Everything you need to know about 2QB leagues, the future of fantasy football (UPDATED) (2024)

I recently moved from one side of the country to the other, and that makes me the perfect person to explain why and how you should move to a two-quarterback fantasy football format like 2QB or Superflex. If you’re not convinced that geographical relocation is applicable to changing up your league settings, my other qualifications include being one of the co-founders of TwoQBs.com, a website dedicated to two-quarterback leagues. (Okay, maybe I should have led with that.) Not convinced that starting two passers per team is the way to go in fantasy football? I hope this article will change your mind and get you prepped to try out the format.

Why 2QB or Superflex?

I almost don’t know where to begin answering this question… Because variety is the spice of life? Because two heads are better than one? How about because we need to add more fantasy value to the position that matters most in the actual game of football?

Tom Brady is the greatest NFL signal-caller of all time, but he’s being drafted as a backup in fantasy at QB14 in ADP. Meanwhile, Lamar Jackson is the NFL’s most electric rushing quarterback since Michael Vick, and Sam Darnold broke through as the youngest passer ever to play in the pros last season, but both are well outside the top-12 at their position. These players belong in our fantasy football lineups, and adding a second quarterback spot to our lineups makes us consider their value beyond the purposes of waiver wire streaming.

Oh, and don’t forget that quarterbacks score more than any other position in fantasy football. Fourteen of the top-20 overall producers in 0.5-PPR scoring were quarterbacks. The QB30 in points per game (the immortal Case Keenum) scored 13.4 PPG, while the RB30 scored 10.6 and the WR30 scored 10.9. Josh Allen didn’t even play a full season en route to outscoring 16 games of Brandin Cooks. In one-quarterback leagues, the majority of quarterback scoring comes from benches and the waiver wire, not starting lineups. In two-quarterback leagues, those points actually matter because every NFL starter ends up rostered.

The same is true of starting running backs — they all end up rostered in fantasy leagues because we covet their opportunities for touches, even in shaky situations. People are somehow okay with starting multiple running backs per roster, but not quarterbacks. Before you tell me “an NFL team only has one quarterback, and fantasy should reflect that,” consider the Saints’ tandem of Drew Brees and Taysom Hill. Also, consider how your fantasy teams usually don’t include punters, long snappers, or offensive linemen. It’s okay to push our roster construction settings further away from a typical NFL team if it improves the fantasy gameplay.

The draft is where gameplay improves the most in two-quarterback leagues. Drafting is a lot like packing up for a move. You can’t keep everything, so you’re forced to make tough and interesting choices about what you want to take with you into the season. Do you want to live in a small house or a big house? Do you want a one-quarterback garage or a two-quarterback garage? The only cost to you to pay for a larger fantasy property is time invested into researching the lower tiers of quarterbacks, guys who wouldn’t normally be on your radar in one-quarterback leagues. And if you love fake football, soaking up more minutiae from the NFL universe isn’t really a cost at all. It’s a benefit.

Choosing Between 2QB and Superflex

If you play in a league with 10 teams or fewer, make yours a 2QB league. Each fantasy team will want three quarterbacks, two starters plus a backup, so the NFL’s supply of 32 starters meets a 10-team league’s demand for 30 quarterbacks. You’ll even have two bargain basem*nt starters left over to help patch holes caused by injuries, benchings, and bye weeks.

Once you up your count to 12 teams or more, it’s Superflex time. A regular flex spot allows you to plug in a running back, wide receiver, or tight end. A Superflex is the same thing, except quarterbacks are added to the mix. Alternatively, you will sometimes see this called an “Offensive Player” (or “OP”), but that kind of sounds like a roster spot where you have to start blowhards like Terrell Owens and Johnny Manziel or dirty players like Ndamukong Suh and Vontaze Burfict, so let’s stick with Superflex.

We move from 2QB to Superflex at 12 teams because that’s where demand outweighs the supply of NFL starters. Not every drafter in a 12-teamer can roster three starting quarterbacks, so we use the Superflex to avoid the feel-bads of an empty roster spot due to those dreaded injuries, benchings and byes.

