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DraftSharks.com Invitational

Experts tournament reveals where QBs go in Superflex leagues

Where does one select a quarterback (or two) in a “Superflex” league? Based on a recent Experts League tournament put together by DraftSharks.com, maybe not as high as you would expect.

In a Superflex league, you can start two quarterbacks every week. In this particular league, you’re required to start each week a QB, 2 RB, 3 WR and a TE, and there are also two flex players. One of the flex players can be a second quarterback. The other must be a RB, WR or TE.

No kickers or defenses, and it’s a best-ball format. You draft 25 guys, and they’re your guys for the entire season. No waiver moves or trades – you get your best lineup each week. The other wrinkle here is that tight ends get an extra half point per reception.

This is the brainchild of Lenny Pappano, who’s been in the industry for years. He and Emil Kadlec created the first high-stakes experts leagues way back when (the World Championship of Fantasy Football, with a host of drafts in Las Vegas).

On this new venture, Pappano put together five leagues with 12 teams each with most of the notable names in the industry. They’re going to be tracking the leagues all year, discussing them in their weekly podcast. (For more details, visit DraftSharks.com.)

I was curious if this format would cause a flood of quarterbacks to be chosen in the first two rounds. There are only about 28 reliable ones, and it would be a nice asset to be plugging in a pair almost every week. Would be a strength to have three good quarterbacks, but only a few teams get that luxury (and you don’t want to short-change yourself at the other positions).

But these five drafts went by, and the demand for quarterbacks was lighter than I expected. Patrick Mahomes was a top-4 pick in only one of the five drafts. He and Lamar Jackson were top-9 picks in every league, but only one other quarterback was picked in the first round in any draft (Dak Prescott, picked in two of the five).

I was in the most quarterback-heavy draft, with Mahomes going 2nd overall, Dak Prescott picked 6th, and Jackson also in there.

But overall, the quarterbacks weren’t as coveted as I thought they would be. Only six quarterbacks ended up being top-35 players, when the picks were averaged. So even in this kind of format (with twice as many starting quarterbacks) there was some value in the strategy of hanging back and selecting a couple of quarterbacks after the first five rounds.

I was picking 12th in the fourth league, so I had the luxury of seeing how three previous drafts played out. In none of those did Matthew Stafford or Cam Newton go in the top 60 (and some other decent arms, too) so my plan was to select quarterbacks at picks 5.12 and 6.01, and then add a third quarterback at 7.12 – I figured Jimmy Garoppolo or Ryan Tannehill would be there.

The 12th pick isn’t my favorite (leaving a 22-pick gap between selections) but it’s what I drew in the lottery. Going in, my expectation was to select George Kittle and Davante Adams with my opening picks, then follow with running backs David Johnson and Chris Carson at 3.12 and 4.01. In looking at the previous drafts and my projections, however, I noticed that I would make my team slightly stronger by selecting Matt Ryan at 4.01 and then David Montgomery or Devin Singletary at 5.12. The previous drafts indicated one of those backs would be there. The combination of Ryan-Montgomery had slightly more pop than Newton-Carson, while also looking more durable.

Then the draft got underway, however, and plans needed to be altered. Adams hadn’t been a top-15 pick in any of the previous leagues, but he was gone. I hadn’t really considered that possibility. And Travis Kelce lasted until the 11th pick (had Kelce not gone 11th, I would have had to decide whether to go with both Kelce and Kittle in a rare TE-TE opener).

Ultimately Kelce went 11th, leaving me to pick between Derrick Henry and a running back I didn’t believe would be there – Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Henry perhaps safer, CEH with perhaps more upside, and it’s a decision that needs to be made in about 30 seconds. I went with CEH.

At picks 3.12 and 4.01, I went with David Johnson and Matt Ryan, as expected.

At picks 5.12 and 6.01, I had to select a wide receiver. The Davante Adams plan blew up, after all, and it’s an important position – a PPR league where you’re starting at least 3 WR every week. And there were a few receivers available here who had gone earlier in other drafts. And Stafford was gone. So I changed course, figuring I’d go with two wide receivers, then pick up Garoppolo and Tannehill or Cousins as my second and third quarterbacks the next time around. I went with Tyler Lockett and Terry McLaurin, going against my own board and not selecting Amari Cooper (that was a tough call; I hope it doesn’t come back to bite me).

Picks 7.12 and 8.01, I grabbed Garoppolo. Cousins was there, but so was a surprise player, with David Montgomery lasting longer than he did in any of the other drafts. I figured this was a nice opportunity to nail down the running back position, particularly with CEH and David Johnson having some risk.

