Just how important is it to have a top tier quarterback on your fantasy football team? We have heard time and time again that the running back position is the most important slot to fill on your fantasy football team. In recent years with the emergence of the running back by committee we have begun to see the argument that a top WR may be worthy of a pick over a running back. The common belief on quarterbacks is that it is a deep position where you can still get acceptable performance from the average starter. This article will challenge that thesis and explore the fantasy football quarterback position in depth.
The one statistic that trumps all in fantasy football is the league championship. That is what we all strive for and is the ultimate measure of success. Taking a close look at my league over the last five years yields interesting results (Table 1). Every championship team over the past five years had a top tier quarterback. In fact, in three of the five sample years the championship team has had the number one ranked quarterback at the end of the season. In all five seasons, there was a never a champion without a top three quarterback. While the overall sample size is small (one league, five years) we still think the results are significant. So not only do you ทางเข้า ufabet need to get lucky and avoid injury to win a championship, but you will also need maximum performance from the quarterback position to have a shot at the title.
Table 1.
Yr Player Overall Rank 2008 Aaron Rodger #2 2007 Drew Brees #1 2006 Drew Brees #1 2005 Matt Hasselback #3 2004 Brett Favre #1
Next we took a look at the top 25 quarterbacks from 2008 to see if we could determine a cut off between the various grades of quarterback. The goal here is to answer the question: “Do you really need to go out and draft the #1 ranked quarterback, or are their other players who can be had later in the draft with an equal chance of finishing the season in the top 3? Looking at the top 25 quarterbacks from 2008 we can separate the distribution into 5 cohorts (Table 2). There is a clear difference in performance across the cohorts. What this tells us is that ranking quarterbacks based on tier is a valid methodology. Furthermore, selecting a quarterback from the first cohort (top 5 qb) should help to ensure that you finish the year with a top 3 quarterback and a shot at your league title. Another thing the