Two-Quarterback Draft Strategy & ADP

Quarterbacks go up in value in 2QB and Superflex leagues, but how much? Let’s look at Average Draft Position (ADP) to find out. Below is a table showing where the top-25 quarterbacks were drafted on average between one- and two-quarterback leagues in 2018.

Holy Superflex statistics, Batman! Most quarterbacks were drafted about four to five rounds earlier in start-two leagues. The elite signal-callers at the top of boards only went two to three rounds earlier, but that’s simply because they didn’t have room to climb higher. In two-quarterback formats, the top six at the position were all drafted by the end of the third round, on average, but the ADP for QB6 was at the end of the sixth round in one-quarterback leagues.

When to Draft Quarterbacks in 2QB and Superflex

Seeing where passers are typically picked is only part of the puzzle. The position is deeper than ever, and it’s your job to decide if the high-end talents are worth the investment relative to rushers and receivers available in the early rounds. And once you hit the QB15-QB20 range later in the draft, if you pass on quarterback for a rusher or receiver, you might have to accept a Philip Rivers to Andy Dalton type of downgrade if a quarterback run happens.

Reading the pace of quarterback picks becomes imperative, and the best piece of advice I can give is to constantly take inventory of other drafters and their QB needs. When it’s your turn to pick, consider ADP and which other teams in your league still need signal-callers, then try to estimate how many quarterbacks could reasonably be selected before you’re back on the clock. The later you are in your draft, the more likely it is that drafters will reach for passers out of fear of missing out on the position. Will you reach or will you accept the risk that you might end up drafting Dalton or Nick Foles?

No matter what, you should try to draft three entrenched NFL starters because if you think Dalton and Foles are worrisome, then you definitely don’t want to rely on the likes of Eli Manning, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and others with tenuous holds on their jobs. You might get some usable weeks, but if and when they lose their gigs, landing a mid-season replacement like Daniel Jones or Josh Rosen off waivers is much more difficult (if not impossible) in 2QB and Superflex because the thirst for throwers is so ravenous. I like to wait as long as possible to draft my quarterbacks, but my aim is to end up with three of the top-25 from ADP. And don’t forget to pay attention to the bye weeks of your field generals. If two of your three guys have the same bye week, other owners can hold you over a barrel in trade negotiations.

If you’re worried about waiting to draft your quarterbacks in a two-quarterback league, don’t be. Last season, 16 different signal-callers posted at least three Top 5 weekly finishes, and seven of them were drafted outside of the Top 12 quarterbacks. Meanwhile, over the past six seasons, only five quarterbacks have posted at least five Top 5 weekly finishes in consecutive seasons, and none of them have done it more than once. At its heart, fantasy football is a week-to-week game, and with so much turnover at the top of weekly scoring, it doesn’t make sense to blindly pay up for the top-ranked quarterbacks. Plenty of lower-ranked passers can deliver the production you need to be competitive.

Quarterback Tiers with Players to Target and Avoid

My tiered quarterback rankings are below. The tiers are generally more important to me than the specific order of players. I have my preferences between players, and the rankings reflect those, but I try to be pretty agnostic when deciding between guys in the same tier. With that indifference in mind, I like to pounce on quarterbacks when they’re one of the last available in a tier, after other drafters have paid more for other players from the tier.

My rankings and tendency to wait on the position aren’t the only want to unpack your box of quarterbacks though. The beauty of adding a second quarterback spot to your league is how it levels the playing field between positions. While one-quarterback leagues have essentially been solved by late-round quarterback drafting, paying up for a high-end passer in two-quarterback formats is much more easily justified.

Your team can be competitive whether you prioritize the position and get two studs as starters, follow a strict quarterback budget with a later-round trio, or split the difference with one stud and a couple streamers. There are many different ways to win, and every draft will be different, so attack your draft in the way that makes the most sense to you. Again, try to get three quarterbacks before QB25 (without sacrificing too much talent at running back and wide receiver), and you should be safe.

