Fantasy football owners have learned one important lesson about drafting quarterbacks this year
Fantasy football owners: Take a look at this photo and tell me what you see:
In case you didn't pick up on it, that's a list of the quarterback scoring leaders through Week 7 in fantasy football, via ESPN.
Why is that so important? It's pretty simple. It's proof that you should never draft a quarterback too high in a draft ever again.
Let's focus on some of the names here to illustrate what I'm talking about:
Alex Smith is the top scorer -- his average draft position (via Fantasy Pros) heading into 2017 made him the 24th highest-drafted quarterback, which means you got him off the waiver wire or drafted him extremely low as a backup.
Carson Wentz is No. 2. He was drafted on average with the 137th pick.
Dak Prescott was 11th-highest in ADP and now sits about six points behind Tom Brady.
Deshaun Watson? You know his story. He wasn't even the starter Week 1 and now look at where he is.
On the other side of things: Aaron Rodgers was the top quarterback selected with about the 18th overall choice (according to ESPN) and he's out for a while. Drew Brees hasn't been his usual self. Matt Ryan isn't visible because he's farther down, just behind Trevor Siemian and Ben Roethlisberger.
You get the idea. The point I'm making is that quarterback is extremely deep these days. You can find QB options on the waiver wire or deep in a draft. Drafting a guy like Rodgers and then losing him mid-season or banking on Ryan to repeat an MVP year is too risky -- it means you miss out on the chance to take a shot on a running back with upside or that consistent, reliable wideout.
This didn't just happen in 2017. Last season, Matthew Stafford, Dak Prescott and Derek Carr all had breakout years. Blake Bortles -- yes, that Blake Bortles -- was the eighth-best QB.
So here's what you should do: Bookmark this for next year and sit back during your drafts until later, when a Philip Rivers or Kirk Cousins shows up on your queue. Maybe you draft an upside backup, too.
But don't reach for the big names.
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