a quarterback a strong fantasy option against the Pats.