Let’s dig into the rankings (bye weeks in parentheses).

Tier 1 – The Proven Elite

1. Patrick Mahomes, KC (12)
2. Deshaun Watson, HOU (10)
3. Aaron Rodgers, GB (11)

Mahomes was otherworldly last year and will therefore be overdrafted in all formats this year. In two-quarterback formats, you can expect a first-round price tag, which means weighing Mahomes’ value against those of fantasy’s elite rushers and receivers. Because I believe running back and wide receiver are shallower than quarterback, I don’t recommend paying the opportunity cost with Mahomes that robs you of players like Alvin Kamara and DeAndre Hopkins.

Remember that Mahomes vaulted from the QB16 in ADP last year to lead the league in fantasy scoring. To do so, he was hyper-efficient with an 8.6 percent touchdown rate. Mahomes is by no means an average quarterback, but league average touchdown rate has varied between 4.2 and 4.8 percent over the past five seasons, indicating Mahomes is due for regression in his second year under center full-time. Rather than pay a premium for last year’s stats, you will have more success if you can find this year’s version of Mahomes, a mid-tier passer who overperforms to finish top-five.

Depending on how aggressively quarterbacks are drafted, you might also be able to land Watson or Rodgers in the second (or even third) round. That still isn’t a cost I’m excited to pay, but it’s more palatable than spending my top pick on a signal-caller.

Tier 1.5 – The Pained Elite

1. Andrew Luck, IND (6)

Before Luck’s lower leg injury came to light, the consensus had him ahead of Rodgers and challenging Watson for second fiddle behind Mahomes. We won’t seen Luck in the preseason, and while there’s optimism he’ll be ready for Week 1, some number of missed games is in his range of outcomes. Drafting Luck is a pure risk/reward proposition until we receive more intel. If you roll the dice and chase that reward, I recommend waiting until the end of the third round or later to do it and hedging your bet with a late-round investment in Luck’s backup, Jacoby Brissett.

UPDATE: With Luck abruptly announcing his retirement on August 24th, he is no longer relevant in fantasy. Pour one out and remove him from your drafting cheat sheets.

Tier 2 – The Passé Elite

1. Russell Wilson, SEA (11)
2. Cam Newton, CAR (7)

Both Wilson and Newton have overall QB1 finishes and multiple top-five seasonal finishes on their resumes, but the fantasy hive mind isn’t buzzing for them quite as vigorously this year. I still believe, though, especially in Wilson. He’s delivered elite production on limited volume in the past, and as much as the Seahawks want to run the ball, more passing volume should come now that Seattle’s once fearsome defense has been partially disbanded and reworked. Unlike Seattle’s defense, Carolina’s offense is trending up thanks to the additions of Christian McCaffrey, D.J. Moore, and Curtis Samuel. Considering his upgraded weaponry, Newton might rank higher if not for his recovery from shoulder surgery, but both he and Wilson are fine two-quarterback league picks because their rushing production sets a high floor of weekly fantasy scoring.

Tier 3 – The Sexy Situations

1. Matt Ryan, ATL (9)
2. Baker Mayfield, CLE (7)
3. Jameis Winston, TB (7)

Even before Mayfield joined it, this has traditionally been the most dangerous tier of quarterbacks to pick from (and not in a good way). For many drafters, fear of missing out tends to set in after the elite passers are picked, so those drafters get spurred into overpaying for less proven and less predictable quarterbacks. We talk ourselves into good-not-great players who are in great situations. The problem is that situations can change very quickly in the NFL. What looks like a good situation on paper could be a mess by midseason. For example, Ryan is the only quarterback to finish top-3 in quarterback scoring in two of the past three years, but imagine his fantasy outlook if Julio Jones were to get hurt.

