Cole's Fantasy Corner: Why drafting a Quarterback early is a mistake

(Patrick Mahomes nearly threw a touchdown pass from this angle in Super Bowl against Tampa Bay via Getty Images)

Welcome to the first edition of what hopefully will become a series of helpful blogs on fantasy football. It’s one of my favorite things to talk about and with that comes the need to follow it closely. In this addition I will talk about why it’s a catastrophic mistake to draft quarterbacks before the sixth round.

There’s no doubt that the quarterback is a crucial part of every fantasy team. However, in most leagues, there’s only one spot for a quarterback, while there are multiple spots for running backs and wide receivers. This year, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Kyler Murray are all being drafted early. Most people do this because they feel that they are clearly the three best QB’s. That could be true, however, the difference between the #1 scoring QB vs the #10 scoring QB isn’t a huge margin. Let’s look at last year for example. The #1 QB was Josh Allen. The #10 QB was Lamar Jackson (who missed a game due to the Coronavirus). Josh Allen scored 64 more points than Lamar did, which for only needing to start one QB isn’t a huge difference.

(Photos via nfl.com)

Compare this to the top running backs and wide receivers and the point totals are much more skewed. Last year Alvin Kamara, Dalvin Cook, and Derrick Henry all had well over 300 points and the #4 ranked RB was David Montgomery at 264 points. Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, and Stefon Diggs also all had well over 300 points with DeAndre Hopkins finishing as the #4 ranked receiver with 287 points.

Outside of the top three, the rest of the top 15 running backs and wide receivers finished the year with around the same scores. Running backs and wide receivers are going quickly in the majority of drafts, and since you have to start two/three running backs and receivers (based on your flex decision) it is much more important to target running backs and receivers in the first five rounds rather than to use one of those valuable picks on a QB when the scoring difference is much smaller and you only need to start one. If you’re in a two QB league, then obviously you have to draft one of the better QB’s in the early rounds, but if you only need to start one, save it for the later rounds when the best receivers and running backs are off the board.