NFL Quarterbacks…Who are the Top Five….in Fantasy Football

A Look at how the Experts Drafted in a 2-QB Fantasy Football

League

With a website dedicated to 2-QB fantasy football leagues waking up on the Thursday morning of February 7^th to a tweet from Mike Clay of Pro Football Focus asking for participants in a 2-QB league mock draft was like waking up on Christmas morning ready to tear into all my new gifts. However, the tweet in question was an hour old (that’s like decades in the Twittersphere) by the time I had read it and by then it was too late as all the mock draft slots had been filled up. Oh well.

There was nothing I could do about that other than to see what some of the most renowned fantasy football experts out there would do in a 12-team 2-QB league format. And to tell you the truth I don’t know if I would have been ready to go up against those heavy hitters so I’m kind of glad I missed out.

Fast forward almost two weeks later and Clay tweeted out that the #GoingDeep mock draft trial 2-QB league he set up had completed its draft. I thought it would be interesting to see what the results were and how these particular fantasy football experts viewed quarterbacks in a 2-QB league format.

Before I delve deep into the mock draft results below I’ve posted the names of the twelve mock drafters that took part and if you click on each one of their names you’ll be directed to their respective Twitter accounts:

• Mike Clay
• Evan Silva
• Pat Daugherty
• Alex Miglio
• Bryan Fontaine
• Sigmund Bloom
• Jeff Ratcliffe
• Scott Spratt
• Tyler Loechner
• Adam Levitan
• Ryan Forbes
• Jim Day

As you can see from that list you’ve got a murderers’ row of fantasy football minds with writers from top-notch sites like Pro Football Focus, Footballguys and Rotoworld.

It’s almost time to look at the draft results themselves but before I do so now would be a good time to point out that it’s not a true 2-QB league. In this specific 2-QB league you are allowed to start up to two quarterbacks, one in the QB starting line-up slot and the other in the flex position. Really, you can look at it as sort of a 1.5-QB league. On top of that the scoring rules for quarterbacks is 0.03 points for every 1 yard passing (0.75 for every 25 passing yards) and 4 points for every passing touchdown.

By reading Clay’s Twitter timeline it looks like he was devaluing the QB position in this league when you compare it to other types of fantasy formats such as a 2-QB league in which passing touchdowns are worth 6 points and you get 1 point for every 25 yards passing. When I asked Clay on Twitter for clarification on the number of quarterbacks that you can start he replied saying that he had to make one of the QB slots a flex, “because of bye weeks.”

Mike Clay

That makes sense when you think about it. In a league where there are 12 teams and starting two quarterbacks each week is mandatory you’re looking at 24 quarterbacks being drafted. At least. When you factor in bye weeks there aren’t enough QBs for each team to draft two starters and one back-up, as that would equal 36 quarterbacks in a league where only 32 start usually, minus bye weeks throughout the season.

However, that’s the main reason why I play in 2-QB leagues. I want more roster spots in my fantasy football world and I want to be the one that takes advantage of drafting three quarterbacks so that I’m prepared for bye weeks or just having two quarterbacks on my roster and not worrying about bye weeks at all. That could just be me though.

With all that in mind let’s finally probe into the draft results of this 2-QB mock draft by focusing solely on the quarterbacks that were drafted. Below you’ll find two spreadsheets.

One shows you the quarterbacks drafted in order, along with their current ADP:

The other spreadsheet shows each team’s QB depth chart:

A total of 216 players were drafted and out of that number 31 were quarterbacks.

The first quarterback taken off the board was Aaron Rodgers in the 3^rd round at 3.02. After that was Drew Brees at 3.11. Rodgers and Brees were the only quarterbacks taken in the first three rounds. The current ADP for Rodgers is 18.41 (mid-2nd round in a 12-team league) and for Brees it’s 30.41 (mid-3rd round in a 12 team league). Rodgers, drafted by Jim Day, at 26 overall, and Brees by Alex Miglio at 35, were both drafted slightly later than their ADPs. How can a league where you can start up to two quarterbacks only have two quarterbacks drafted within the first 36 picks? The answer has to do with the format of the league itself. QB points are devalued, not to mention that you only really have to start one quarterback if you want. What that means is that quarterbacks aren’t much of a difference maker in this league, even when you can start one in the flex position.

However, even with that in mind, quarterbacks were still being drafted early, with 16 quarterbacks drafted in total within the first six rounds of the draft. Each owner drafted their QB1 within the first six rounds with Jeff Ratcliffe being the last owner to draft a QB1, leaving him with Joe Flacco as his QB1.