Fantasy Football Mock Draft: 10-team superflex

Fantasy football’s founders managed to nail pretty much every detail when our national pastime was invented way back in the pre-Super Bowl era, but the one aspect that’s never quite worked is QB scoring. It’s been broken from the start.

Quarterback is obviously the most important position in the NFL by orders of magnitude, yet, historically, it’s been an afterthought in our game. Traditional fantasy scoring rewards volume over efficiency and rushing ability over everything. In reality, quarterback talent is remarkably scarce. In fantasy — at least in one-QB leagues — the position is easily filled and highly replaceable.

Superflex formats don’t actually do anything to resolve the various scoring problems at quarterback, but they certainly address the scarcity issue. In superflex, one of our starting roster slots is fillable by any RB, WR, TE or QB. That is to say, it’s like a regular flex spot, except, um … it’s super.

Given the scoring advantages at quarterback relative to other positions, superflex essentially requires two starting QBs. If you play in a league with 12 or more teams, every projected starting quarterback in the NFL is going to be drafted, as will a few notable backups. If you whiff at the position, you’re doomed — no realistic chance for a waiver wire bailout. If you whiff twice at the position, there’s a very good chance you’re gonna be spending 24 straight hours in a fast food establishment next spring.

Recently, the Yahoo fantasy crew assembled for a 10-team, 15-round superflex mock draft using otherwise typical half-PPR settings. Our draft order looked like this:

• Dan Titus

• Andy Behrens

• Kate Magdziuk

• Matt Harmon

• Collin Brennan

• Jason Klabacha

• Mo Castillo

• Dalton Del Don

• Tera Roberts

• Scott Pianowski

Here's a look at the draft board, round-by-round

Regrettably, I will not be roasting anyone’s draft decisions in this mock recap, because too many reputations have been ruined by my tough-but-fair assessments in the past. Producer Collin was absolutely shattered by the half-PPR mock review published back in May — rendered useless both personally and professionally. We can’t afford to lose him now, so close to opening week.

Instead, let’s focus on the dramatic changes to the standard draft board we commonly see in superflex, as well as our differing 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, followed by another six in the second:

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

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

• Nine of ten teams drafted a third quarterback.

So yeah, superflex is a different game. It reshapes the board in a way that better reflects the manner in which players and positions are valued within the NFL itself.

Of course in a format in which six of the top ten overall picks are quarterbacks, you are going to find some outrageous names beyond the first round. Tyreek Hill, Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson were all booted to the second in our mock, which seems wild. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley slipped to the third. Travis Kelce dropped all the way to the sixth, a round he hasn’t visited since the Alex Smith years in KC.

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

QB double-tap

Many managers do not mess around 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 that path in our mock, resulting in the following combos: 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 those managers paid at least a small price in terms of running back and receiver quality. But in a relatively shallow format like a 10-team league, everyone can tell themselves a convincing story about each player in their lineup. Two of our three double-tappers ultimately paired a QB with his primary receiving option. Harmon took Hurts in the first and A.J. Brown in the third, while Klabacha built an extreme Chiefs stack involving 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 locked down by the end of the fourth round (or fifth at the latest). For me to do anything else, I’d need to have an almost fanatical belief in a specific QB likely to fall outside the top 20. I opened our mock with Josh Allen in the first, then followed with Justin Jefferson in the second and Caleb Williams in the third. Two other managers (Kate and Scott) followed a similar two-of-the-top-four path, while another (Tera) drafted her second QB in the fifth.

As a general rule, I like to have the flexibility to grab value whenever and wherever it falls in a draft, without feeling that I’m abandoning some etched-in-stone plan. If Love or Burrow would have dropped a few additional spots, I would have taken either in the second, choosing the double-tap route.

Hero QB

As with Hero RB, the basic idea here is that you fill one of your QB slots at the top of the draft with a high-ceiling player possessing break-the-game potential, then attack other positions before selecting your second quarterback from everyone else’s scraps. If your second QB ends up playing the full season at a serviceable level, this approach gives you a real chance to win the quarterback battle each week while also having a clear edge at receiver or running back.

This strategy isn’t for everyone because it means you are gonna look at your opening week roster and see a pretty disgusting name in the superflex spot. But if you swing big and connect with your first QB, this plan can definitely win.

Producer Collin was the only manager who traveled this road in our mock, and it led him to a Lamar Jackson-Baker Mayfield combo. Sandwiched between those two picks, Collin made his usual series of catastrophic mistakes along with two or three accidentally good decisions had fun and did his best. Good job, big guy.

Zero QB

Alas, no one in our mock chose to travel this admittedly difficult road. Del Don briefly seemed like he might attempt such a roster build when he drafted three non-QBs at the top. But cowardice overtook him and he selected Tua in the fourth, 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 hit on an unexpected success story — someone at the level of Jordan Love in 2023 or Geno Smith in 2022. I have occasionally gone this route in superflex leagues (with very mixed results) when picking at or near the turn in a deep draft. At some point, you simply can’t talk yourself into burning a first or second round pick on the overall QB10, so you begin scooping up RB and WR values, stubbornly refusing to draft the league’s most critical position.

Again, Zero QB can succeed if you manage to unearth an absolute gem at the draft, or you snag a Hail Mary from the wire in-season. But that’s no simple feat. This is a low-probability approach often arising from desperation, contrarianism and obstinance.

For those of you who enjoy scrolling through other people's mock fantasy exercises, full team-by-team draft results are below. If you see an overwhelming favorite, feel free to praise the squad in comments.