The main attraction of playing in 2-QB fantasy football leagues is that you get to add one extra starter on your team. That might seem to you as nothing more than drafting one more quarterback but it’s much deeper than that.
In a 12-team 1-QB fantasy football league you’re only starting twelve quarterbacks every week. In a 12-team 2-QB fantasy football league that number doubles to 24. When it comes to fantasy football drafting you always want to draft the team that provides you with the most value.
In order to find out what the most valuable fantasy position is let’s use a 1QB/2RB/3WR team in a 12-team league as an example to show you where the value is.
In a league format like that you want to see what the difference is between the highest scoring quarterback and the 12th highest scoring quarterback, the highest scoring running back and the 24th highest scoring running back and the highest scoring wide receiver and 36th highest scoring wide receiver.
You want to do that in order to see just how valuable the best scoring player at each position is when compared to the worst starting player at each position.
Based on 2012 scoring here’s the breakdown for each position:
QUARTERBACK
4 points per passing touchdown/-2 for interceptions standard scoring setting:
Best scoring quarterback: Drew Brees-345.58 points
12th best scoring quarterback: Andy Dalton-250.76 points
Points Differential: 94.82
Points Per Game (PPG) Differential: 5.93
6 points per passing touchdown/-2 for interceptions points setting:
Best scoring quarterback: Drew Brees-431.58 points
12th best scoring quarterback: Andy Dalton-304.76 points
Points Differential: 126.82
PPG Differential: 7.93
RUNNING BACK
Non-PPR standard scoring setting:
Best scoring running back: Adrian Peterson-307.40 points
24th best scoring running back: Danny Woodhead-116.70 points
Points Differential: 190.7
PPG Differential: 11.92
Full 1-Point PPR scoring setting:
Best scoring running back: Adrian Peterson-311.60 points
24th best scoring running back: Joique Bell-155.90 points
Points Differential: 155.70
PPG Differential: 9.73
WIDE RECEIVER
Non-PPR standard scoring setting:
Best scoring wide receiver: Calvin Johnson-220.40 points
36th best scoring wide receiver: Malcolm Floyd-111.40 points
Points Differential: 109
PPG Differential: 6.81
Full 1-Point PPR scoring setting:
Best scoring wide receiver: Calvin Johnson-342.40 points
36th best scoring wide receiver: Jordy Nelson-167.50 points
Points Differential: 174.9
PPG Differential: 10.9
Based on the above numbers here’s how the positions would be ranked in terms of value:
- Non-PPR Running Back
- PPR Wide Receiver
- PPR Running Back
- 6-point passing league QB
- Non-PPR Wide Receiver
- Standard scoring (4-point) QB
The running back position, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, was the most valuable position, and taking two of the three top spots overall. Now, how would the numbers, alter, at all, if we had to account for a second quarterback? The quarterback points data can be found below…
4 points per passing touchdown/-2 for interceptions standard scoring setting:
Best scoring quarterback: Drew Brees-345.58 points
24th best scoring quarterback: Ryan Tannehill 182.86-points
Points Differential: 162.72
PPG Differential: 10.17
6 points per passing touchdown/-2 for interceptions points setting:
Best scoring quarterback: Drew Brees-431.58 points
24th best scoring quarterback: Ryan Tannehill-206.86 points
Points Differential: 224.72
PPG Differential: 14.05
In the first set of comparisons standard scoring running back was the position that provided the most value. But that was in leagues where only one starting quarterback was required. When a second starting quarterback requirement was thrown into the mix that was no longer the case, with 6-point scoring league quarterbacks being the most valuable position. And standard scoring league quarterbacks moved up from being the least valuable position of the six that I studied, to the 4th most valuable.
The simple conclusion we can come to is that when you’re drafting in 2-QB fantasy football leagues quarterbacks become more valuable than your standard 1-QB league quarterbacks and you will need to modify you draft plans accordingly; and that’s particularly the case when passing touchdowns are worth 6 points instead of the usual 4.
Stats used in this article courtesy of thefakefootball.com. Big shout particualry goes out to Greg Smith for his Rankings Analysis articles on the QB, RB and WR positions.
