About this time every year, I like to shine a light on each position
and focus on how they fared among their peers on a weekly basis.
While I am very much a believer that fantasy football is a weekly
game and play the matchups as much as anything when it comes to
fringe starters, there is something to be said for the handful of
players who stack one top 10 or top 20 finish upon another. Among
other things, it suggests that defenses have not found an answer
to slowing him down (or that the offensive play-caller consistently
puts him in positions to succeed).
Knowing how each player ranked among his position group each
week is a handy little tool - whether you want a quick reference
guide in your redraft leagues to help set expectations for a certain
player or need an idea on the range of a player's performances
to help break a tie between two or three options in your DFS lineups.
For the sake of time and space (not to mention my sanity), not
every player that has scored a fantasy point appears below. My
only qualification at quarterback was that the player had at least
five non-zero games, which should theoretically remove non-regulars
and minimize any fluky occurrences. The second qualification was
for the quarterback to post an average rank of at least 24 (the
worst finish for a QB2).
Players with an asterisk by their name are likely out for the
year.
Key to table below:
AR - Average weekly finish Max - Best weekly fantasy finish Min - Worst weekly fantasy finish QB1 - How often he finished among the top 12
at his position QB2 - How often he finished between 13th and
24th at his position QB1% - Percentage of QB1 finishes QB2% - Percentage of QB2 finishes
* Just because the majority of fantasy leagues are 12-teamers, do
not make the mistake of believing there are 12 consistently viable
starters at quarterback. As of Week 10, there are only eight players
whose average rank is less than 12 and five full-time signal-callers
who have finished as a QB1 at least 60 percent of the time.
* With that said, there are several reasons why fantasy managers
can wait on a quarterback in drafts or pay down for them in DFS.
One is the depth that exists at the position, especially in leagues
with 12 or fewer teams. Another is how often the elite quarterbacks
actually fall outside the top 12 at the position in a given week.
1) Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have each posted five QB1 and
four QB2 performances. By comparison, Kirk Cousins (five, three)
Ryan Tannehill (four, six) and Carson Wentz (four, five) look
like incredible values. There is no question Allen and Jackson
go higher in drafts (and are worth more in DFS) because they possess
a higher weekly ceiling, but is that higher ceiling worth the
additional capital if it is only reached three or four times per
season? The oddity is that most fantasy managers view Cousins
as an untrustworthy QB1 option based on his history, Tannehill
as a disappointment this season and Wentz as a fringe starter
who has been consistent but not dynamic.
2) It has been boom-or-bust for Justin Herbert in his second
season. He has been the overall QB1 once and QB2 twice. In every
other game but one, he has been the overall QB14 or worse.
3) Matthew Stafford has not come through for his fantasy managers
in the last two weeks, as his managers undoubtedly know. One of
the more amazing parts of this recent stretch is that he matched
the number of two-interception efforts he posted over his final
two seasons in Detroit (24 games). It also marks the first time
this season he has failed to score 20 fantasy points in back-to-back
games. In my humble opinion, part of the problem is that the Rams
have strayed a bit from the play-action game that helped him achieve
his early success. (I have no doubt HC Sean McVay will get it
fixed.) Up until the losses to the Titans and 49ers, Stafford
was more than keeping pace with Patrick Mahomes.
4) There has been virtually no talk about Dak Prescott being
a league MVP or fantasy MVP candidate, yet all he has done is
post QB1 performance after QB1 performance. The one exception
is a game he finished 23-of-27 (Week 2). He snuck into the top
12 in Week 8 despite a mostly dreadful effort against the Broncos,
but that dud can be forgiven somewhat due to the layoff and missed
practice time he had due to his Week 6 calf injury.
Doug Orth has written for FF
Today since 2006 and been featured in USA Today’s Fantasy
Football Preview magazine since 2010. He hosted USA Today’s
hour-long, pre-kickoff fantasy football internet chat every Sunday
in 2012-13 and appears as a guest analyst on a number of national
sports radio shows, including Sirius XM’s “Fantasy Drive”.
Doug is also a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association.
