Drafting for success- Quarterbacks

After a short break I’m back with our third Drafting for success article. Unlike running backs quarterbacks are ten a penny in fantasy football, or are they?

This article will concentrate on the most contentious position for drafting strategies in fantasy football and we’ll look at whether drafting high is a successful strategy. You can read my previous articles on running backs and wide receivers on this blog.

In the last 6 years quarterbacks have dominated the top 25 scorers in standard scoring leagues. There are a number of factors that have helped this sudden rise and none more so than the number of 4000 yard passing seasons.

In fact more than 50% of NFL 4000 yard passing seasons have occurred since 2007 – just look at the exponential increase.

In addition to the huge increase in the quality and quantity of passing virtually every passing record has also been shattered in that time period. It’s really no surprise that QBs are now considered as safe 1st round picks.

But given the graduation of QBs into the “stud” tier of fantasy football players the question we’re going to look at is that rise warranted? Secondly I’ll discuss is it worth taking a QB in the first two rounds and finally can we find success by selecting a QB in the later rounds?

The first thing we need to look at is the top 15 scoring QBs in fantasy football last year. This assumes a starter for each team and 3 backups to cover for injuries. I’m also assuming any draft strategy in our 12 team league would be based on points value,positional value and available population. Surely it would be suicidal (or just plain ballsy) for a GM to allow the top 12 ranked QBs to come off the board before selecting? So in addition to looking at the Top 15 QBs we’ll also look at how the Top 15 pre-season ranked QBs performed and see if a ballsy decision is one worth making.

Top 15 pre-season rankings (various)

Player	Team	Preseason Rank	Final Rank (wk13)
Peyton Manning	Denver	1	3
Aaron Rodgers	Green Bay	2	2
Drew Brees	New Orleans	3	4
Matthew Stafford	Detroit	4	19
Andrew Luck	Indianapolis	5	1
Nick Foles	Philadelphia	6	NR
Matt Ryan	Atlanta	7	11
Cam Newton	Carolina	8	27
Tom Brady	New England	9	7
Robert Griffin III	Washington	10	NR
Tony Romo	Dallas	11	22
Russell Wilson	Seattle	12	5
Colin Kaepernick	San Francisco	13	21
Jay Cutler	Chicago	14	12
Philip Rivers	San Diego	15	8

The top 15 preseason rankings had their usual mixture of passing studs (Manning, Brees, Rodgers and Luck) mixed with high volume passers (Stafford, Brady, Ryan, Romo and Rivers) with a sprinkle of dual threats (Wilson, Newton and Kaepernick) and a couple of hopeful projections (Cutler, Griffin and Foles).

So can we breathe a little easier when we’re selecting QB’s? Pick a couple out of the Top 20 and we should be able to manufacture a couple of hundred points right? The end of season top 15 (for us Week13) looked a little different, but without too many shocks. The studs occupied the top 4 places as expected and it wasn’t a surprise to see our high volume guys (Stafford, Brady, Ryan, Romo (16th) and Rivers) also staying resident. The real misses from pre-season are our riskier prospects (Foles and Griffin). The important thing to notice at this stage is each of these players final rankings, the top 8 fantasy players were all QBs and 14 of the top 20 scorers were QBs.

Well that is a consideration, but there was also a considerable difference between the Luck, Rodgers and Manning tier from the rest of the pack. Andrew Luck scored a whopping 9 points more per game than Joe Flacco who on totals alone should have been our 12th starting QB on the season.

Top 15- Final Scoring Ranks

RANK	NAME	TEAM	POINTS
1	Andrew Luck	IND	296.74
2	Aaron Rodgers	GB	279
3	Peyton Manning	DEN	272.08
4	Drew Brees	NO	243.32
5	Russell Wilson	SEA	242.24
6	Ben Roethlisberger	PIT	230.7
7	Tom Brady	NE	225.02
8	Philip Rivers	SD	215.82
10	Ryan Tannehill	MIA	206.66
11	Matt Ryan	ATL	205.28
12	Jay Cutler	CHI	199.2
17	Joe Flacco	BAL	193.56
18	Eli Manning	NYG	188.6
19	Matthew Stafford	DET	187.12
21	Colin Kaepernick	SF	180.94

Of course there is more to a fantasy season than just plugging in a player and leaving him for the entire season (unless of course he’s Luck, Manning or DeMarco Murray). There is an important issue of consistency as every Colin Kaepernick owner can attest.

The table below depicts the Top 32 QB scorers on the season.

Game Consistency (Dark Green- Excellent output Green- above average output, Yellow- average output, Pink- below average output Red- Terrible output (includes games missed)).What the above table clearly depicts is the presence of 3 QBs who are in that elite category we began discussing at the beginning of the article. Not only did they produce the highest number of points during the season, but they were also extremely consistent doing so.

In fact of the 39 games Manning, Luck and Rodgers played they produced 18 game winning points totals, 7 above positional average games and 9 average games with just 2 games between them that could be considered disappointing. This is a clear indicator of elite level performance.

But this alone does not make them worthy of a pick in the first two rounds especially if comparable value can be found in later rounds. Certainly their points totals can be rivaled (Wilson, Brees and Roethlisberger averaged around 3 points per game less than the top 3), but its the level of consistency that pushes them into the first and second round consideration.

But are they worth the pick?

That question can only be answered by looking at what you gain and what you lose by picking a QB in the first 2 rounds. To absolutely fair we’ll compare like with like value i.e. who do we lose out on or gain by following the QB first strategy. We’ll use our draft pattern as a template.

If we look at at mid-order pick (pick 6) and examine the difference between taking a QB first or waiting until the 5th or later rounds. Here’s what we pick up (based on worst to first best available)

Strategy	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Total	+/-
Q-R-R-W-W	296.74	143.8	116.5	128.4	108.9	794.34	0
R-R-W-W-Q	172.7	132.9	138.1	128.4	243.32	815.42	+21.08
W-R-W-R-Q	193.9	143.8	145	95.4	243.32	821.42	+27.08

What this demonstrates is that picking a QB in the first 2 rounds isn’t a recipe for success despite the guarantee of points. The dearth of consistent scoring at other positions mean that the shortfall you experience in picking up lower ranking RBs and WRs isn’t offset with your elite QB. Conversely picking up high ranking RBs and WRs enables a GM to settle for lower ranking QBs without suffering.

However, we shouldn’t simply slip into a drafting strategy just because the numbers say something else. Circumstances and available talent also have a considerable effect on draft selections. Whilst I’m not advocating drafting one of the top 3 QBs in the first two rounds I’d certainly be reluctant to pass on a Luck, Manning, Rodgers or Brees in the middle of the third or start of the fourth round. The ability to add a consistent and high scoring player in your team is very important especially if you feel you are a good match-up player.

I’ll see you next time when I pose the question- “Are there any Tight Ends worth picking after Gronk and Jimmy?