I missed out on the third quarterback option, with guys like Sam Darnold and Derek Carr grabbed by other teams. I’m a little lean there. My only other quarterback picks were Kyle Allen in the 21st round (he wasn’t even picked in any of the other drafts). And I took Nick Mullens in the 23rd round to cover the possibility of Garoppolo getting hurt. I went with Jeff Wilson in the 24th round rather than also selecting Matt Ryan’s backup – couldn’t bring myself to choose Matt Schaub (even though he went over 400 yards in his only start last year).

Biggest regret: I selected Dede Westbrook at pick 157, overlooking that I could have selected one of the very best backup running backs (Alexander Mattison, who went 12 picks later). That was just really dumb. A combination of a fast clock and trying to chart the direction of my team while simultaneously ticking the names off my big board. Huge mistake.

Reserve RBs: Duke Johnson, Benny Snell, Jalen Richard, Malcolm Brown.

WRs: Lockett, McLaurin, Jamison Crowder, N’Keal Harry, Larry Fitzgerald, Westbrook, Hunter Renfrow, Steven Sims, Justin Gage.

TEs: Kittle, Dallas Goedert, Kyle Rudolph, Delanie Walker.

Below I took the 300 players chosen in each of these five drafts and averaged the results. I’m listing the top 200, and I’ve got the quarterbacks in bold. In a double-quarterback or superflex format, that should give you a general idea of where quarterbacks should go.

If you want to follow along with these leagues, they’ll be discussing them all year on the DraftSharks.com podcast.

