My First Ever 2-QB Dynasty Fantasy Football League Experience

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not that well versed in the world of dynasty fantasy football. I’ve been strictly a re-draft guy myself, other than one year in which I was asked to take over an IDP dynasty league from my friend.

That was back when Chris Gamble was healthy and still in the league. That should show you how long ago my foray into dynasty fantasy football was. My buddy asked to take his team back the following season, and that was my all too brief dynasty fantasy football career.

Until this year, I really had no interest in dynasty leagues. I think that has something to do with not having many friends interested enough to start a dynasty league. If I was going to play in a dynasty league that could go on for years and years, I’d rather go in on it with people I know.

Then I joined Twitter, and interacted with so many awesome people, some of them dynasty guys, like Chad Scott of DynastyLeagueFootball.com (DLF), and the idea of a creating a 2-QB dynasty fantasy football league began to grab my interest.

There was enough interest in the league to create a 12-team 2-QB dynasty fantasy league, and it was an experience that was quite new to me, and also new to some of my fellow league members. When I was preparing for this dynasty 2-QB league I decided to place a very high emphasis on drafting young quarterbacks.

Even if I had to reach for young quarterbacks, I wanted both of my quarterbacks to be of the “young stud” variety. That meant quarterbacks like Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson, and Cam Newton would be my top targets.

As awesome as it would be to come away from the draft with, say, a Matt Ryan/Peyton Manning quarterback duo, I would much rather have an Andrew Luck/Russell Wilson combination. My mindset in dynasty leagues is to build a core of young players that can produce now, and still, hopefully, be producing at a high level many years in the future.

That’s not how everybody approaches a dynasty football draft, but that’s my dynasty mentality.

The great thing about dynasty fantasy football leagues, in general, is that every owner goes into their dynasty draft with a different strategy. Some only want young players, while others will draft a mix of young players and veterans. Some owners place more of an emphasis on talent and winning now, while others build for a long-term future, even if the short-term might not present any immediate results.

Myself, personally, I go with youth and talent, and try to build as young of a team as possible. When creating the 2-QB dynasty start-up league, I was curious how the quarterback position would be drafted by my fellow owners. I wound up with the 5th overall pick in the draft, and knew I would probably go QB-QB.

The expectation I had was that with this being a dynasty 12-team 2-QB league, with passing touchdowns worth 6 points, that quarterbacks would get drafted pretty early. Things started off that way, with Aaron Rodgers going first overall, but no other quarterback was taken by the time my fifth pick came around.

I was faced with a tough decision because I have Robert Griffin III at the top of my QB board, but I had a feeling that he would still be there for me when my pick in the second round rolled around (2.8). The only real option, in my opinion, was to draft Andrew Luck. I didn’t think Luck would still be on the board in the second round, and if I wanted him, I’d have to take draft him in the first round.

The 23-year-old Luck is going into his second season, after finishing an impressive rookie campaign with the Colts last year, and NFL.com’s Around The League editor Gregg Rosenthal named Luck his top quarterback 25 years of age or younger. Rosenthal presents a strongly written case why Luck topped his ‘Top 10 QBs 25 or under’ series, so I recommend checking out the whole article, if you have time.

In standard scoring leagues, Luck finished the season as the 9th highest fantasy quarterback in 2012, and in 6-point passing TD/-2 interception leagues, he was 10th. Luck might be more well known for his passing acumen, as he did throw for over 4,300 yards and 23 touchdowns last year. Yes, he tacked on 18 interceptions, but Luck is also an undervalued rushing quarterback.

In his article, Rosenthal pointed out, that of Luck’s 62 rushes, 55% of them wound up being first down runs. He also had more third down rushing conversions than RG3. Those stats might not matter to fantasy footballers, but here’s one that does: Luck had 255 yards rushing, and added five rushing touchdowns.

In Luck, I see a quarterback who can be the cornerstone of your dynasty league team for the next 10 years or so, and that’s why I was more than happy to take him with my first round pick.

But, the truth is, I value RG3 even more.

Some people look at me weird when they see how high I value RG3, but even if the Redskins do limit his rushing attempts, he’s not just a quarterback that relies on his legs to make plays and score, both real and fake, points.

RG3 is a smooth pocket passer, and even if his pass attempts per game average was 26, which was 13 less throws per game than Luck last year, he was the league leader in passing yards/attempt last season. Adding to that, RG3 threw only five interceptions, and as Rosenthal mentioned in his ‘Top 10 QBs 25 or under’ article on RG3, where RG3 came in second, after Luck, the Redskins’ signal caller had the fewest interceptions per pass attempt in the NFL in 2012.

