The creators of fantasy football managed to get pretty much every detail perfect when our national sport was invented, back in the days before the Super Bowl. But one aspect that never quite worked is the scoring system for the quarterback. It was wrong from the start.

Quarterback is obviously the most important position in the NFL, but historically it has been more of a supporting role in our game. Traditional fantasy scoring rewards volume over efficiency and rushing ability over everything. In reality, quarterback talent is remarkably rare. In fantasy games—at least in single-quarterback leagues—the position is easy to fill and easily replaceable.

While superflex formats don’t really help solve the various scoring problems at quarterback, they certainly address the scarcity issue. With superflex, one of our starting linebacker spots can be filled by any RB, WR, TE, or QB. That is, it’s like a regular flex spot, except, um… it’s super.

Given the quarterback’s scoring advantages compared to other positions, Superflex essentially requires two starting quarterbacks. If you’re in a league with 12 or more teams, every projected starting quarterback in the NFL will be drafted, as will several notable backups. If you’re wrong on the position, you’re lost – no realistic chance of a waiver wire rescue. If you’re wrong twice There is a very good chance in this position You will spend 24 hours straight in a fast food restaurant next spring.

Recently, the Yahoo Fantasy crew gathered for a 10-team, 15-round Superflex mock draft with otherwise typical half-PPR settings. Our draft order looked like this:

• Daniel Titus

• Andy Behrens

• Kate Magdziuk

• Matt Harmon

• Collin Brennan

• Jason Klabacha

• Mo Castle

• Dalton Del Don

• Tera Roberts

• Scott Pianoski

Here’s a look at the draft board, round by round

Unfortunately, I will not denigrate anyone in this roundup of bogus decisions, as too many reputations have been ruined by my tough but fair assessments in the past. Producer Collin was completely devastated by the bogus assessment of half the PPR released in May – it was both personally and professionally useless. We cannot afford to lose him. Nowso close to opening week.

Instead, let’s focus on the dramatic changes to the standard draft board that we often see at Superflex, as well as our different strategic approaches to the quarterback position. Here are a few key QB-related details about our mock:

• Five of the top seven picks in the draft were quarterbacks;

• Six quarterbacks were drafted in the first round, six more in the second:

• By the end of the sixth round, 19 quarterbacks had been selected, then two more QBs (Aaron Rodgers and Geno Smith) were selected at the beginning of the seventh inning;

• Bo Nix and Justin Fields were both drafted in the tenth round, whereas Tua Tagovailoa, Jared Goff, Jayden Daniels and Caleb Williams would go in a typical 10-team league;

• Nine out of ten teams drafted a third quarterback.

So yes, Superflex is a different game. It reshapes the board in a way that better reflects the way players and positions are evaluated within the NFL itself.

Of course, in a format where six of the top 10 picks are quarterbacks, you’re going to find some unusual names after the first round. Tyreek Hill, Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson were all taken in the second round in our mock, which seems crazy. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley slipped to the third round. Travis Kelce fell all the way to the sixth round, a round he hasn’t reached since the Alex Smith years in KC.

You’ll generally find that superflex managers take one of four different paths to target QB in their drafts, and three of those approaches are represented in our model. Here’s a quick overview of those strategies:

QB Double Tap

Many managers aren’t kidding when the rules allow for two starting quarterbacks, filling their QB slot in the first round and Q/W/R/T in the second. Three teams chose this route in our mock, resulting in the following combinations: Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow (Klabacha), Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love (Harmon), Anthony Richardson and Jayden Daniels (surprisingly, not Dalton. It was actually Mo.)

Each of these managers paid at least a small price in terms of the quality of the running backs and receivers. But in a relatively flat format like a 10-team league, each can tell a compelling story about every player on their roster. Two of our three double-tappers ended up pairing a QB with his primary receiver option. Harmon took Hurts in the first and AJ Brown in the third, while Klabacha built an extreme Chiefs stack with Mahomes, Kelce, Rashee Rice and Isiah Pacheco.

Two in the first four

Personally, my preferred method of attacking QB in Superflex is to have both spots filled by the end of the fourth (or fifth at the latest). To do otherwise, I would have to be almost fanatical in believing in a specific QB who is unlikely to fall in the top 20. I opened our mock with Josh Allen in the first round, then followed with Justin Jefferson in the second and Caleb Williams in the third. Two other managers (Kate and Scott) followed a similar path with two of the top four, while another (Tera) drafted her second QB in the fifth round.

Generally, I like to have the flexibility to grab value anytime, anywhere in a draft without feeling like I’m abandoning a plan that’s set in stone. If Love or Burrow had dropped a few extra spots, I would have taken them in the second and gone with the double-tap method.

Held QB

Like Hero RB, the basic idea is that you fill one of your QB spots early in the draft with a player with high potential who can make a difference in the game. Then you attack other positions before selecting your second quarterback from the scraps of everyone else. If your second QB plays at a serviceable level all season, this approach gives you a real chance to win the quarterback battle every week, while also giving you a clear advantage as a receiver or running back.

This strategy isn’t for everyone, as it means you’ll look at your opening week roster and find a pretty disgusting name on the superflex spot. But if you go big and target your first QB, this plan can definitely be successful.

Producer Collin was the only manager to go this route in our mock, and it led him to a Lamar Jackson-Baker Mayfield combination. Between those two picks, Collin made his usual series of catastrophic mistakes along with two or three fortuitously good decisions had fun and did his best. Great job big boy.

Zero QB

Unfortunately, no one in our mock chose this admittedly difficult path. Del Don briefly seemed to attempt such a roster build when he drafted three non-QBs at the top. But cowardice got the better of him and he selected Tua in the fourth round and then Kirk Cousins ​​in the sixth. An authentic zero-QB approach would mean waiting until the sixth or seventh round to fill the position.

For this strategy to work, you really need to come across an unexpected success story — someone on the level of Jordan Love in 2023 or Geno Smith in 2022. I’ve gone down this route occasionally in superflex leagues (with very mixed results) when selecting at or near the turn in a deep draft. At some point, you just can’t talk yourself into burning a first- or second-round pick on the entire QB10, so you start racking up RB and WR value and stubbornly refuse to draft the league’s most important position.

Zero QB can also be successful if you manage to find an absolute gem in the draft or snag a Hail Mary during the season. But that’s no easy feat. This is a low-probability approach that often comes from desperation, querulousness, and stubbornness.

For those of you who enjoy scrolling through other people’s fantasy drills, you can find the full draft results by team below. If you see an overwhelming favorite, feel free to praise the team in comments.