QUARTERBACKS IN DRAFTSHARKS.COM SUPERFLEX LEAGUE
RkPlayerPicks (5 drafts)
1RB Christian McCaffrey, CAR1 1 1 1 1
2RB Saquon Barkley, NYG2 2 2 3 3
3RB Ezekiel Elliott, DAL2 3 3 3 5
4QB Patrick Mahomes, KC2 5 5 5 8
5RB Alvin Kamara, NO4 4 4 7 7
6QB Lamar Jackson, BAL4 6 6 6 9
7RB Dalvin Cook, MIN4 5 8 8 10
8WR Michael Thomas, NO6 8 8 9 9
9TE Travis Kelce, KC7 7 9 11 11
10RB Miles Sanders, PHI7 11 11 14 16
11RB Derrick Henry, TEN10 10 12 14 16
12RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, KC10 11 13 13 17
13TE George Kittle, SFO10 12 12 17 18
14RB Joe Mixon, CIN13 14 15 17 17
15WR Davante Adams, GB9 15 15 17 21
16QB Dak Prescott, DAL6 12 20 22 22
17WR Tyreek Hill, KC13 15 20 20 23
18RB Austin Ekeler, LAC12 16 18 22 23
19RB Kenyan Drake, ARI15 18 18 19 22
20WR Julio Jones, ATL16 21 21 21 23
21QB Deshaun Watson, HOU13 19 24 24 27
22RB Josh Jacobs, LV18 19 19 27 27
23RB Nick Chubb, CLE14 20 24 26 28
24QB Kyler Murray, ARI14 20 25 25 28
25RB Aaron Jones, GB19 23 25 25 28
26TE Mark Andrews, BAL21 23 24 26 28
27WR DeAndre Hopkins, ARI22 25 27 29 30
28QB Russell Wilson, SEA16 28 29 32 34
29WR Chris Godwin, TB24 26 32 33 33
30TE Zach Ertz, PHI26 27 30 31 39
31RB James Conner, PIT29 30 30 33 34
32RB Todd Gurley, ATL29 30 33 34 36
33WR DJ Moore, CAR34 35 36 38 41
34RB Melvin Gordon, DEN32 35 36 40 44
35RB Jonathan Taylor, IND31 31 35 41 50
36QB Josh Allen, BUF26 37 37 43 46
37WR Kenny Golladay, DET29 32 34 47 49
38RB Leonard Fournette, JAC32 36 40 40 44
39WR Mike Evans, TB31 33 41 44 45
40WR Allen Robinson, CHI35 38 40 44 44
41RB David Johnson, HOU37 38 40 45 50
42WR Odell Beckham, CLE39 39 42 43 48
43WR Adam Thielen, MIN41 41 42 46 47
44WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, PIT37 39 43 45 54
45QB Matt Ryan, ATL36 42 46 48 55
46RB Chris Carson, SEA31 38 46 52 60
47WR Amari Cooper, DAL37 39 42 48 62
48RB Le'Veon Bell, NYJ35 42 51 51 51
49WR Calvin Ridley, ATL45 47 48 49 50
50QB Tom Brady, TB43 46 47 56 62
51WR A.J. Brown, TEN45 49 52 53 56
52QB Carson Wentz, PHI50 50 51 52 54
53WR Robert Woods, LAR51 52 54 55 59
54WR Cooper Kupp, LAR47 53 58 58 58
55WR Terry McLaurin, WAS49 52 55 57 61
56QB Drew Brees, NO48 55 57 59 62
57RB Raheem Mostert, SFO43 54 54 68 78
58WR DJ Chark, JAC53 56 58 66 67
59WR Tyler Lockett, SEA53 57 60 66 66
60QB Daniel Jones, NYG49 60 62 63 74
61QB Aaron Rodgers, GB53 57 64 64 72
62QB Matthew Stafford, DET57 58 63 65 76
63QB Cam Newton, NE62 63 63 67 67
64WR Courtland Sutton, DEN59 61 69 69 70
65WR DK Metcalf, SEA60 61 66 68 75
66RB Kareem Hunt, CLE38 61 68 71 96
67RB Cam Akers, LAR56 64 68 72 78
68TE Darren Waller, LV59 67 69 75 77
69QB Jared Goff, LAR55 71 71 74 86
70QB Ben Roethlisberger, PIT66 69 70 73 87
71RB Mark Ingram, BAL61 65 72 80 88
72TE Evan Engram, NYG67 70 71 73 90
73WR Stefon Diggs, BUF63 69 74 82 85
74RB David Montgomery, CHI56 73 78 81 85
75QB Baker Mayfield, CLE64 74 77 78 81
76RB D'Andre Swift, DET59 71 72 75 99
77WR Keenan Allen, LAC68 75 76 78 79
78WR DeVante Parker, MIA65 70 76 83 91
79RB Devin Singletary, BUF64 65 80 91 94
80WR Marquise Brown, BAL70 72 82 82 88
81QB Ryan Tannehill, TEN75 76 79 81 83
82QB Joe Burrow, CIN73 77 80 82 91
83TE Tyler Higbee, LAR60 82 84 86 95
84QB Jimmy Garoppolo, SFO79 80 83 84 95
85RB Ronald Jones, TB77 81 83 83 98
86TE Hayden Hurst, ATL65 87 88 88 102
87QB Teddy Bridgewater, CAR74 81 93 93 98
88WR Michael Gallup, DAL80 84 88 92 99
89WR T.Y. Hilton, IND79 85 92 96 99
90QB Gardner Minshew, JAC76 87 90 99 106
91TE Hunter Henry, LAC77 86 89 102 105
92QB Kirk Cousins, MIN84 87 90 94 107
93WR A.J. Green, CIN89 89 89 94 101
94WR Tyler Boyd, CIN79 92 93 100 106
95WR Will Fuller, HOU85 95 96 97 100
96RB J.K. Dobbins, BAL91 91 97 97 98
97QB Drew Lock, DEN85 86 86 100 120
98WR Jarvis Landry, CLE73 95 107 112 117
99TE Mike Gesicki, MIA87 100 109 110 111
100WR Brandin Cooks, HOU96 101 105 107 112
101WR Diontae Johnson, PIT94 98 103 104 125
102TE Rob Gronkowski, TB97 102 102 109 115
103TE Noah Fant, DEN94 96 104 112 120
104QB Philip Rivers, IND84 89 103 128 129
105QB Sam Darnold, NYJ93 106 108 110 120
106QB Derek Carr, LV90 105 110 114 123
107WR Marvin Jones, DET98 99 107 118 121