A couple of other stats that caught my eye in regards to RG3 came from ProFootballFocus.com (PFF). In terms of PFF’s top-notch Signature Stats, RG3 had the third highest PPF QB Rating, behind Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning. When it comes to PFF’s QB Accuracy % stat, RG3 was second to Rodgers.

Those are all good signs for RG3’s future as a passing quarterback. The worry with RG3 though is his injury history. He tore his ACL once in college, and is now going through rehab after having ACL and LCL surgery performed after a knee injury he suffered in the playoffs versus the Seahawks last season.

RG3 isn’t being drafted where he normally would be if it wasn’t for the injury, and I understand that he suffered a devastating knee injury. You don’t want to risk drafting an RG3 that might be 80% or 90% of his previous self, but if RG3 was guaranteed to be fully healthy, he’d be in the discussion as a top-5 drafted fantasy quarterback this season.

He ended the 2012 season as QB4 in standard scoring leagues, and QB5 in 6-points/passing touchdown leagues, in the average fantasy points/game category, and he was QB5 and QB7 in total fantasy points, in standard and 6-point leagues, respectively. Pretty darn impressive for a rookie.

In the latest 2-QB ADP data I have, which isn’t dynasty related, RG3 has a QB ADP of QB11. The Dynasty QB rankings and June Dynasty ADP at DLF had RG3 at QB5 in both.

I wound up taking him in the second round, to be my QB2, and he was the 8th quarterback drafted. If RG3 has a sophomore season like his rookie season, he’ll probably be among the top three of quarterbacks drafted in dynasty leagues next year. Either way, I feel that I got a steal with RG3 in round two, to be my QB2, and this might be the only year where we can get a heavy discount on a perennial top-3 fantasy quarterback.

Going QB-QB in rounds 1 and 2 of my 2-QB dynasty start-up draft isn’t a 2-QB dynasty draft strategy for everybody. You might not want to invest your first two round picks to get an Andrew Luck/RG3 combo in 2-QB dynasty leagues like I did, as you might prefer to grab a running back or wide receiver. However, I do think that using your first two round draft picks on young and talented quarterbacks is a premium worth paying in 2-QB dynasty leagues.

My strategy to grab young quarterbacks paid off, as I was not only able to get two of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL today, but I shouldn’t have to worry about the quarterback position for my team for a very long time. Unless, RG3’s injury turns out to be catastrophic, that is. As of now, it’s looking like he’ll be ready for Week 1 of the 2013 NFL season.

Taking Luck and RG3 gave me some wiggle room as to who would be my team’s third quarterback, and I decided to take E.J. Manuel to be my QB3/project quarterback. I think Manuel has the best situation of all the rookie quarterbacks this year, if he gets to play, and he fit in nicely with my strategy of targeting young players. With Luck, RG3, and Manuel holding down the fort as my quarterbacks, I took a late round flier on Mike Glennon as my QB4.

With your QB4, if you draft well at the position you can take a flier on a young quarterback that you hope can turn into a productive quarterback down the line. If not, you’ve only wasted a late round pick, at worst.

Drafting in a dynasty 2-QB league, rather than a re-draft 2-QB league will have you adjusting your strategy, and focus on taking a quarterback sooner than you would in a re-draft league, and that’s even more true if the size of the 2-QB dynasty league you’re in is 12 teams.

If you don’t take at least one quarterback early, you could find yourself not all that excited about your quarterback depth once the draft is over. The one bright side about that though, is since it’s a dynasty league, you’ll get a chance to take the next big thing at the quarterback position in future dynasty rookie-only drafts in your league.

If you’re wondering how the quarterbacks were drafted in my 12-team 2-QB dynasty start-up draft, you can check out the chart at the end of this post.

All in all, 45 quarterbacks were drafted, with every team but three drafting four quarterbacks in total, and seven rookie quarterbacks were taken (E.J. Manuel, Tyler Wilson, Geno Smith, Matt Barkley, Mike Glennon, Zac Dysert, Ryan Nassib). *Quarterbacks listed in the chart are in the order they were taken in each round*

Stats used in this article courtesy of ProFootballFocus.com, TheFakeFootball.com, and DynastyLeagueFootball.com.

Salvatore Stefanile

Salvatore Stefanile is a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and believes that 2-QB fantasy football leagues will be the future of fantasy football. You can read about his 2-QB fantasy football opinions and analysis at XNSports.com.

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