As stealthily risky as these three are, I’m interested in owning all three, and I’d look to draft them beginning in the fourth round. Unfortunately, though, I never end up with Ryan or Mayfield because they routinely go ahead of the aforementioned Wilson and Newton. I’m higher than the field on Winston, though, so he’s on a number of my rosters. Aside from multiple catastrophic injuries to his teammates, I can’t envision a scenario that would derail another season of plentiful pass attempts. His pass-catchers are too good, his running game is too lackluster, and his defense is too generous for any lead to be safe. The Bucs are going to throw, and Ryan Fitzpatrick isn’t around this year to torpedo Winston’s playing time.

Tier 4 – The Upper Middle Class

1. Kyler Murray, ARI (12)
2. Lamar Jackson, BAL (8)
3. Carson Wentz, PHI (10)
4. Drew Brees, NO (9)
5. Dak Prescott, DAL (8)
6. Ben Roethlisberger, PIT (7)
7. Jared Goff, LAR (9)
8. Tom Brady, NE (10)
9. Philip Rivers, LAC (12)
10. Jimmy Garoppolo, SF (4)

Welcome to the quarterback middle class, a tier so big I had to chop it in half. This is the point in a two-quarterback league where you need to be more aggressive in targeting passers. After two or three are drafted in the same vicinity of picks, a positional run becomes very likely. My preference is to start targeting these players in the fifth and sixth rounds, but be ready to speed up your QB-drafting timeline if a lot of them get drafted in the first few rounds.

I will happily draft any member of this group, but the players I target most often are the rushing stat contributors, Murray, Jackson, and Prescott. If quarterback wasn’t a priority for me in the early rounds, I will often take two quarterbacks from this tier in back-to-back rounds. If you try the double-tap, I recommend trying to vary the types of point production you get from the passers you select. For example, I like to pair more volatile options like Murray or Roethlisberger with more consistent guys like Jackson or Rivers.

In terms of landing in a great situation, Wentz has a lot in common with the previous tier. But while the Eagles seem too stacked to fail, Wentz still has a lot to prove. He’s missed an average of four games per season over the past two years, and he remains overrated based on the unsustainable efficiency he posted back in 2017 (a 7.5 percent touchdown rate). Regardless, I would like to draft Wentz to see if Philly’s excellent roster and coaching staff can carry him once again, but he’s three spots higher than my ranking in ADP, so I will almost always miss out on him.

Tier 5 – The Lower Middle Class

1. Mitchell Trubisky, CHI (6)
2. Kirk Cousins, MIN (12)
3. Sam Darnold, NYJ (4)
4. Josh Allen, BUF (6)
5. Nick Foles, JAC (10)
6. Matthew Stafford, DET (5)
7. Marcus Mariota, TEN (11)
8. Derek Carr, OAK (6)
9. Jacoby Brissett, IND (6)
10. Andy Dalton, CIN (9)

The lower half of the middle class is where you want to find your QB3. If you don’t have a QB2 rostered by this point, stop waiting and use your next two picks on quarterbacks. As with the upper middle class, I’m okay with rostering and starting anyone from this lower group, but I’d rather not play the same player from this tier week after week. These passers profile more as matchup plays and bye week fill-ins.

I don’t recommend outright avoiding anyone in this range, mostly because you might not have enough viable options at this point to be picky. These necessary evils can start going as early as the seventh or eighth round, but they can also slide as deep as the 11th or 12th. It’s unpredictable, so if you like a specific player from this group or need a specific player to cover bye weeks for your starters, don’t get cute and wait an extra round to draft them.

Darnold is my favorite target in this tier because his upside remains untapped. I’ve come around on Nick Foles as well. He projects for a very favorable schedule and gets to work with an offensive coordinator (John DeFilippo) who was run out of Minnesota for calling too many pass plays (as if there was such a thing). I’m way lower than consensus on Josh Allen, but I’m not the only one scared of his inaccurate and erratic play, so he’s fallen far enough in a couple drafts to where I’ve bought back in. In case you can’t tell by now, I’m a sucker for getting rushing production from my fantasy quarterbacks.