108TE T.J. Hockenson, DET100 106 110 113 116
109RB James White, NE101 108 111 111 115
110WR Christian Kirk, ARI93 111 117 123 125
111TE Dallas Goedert, PHI107 109 112 119 124
112WR Julian Edelman, NE104 110 114 115 130
113TE Jared Cook, NO108 109 113 125 126
114TE Austin Hooper, CLE105 118 118 119 128
115TE Jonnu Smith, TEN103 118 119 120 134
116TE Blake Jarwin, DAL116 116 117 123 125
117RB Tarik Cohen, CHI103 119 120 128 130
118WR Mecole Hardman, KC109 117 121 129 137
119WR Jamison Crowder, NYJ108 122 122 123 146
120RB Jordan Howard, MIA103 114 129 136 140
121RB Tevin Coleman, SFO121 122 124 132 133
122WR CeeDee Lamb, DAL108 121 122 138 149
123QB Dwayne Haskins, WAS102 115 116 152 153
124RB Kerryon Johnson, DET105 126 132 136 139
125QB Tyrod Taylor, LAC104 106 117 148 164
126RB Matt Breida, MIA124 124 127 131 139
127WR Jalen Reagor, PHI114 122 127 144 148
128TE Chris Herndon, NYJ121 128 130 138 141
129RB Zack Moss, BUF90 141 141 142 154
130RB Derrius Guice, FA92 92 101 116 270
131WR Darius Slayton, NYG126 129 137 140 144
132QB Tua Tagovailoa, MIA97 101 114 179 191
133TE Jack Doyle, IND126 130 137 144 148
134RB Phillip Lindsay, DEN129 134 140 140 142
135WR Deebo Samuel, SFO113 126 131 158 158
136QB Nick Foles, CHI118 124 143 151 159
137TE Irv Smith, MIN132 132 134 149 154
138WR Mike Williams, LAC125 128 147 147 155
139RB Latavius Murray, NO111 143 145 151 153
140RB Duke Johnson, HOU132 136 142 144 152
141WR John Brown, BUF119 139 142 147 159
142WR Emmanuel Sanders, NO115 144 145 145 160
143TE Ian Thomas, CAR130 138 141 149 152
144WR Golden Tate, NYG104 127 151 156 177
145WR Henry Ruggs, LV131 138 139 150 158
146RB Alexander Mattison, MIN113 133 137 168 170
147TE Eric Ebron, PIT127 145 145 148 159
148TE Jace Sternberger, GB133 134 147 158 164
149RB Sony Michel, NE134 146 150 152 164
150RB Tony Pollard, DAL133 135 153 156 171
151RB Boston Scott, PHI135 149 155 156 162
152WR Jerry Jeudy, DEN112 151 157 166 173
153RB Marlon Mack, IND131 135 159 168 168
154WR Sterling Shepard, NYG131 147 150 162 172
155WR Curtis Samuel, CAR127 153 160 160 162
156RB Darrell Henderson, LAR142 143 143 150 187
157WR N'Keal Harry, NE133 138 157 163 176
158RB Antonio Gibson, WAS95 159 166 171 182
159WR Preston Williams, MIA146 150 155 155 175
160RB Chase Edmonds, ARI141 157 165 167 169
161WR DeSean Jackson, PHI146 163 163 164 165
162RB KeShawn Vaughn, TB139 163 164 165 173
163WR Sammy Watkins, KC123 166 169 170 176
164WR Brandon Aiyuk, SFO146 151 165 169 178
165TE Gerald Everett, LAR143 161 167 170 174
166RB AJ Dillon, GB148 160 168 169 172
167WR Anthony Miller, CHI154 162 167 167 173
168RB Justin Jackson, LAC113 157 162 196 198
169WR Parris Campbell, IND135 154 174 182 190
170TE Greg Olsen, SEA136 152 163 190 196
171WR Justin Jefferson, MIN155 171 173 173 179
172QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, MIA135 149 186 189 193
173WR Breshad Perriman, NYJ158 167 174 174 180
174QB Justin Herbert, LAC137 140 161 190 225
175WR Allen Lazard, GB136 177 179 180 185
176RB Damien Harris, NE160 166 168 176 192
177QB Mitchell Trubisky, CHI156 161 183 183 195
178WR Michael Pittman, IND161 172 177 181 191
179RB Nyheim Hines, IND166 176 179 182 186
180TE O.J. Howard, TB153 169 184 192 208
181RB Darrynton Evans, TEN170 172 172 191 202
182WR Robby Anderson, CAR171 181 182 186 188
183RB Joshua Kelley, LAC174 175 177 188 197
184WR Steven Sims, WAS178 180 180 184 193
185RB DeAndre Washington, KC175 178 180 189 194
186TE Dawson Knox, BUF170 182 188 192 196
187RB Anthony McFarland, PIT171 178 186 192 203
188RB Ryquell Armstead, JAC161 165 190 200 215
189WR Laviska Shenault, JAC183 187 191 193 201
190WR Antonio Brown, FA178 185 189 199 204
191WR James Washington, PIT175 187 188 205 213
192TE C.J. Uzomah, CIN177 181 197 207 212
193RB Jerick McKinnon, SFO183 197 198 198 202
194WR Corey Davis, TEN187 195 195 201 202
195WR Larry Fitzgerald, ARI156 195 205 208 219
196WR Dede Westbrook, JAC157 201 201 204 225
197WR Denzel Mims, NYJ184 184 203 206 218
198WR Randall Cobb, HOU190 193 199 206 208
199TE Will Dissly, SEA184 186 210 214 215
200RB Lynn Bowden, LV183 196 210 213 213

—Ian Allan

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