The fashionable NFL sport is dominated by quarterbacks. The previous 12 regular-season MVPs and 14 of the previous 19 Tremendous Bowl MVPs have been quarterbacks. 9 of the previous 11 gamers taken first general within the NFL draft have been quarterbacks. The one-season passing landing document has been damaged 3 times up to now 21 seasons. And three of essentially the most achieved quarterbacks in historical past — Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning — achieved their greatest statistical campaigns inside the previous 18 seasons.
Past the awards and gaudy statistics amassed by those that play the place, trendy quarterbacks proceed to captivate us with their athleticism. Cellular QBs have revolutionized the sport, with gamers corresponding to Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson capturing headlines and dominating the fantasy football panorama.
Allen has the document for many seasons with not less than 375 fantasy factors (doing so in every of the previous 5 seasons) and is the league’s reigning MVP. Jackson set the single-season scoring document for fantasy factors by a quarterback in 2024, giving him two of the highest 4 years on that listing (2019).
These are performances to be celebrated and etched into our brains. The fantasy soccer expertise reaches its apex once we amplify these reminiscences. And that pleasure is why I’d implore you to make one easy change to your league this 12 months: Begin two quarterbacks as a substitute of 1.
This is the way you do it: Add a superflex slot to your league’s lineup.
What’s a superflex, you ask? Listed as an “OP” (offensive participant) in ESPN leagues, the superflex slot could be stuffed by a QB, RB, WR or TE.
When you might merely add a second beginning QB slot, including a superflex as a substitute is the really useful method, notably in case your league has greater than 10 groups in it.
Superflex leagues are successfully 2QB leagues — the numbers bear out {that a} quarterback ought to be prioritized in that lineup slot — however this feature supplies the pliability of utilizing a RB, WR or TE as a substitute, within the occasion you run quick on QBs in a given week resulting from byes or accidents.
NOTE: So as to add an OP slot to the beginning lineup in your ESPN customized league, click on on “LM Instruments” after which “Edit Roster Settings.” Regulate the dropdown menu accordingly and also you’re all set.
There are different rationales for the swap to start out two quarterbacks as nicely.
It means a higher concentrate on QBs early in your draft
If we’re to emulate the NFL sport, should not we be drafting prime quarterbacks practically as early as the sport’s greatest working backs and large receivers?
Among the many dozen or so fantasy soccer leagues during which I play, two of my favorites are superflex/2QB setups, considered one of which I’ve performed for practically 30 years. The shift in draft technique demanded by such a format is a welcome problem.
In a superflex format, it’s completely authentic to treat Allen or Jackson because the No. 1 general decide (I personally rank Jackson first). In actual fact, it isn’t a troublesome case to make that each of them, plus Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts, warrant consideration among the many first 5 general picks.
Naturally, extra QBs turn into fantasy-relevant
It isn’t solely about trumpeting the Allens and Jacksons of the league. It is also about elevating the lesser-known quarterbacks who aren’t at all times worthy sufficient to crack a standard fantasy lineup.
For instance, over the ultimate eight weeks of final season, Jared Goff was the highest-scoring fantasy quarterback within the league — sure, Jared Goff! — but not as soon as throughout that point was he began in additional than half of ESPN leagues.
In the meantime, Sam Darnold authored one of many place’s most sudden breakthrough tales in latest reminiscence, ending prime 10 on the place for the week eight instances and ninth in scoring for the season. But, solely seven instances was he began in higher than one-third of ESPN leagues, most of them throughout the fantasy playoffs.
In superflex leagues, nevertheless, each QBs have been lineup mainstays for the near-entirety of the season.
Fantasy managers in superflex codecs should embrace the problem of scouting a wider scope of the place’s participant pool, together with doubtlessly foreseeing breakthroughs like Goff’s or Darnold’s. In spite of everything, Darnold was a identified Week 1 starter (following J.J. McCarthy‘s season-ending harm) who led an offense with some of the potent units of receivers. Those that took an opportunity on him might have been those exclaiming, “Sam Darnold’s 35-point Week 14 propelled me into my league’s playoffs!”
Darnold wasn’t the one such latest instance. The previous two seasons additionally introduced us related success tales like Jordan Love in 2023 and Baker Mayfield and Bo Nix final 12 months, quarterbacks who have been evenly drafted in commonplace fantasy leagues however made compelling circumstances for a better examination.
Now flash ahead on the place, to 2025: How will Justin Fields fare in his return to a beginning position with the New York Jets? To what diploma would possibly C.J. Stroud rebound from a disappointing sophomore marketing campaign? What can we count on from McCarthy in his return from a number of knee surgical procedures?
In commonplace leagues, these solutions are principally irrelevant come draft day, as a result of not one of the three makes a compelling sufficient case to be in a fantasy lineup in September. In these single-QB codecs, we’re higher off saving the time we might spend scouting these quarterbacks, and reinvesting it into painstakingly inspecting Bhayshul Tuten‘s path to prominence within the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ backfield, or Marvin Mims Jr.’s chance of lastly breaking by means of within the Denver Broncos‘ receiver pecking order, as a result of these and related solutions from different groups’ working again and large receiver depth charts present extra invaluable perception into our late-round, bench and sleeper picks.
The likes of Fields, Stroud, McCarthy, and so forth. ought to have a extra distinguished place in my fantasy evaluation. And in a superflex league, it is crucial to look at all 32 groups’ quarterback footage, proper there alongside inspecting each crew’s third-string working again and No. 3 and/or slot large receiver.
It means extra factors scored by your lineup
All of us love extra fantasy factors, proper? Final season, quarterbacks amassed 163 whole video games value not less than 20 fantasy factors, a median of greater than 9 per week and greater than the working again place scored as an entire.
In a 10-team league with one beginning QB for every crew, a lot of these 20-point performances go by the wayside. However with two starters, the overwhelming majority of these video games wind up counting towards some crew’s fantasy rating.
Utilizing ESPN’s most-started percentages from 2024 to assemble the 20 most possible starters in a superflex/2QB league, 83% of these 20-point efforts would’ve made the lineup lower, as a substitute of the 49% that truly did in commonplace, single-QB play.
Let’s all give quarterbacks their due, and have extra enjoyable taking part in fantasy within the course of. This 12 months, add a second starter to your lineup and make them the centerpieces of your roster.