UPDATE: Jacoby Brissett has been added to the mix in this tier, perhaps ranking higher than some might expect at QB27. He didn’t thrill anyone with his 13.8 fantasy points per game as the Colts’ starter in 2017, but was sacked a league-leading 52 times that season. The offensive line in Indianapolis has improved greatly since then, as have the offensive weapons. If Brissett himself can take a step forward after spending a year in a quarterback room with Andrew Luck and Frank Reich, he might surprise the skeptics, keep Indianapolis competitive, and serve as a usable QB3 in two-quarterback formats.

Tier 6 – The Last Resorts

1. Dwayne Haskins, WAS (10)
2. Ryan Fitzpatrick, MIA (5)
3. Joe Flacco, DEN (10)
4. Eli Manning, NYG (11)
5. Josh Rosen, MIA (5)
6. Daniel Jones, NYG (11)

You’ve probably done something wrong if you’re drafting from this tier, but maybe not. Perhaps you want to add extra quarterback depth for trade bait. That can definitely work. But if you’re forced to count on one of these quarterbacks, do yourself a favor and try to get both sides of the potential platoon.

Haskins tops the tier because he seems like the safest bet to start close to a full season. First-round quarterbacks from the NFL draft have a history of getting under center early in their rookie years. Baker Mayfield’s extended time on the sidelines last season was the exception, not the rule. Even if Case Keenum gets the starting nod for Week 1, Haskins should still be drafted first because he should end up starting more games over the course of the season.

Tier 7 – The Hail Marys

1. Ryan Tannehill, TEN (11)
2. Case Keenum, WAS (10)
3. Robert Griffin, BAL (8)
4. Nick Mullens, SF (4)
5. Teddy Bridgewater, NO (9)
6. Drew Lock, DEN (10)
7. Chad Kelly, IND (6)
8. Colt McCoy, WAS (10)

In deeper two-quarterback leagues, you can start to consider drafting backup quarterbacks. Tannehill, Keenum, Brissett, Lock and McCoy make this group because we already know they might need to play some games, and almost every instance of a starting quarterback is valuable in deep Superflex leagues. RGIII ranks next because he’s backing up the guy set to lead all quarterbacks in rush attempts, and that makes Lamar Jackson more of an injury risk than others.

Mullens and Bridgewater are worth considering because they’ve proven to be two of the more capable backups, albeit in small samples. It’s not like Jimmy Garoppolo has a much longer track record of regular season success than Mullens, though. And Bridgewater is playing behind one of the quarterback position’s elder statesmen in Drew Brees. If either backup ends up starting, they’ll be hot commodities on the waiver wire, so preemptively drafting and stashing them might make sense in a deep enough format. With that said, I wouldn’t expect anyone from this tier to be drafted in a 10- or 12-team two-quarterback league except for Tannehill, Brissett, or maybe Keenum.

UPDATE: Chad Kelly, come on down, you’re the next contestant on The QB Stash! Andrew Luck is out, so Jacoby Brissett has jumped up to Tier 5, and Kelly will begin the year serving as the backup in Indianapolis. Forget about Kelly’s unceremonious departure from Denver and think back further to his hyped-up prospect days. Kelly would have garnered more interest coming out of college if he hadn’t been derailed by an ACL tear. Now healthy, Kelly has been on point through three preseason games, completing 72 percent of his passes. If the Colts fall out of contention with middling play from Brissett, Kelly could earn regular season playing time and become relevant in fantasy.

Try a Two-Quarterback League Because You Might Like It

I hope this piece has given you the insight and the courage to give 2QB or Superflex a shot. And I truly believe it’s probably in your best interest to get familiar with the format soon, because the NFL has become a passing league, and it eventually won’t make any sense at all to only have one quarterback per fantasy team in leagues with 12 teams or fewer. Once we get there, I’ll continue leading the charge to make Superflex the standard in 14-teamers as well (trust me, it can be done, and it’s a great format).

If you have any questions or need any help getting deeper into two-quarterback formats, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter. Alternatively, get in touch with your other favorite fantasy analysts about 2QB and Superflex. You might be surprised how many of them will be excited to talk quarterback strategy beyond “just stream the position.” The two-quarterback revolution isn’t coming. It’s already here. Get a move on.

(Top photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)