The end of the 2013 NFL preseason leads into the beginning of the NFL regular season, and we are less than a week away from meaningful NFL action being played for our enjoyment. Many 2-QB fantasy football drafts will be held between now and right before kick-off Thursday night, and that seems like as good a time as any to update my quarterback tiered rankings for 2-QB fantasy football leagues.
Not much has really changed since the last tiered quarterback rankings were released, but a couple of names have moved up, and some have moved down. I still stuck with the QB1, QB2, and QB3 tiers, as I feel those tiers will give you an idea of how to target certain quarterbacks in your 2-QB fantasy football draft.
The goal is to grab at least one from the QB1 tier, and two, if you can manage it/are willing to pay the high price that drafting two of the top fantasy quarterbacks would cost you. If you can’t come away from your draft with two QB1s, getting one QB1 early, and streaming your QB2 is never a bad option either.
You’ll see the QB3 tier doesn’t have much stock in the barrel, and if you want to secure a QB3, play around with match-ups, which you can find in this guide to bye weeks in 2-QB fantasy football leagues, and consider the option of reaching to grab one of the low end QB2s, if need be.
QB1 Tier (14)
Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Robert Griffin III, Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson, Tony Romo, Michael Vick, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck
QB2 Tier (12)
Eli Manning, Andy Dalton, Jay Cutler, Sam Bradford, Ryan Tannehill, Carson Palmer, Matt Schaub, Joe Flacco, Josh Freeman, Alex Smith, E.J. Manuel, Brandon Weeden
QB3 Tier (11)
Philip Rivers, Jake Locker, Terrelle Pryor, Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder, Geno Smith, Matt Flynn, Nick Foles, Chad Henne, Drew Stanton, Mike Glennon
Honorable Mentions (6)
Kirk Cousins, Matt Moore, Matt Cassel, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kyle Orton, Mark Sanchez
A few notes about the rankings:
- You’ll notice the big change is at the top of the QB1 tier, with Aaron Rodgers taking over Drew Brees for the top spot. After doing an in depth study in relation to the safety of fantasy quarterback prospects this week, the numbers worried me a little, and were more in favor of Rodgers than Brees. I still don’t think you can go wrong with either of the two as your QB1 though, and the choice boils down to personal preference, more than anything.
- Vick moved up from the top of the QB2 tier, to inside the bottom of the QB1 tier, and Eli Manning moved out of the QB1 tier. I am still unsure if Vick will be the key to winning your 2-QB fantasy football team this year, or be the reason you lose it, but the upside is there, where it isn’t with Eli. I usually tend to go with upside when making fantasy football decisions, thus why I moved up Vick over Eli.
- We have a new name in the QB3 tier, as Terrelle Pryor is set to take over the role of starting quarterback in Oakland, and he is a name to keep an eye out, more so in standard scoring leagues, because of his rushing ability. Pryor hasn’t been named the starter yet, but if he does, you could do worse at the QB3 slot for your 2-QB team. We saw what Tim Tebow did in 2011, and Pryor could provide such fantasy value this year as well.
