Drafting fantasy football quarterbacks is among the biggest challenges a manager faces each year. That’s because they score so many points. Simply put, the margin for error with a passer who has a low floor is much smaller compared to having a signal caller who you know will clear 20 points weekly.
So, more power to you if you want to take one of the first two or three quarterbacks off the board. It can leave your roster a little thin, but Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes are guys who will win you weeks single handedly. Unlike some fantasy football experts out there, we won’t tell you to avoid doing this.
However, make sure you know your sleepers if you grab a quarterback early. The 6th-9th rounds of the draft are crucial to finding players who will score some points. Michael Pittman Jr. wasn’t a sexy name in 2021, but he was a plug and play WR2 last year available in this range.
The end goal for those taking a quarterback in the first few rounds is to draft a mix of high floor/low ceiling players along with those likely to see volume but who may be getting overlooked for whatever reason.
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Avoid drafting fantasy football quarterbacks in the middle
Drafting fantasy football quarterbacks who aren’t a lock to finish in the top three at the position is absolutely pointless. Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott were all being taken between the fourth and seventh rounds in most drafts last year.
The issue here is that they provide next to no value in this range. The drop off between Mahomes at QB4 and Prescott at QB7 was almost 44 points. There were only 23 points separating the Cowboys’ passer and Kirk Cousins at QB11. Similar trends happened in each of the past few seasons.
Quarterbacks in this group are well known and are pretty good. Unfortunately, you’re paying a premium for brand name. Their ceiling isn’t top-three, and the floor here can be towards 10-15. The best-case scenario is that you get what you paid for in terms of draft capital.
Look towards the fringes of the draft
Last season, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford and Jalen Hurts were between the eighth and twelfth quarterback off the board in most leagues. In some they went higher but by and large, most were available into the eighth round and beyond.
Of course, there were also some landmines going in this range as well. Ryan Tannehill and Jameis Winston are some notable examples. The difference between these guys and the middle group is that you aren’t passing on surefire contributors at other positions.
Cutting bait on a ninth round pick is much easier than releasing Lamar Jackson and his fifth round investment. More importantly, there is far more upside in drafting two quarterbacks in the late middle or end of the draft. If you took Brady or Stafford in the eighth or ninth round, chances are you landed solid role players with the picks leading up to that.
Whereas if you selected Wilson in the sixth round, that eighth or ninth round pick probably didn’t do much, especially if he was a tight end.
Finally, let’s talk about the risk involved here. The worst-case scenario is that you end up with a pair of crappy quarterbacks which will force you into one of two options. The first is streaming. This is not a path for everyone but can be viable.
The second option is to use the extra assets you collected in the draft to trade for a quarterback during the season. Obviously, this requires you to have hit on those picks. But this is a move many managers have success with.
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