The reality in both traditional and best ball leagues is that you are going to mix in running backs and wide receivers early and often throughout your draft. Those positions typically call for at least two and maybe up to four different players each week. But quarterbacks require just one starter (super flex aside) and that already makes them a unique position because they are the top scorers in almost all fantasy league scoring.
In the “best ball” format, there are no starting decisions. The league software automatically awards you with the highest-scoring quarterback on your roster for that week.
In traditional league play, owning the highest-scoring quarterback is an advantage, balanced by what you gave up to draft him. In best ball, is it better to draft a top quarterback, or can you make up that difference by owning two of the Top-10 scorers? Where is the bang for your buck? Let’s find out.
Average draft position for best ball quarterbacks
First off, this is when the Top-24 quarterbacks are drafted in the average best ball draft this summer. It’s not any different than traditional leagues.
This should be fairly close to what you will see. While anything can happen, it is usually Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen (in either order) as the initial picks that close out the second round. Then, Jalen Hurts and Joe Burrow before the end of the third. Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson typically fall in the fourth round, followed by Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields in the fifth round.
After the No. 8 quarterback is taken, the order becomes far less reliable and teams begrudgingly take a quarterback before the “starter” quality runs out. Invariably, one team grabs two Top-8 quarterbacks, and another won’t bother with the position until the tenth round and beyond.
Mixing and matching quarterbacks
One truism in fantasy football trumps all else – “you have to pick players that match or exceed the expectation of their draft spot.” If you drafted Patrick Mahomes in his first season as a starter, he was a near end-of-the-draft pick that paid off huge. But for our purposes, we’ll consider that each draft pick is right, and compare how best ball handled those quarterbacks from last year as they were drafted and then paired with backups.
Since every week matters, I gave each quarterback their average fantasy game score for any missing games. That changed the order a bit from what actually happened, but nothing dramatic. Jalen Hurts missed two games, for example, and became the top scorer from 2022 when those two games were credited with his average. Here are the Top-24 once their missed games were replaced.
Using the weekly scores from those players, we’ll just call them by their rank to represent that draft order.
First, let’s look at the extremes:
Two factors jump out. First, it is better to have the Top-2 quarterbacks than the Bottom-2. Shocking. Next, each benefitted about the same when the next drafted quarterback was added. Let’s start reviewing different groupings to see if there is a sweet spot of total points without spending too high of a pick.
Mixing your QB1 and his backup – how many best ball points?
Below shows the “best ball” points for each combination of your first-drafted quarterback (in blue) and all the possible second quarterbacks you could have drafted last year. Again – this assumes no bad picks and the black cells are when the two quarterbacks had the same bye week. And almost no team drafts a second quarterback prior to the tenth one being drafted (which is usually in the seventh round). So the table only shows adding a second quarterback from the No. 11 drafted and beyond.
For instance, drafting the No. 1 QB and then the No. 12 QB produced 497 total best-ball points. The No. 5 and the No. 12 only totaled 430 points. The No. 7 and the No. 21 combined for 370 points.
Owning any of the Top-3 quarterbacks will always be a benefit, but there isn’t much hurry to get a second one because the points you give up are negligible. If you own the No. 3 quarterback, the difference between getting his backup as the No. 13 (eighth round) or waiting until the No.19 (eleventh round) was just about zero. The higher scoring your first quarterback proves, the less your second quarterback matters. Almost every week will rely on that top quarterback, and your backup provides little more than a bye week cover.
Those earlier rounds are better off raiding wideouts and running backs since you’ll draw up to seven of your weekly scores from those two positions – not just one.
The above shows how the different strategies break out in scoring. There’s been a “zero quarterback” movement for years, but the table shows how that plays out. The longer you wait on that first quarterback, the quicker you must be with your second. Waiting until the ninth round and tenth rounds means drafting perhaps drafting the No. 15 and No. 17 which combined for just 360 total best-ball points last year. That’s giving up at least 100 points or more to those owning top quarterbacks.
But if I own three?
There are reasons to own three quarterbacks, but it’s more about covering your bases should one be lost for the season to injury. It doesn’t add many points to your total because you just get one quarterback score, and the deeper you go in the draft, the less likely that quarterback will top the other two.
Let’s say you get the No. 12 and No. 15 in the eighth and ninth rounds. That’s was 385 points. Using your tenth pick, you reach the No. 17. That boosts your totals to 391 or just six more points. Or be aggressive and use your seventh and eighth picks to net No. 10 and No. 13 for 391 points. Then spending that third pick in a row on the No. 15 quarterbacks adds 28 points for 419.
You do not see that third quarterback much earlier than the fourteenth round and usually it is the fifteenth round or beyond because you are building an entire roster, not just a collection of quarterbacks who can only combine for one weekly score.
Get a third one for insurance. Or hope you land the next 2017 Patrick Mahomes, who shocked from the bottom of the draft. But don’t expect a point benefit from the addition.
Bottom Line
The numbers show that your first quarterback will supply the bulk of your weekly best-ball points for the position, and the difference-makers at the top need little more than a bye-week cover. There just isn’t the bang for the buck in adding an early second quarterback when you snagged yours by the fifth round.
Spending a second to fourth-round pick on a quarterback may seem painful when solid starting running backs and wide receivers remain on the board. But it does give about a 100-point advantage at the highest-scoring position, and there’s far more movement in the year-to-year rankings for running backs and wideouts. And even combining multiple quarterbacks from deeper in the draft will not produce what one top quarterback can do.