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What quarterback strategy was best in 2024 fantasy football? Guess what — it didn't matter

andy behrens
Fantasy analyst
·3 min read

In reality — or at least inside the NFL’s version of reality — identifying one of the few right answers at quarterback is absolutely essential to team success. It’s the position upon which everything else depends. Any franchise wandering the QB wilderness is a franchise without hope.

This is the reason the last 11 league MVPs (soon to be 12) have been quarterbacks. It’s the reason eight of the past 10 No. 1 overall draft picks have been quarterbacks. It’s the reason the list of the NFL’s highest-paid players is nothing more than a long list of quarterbacks.

In fantasy football, however, identifying one of the right answers at quarterback is … well, it’s nice when it happens. If you can adequately lock down the position at your draft, cool. One less thing to worry about. But it’s hardly essential.

In fantasy leagues of typical size and shape, quarterbacks were simply not a big deal in 2024. Among the players who appeared most frequently on title-winning teams in Yahoo public leagues, only two of the top 10 and five of the top 25 were QBs. No quarterback ranked among the top five.

No QB was the runaway best choice.

When we exclude other positions and look only at the quarterbacks found on the greatest percentage of league winners, it becomes pretty clear this roster spot could be successfully addressed in a variety of ways.

Here’s a look at the QBs who collected the most fantasy titles in 2024:

  • 1. Joe Burrow (rostered by 20.08% of league champions)

  • 2. Baker Mayfield (19.65%)

  • 3. Jayden Daniels (17.95%)

  • 4. Sam Darnold (16.6%)

  • 5. Bo Nix (16.55%)

  • 6. Lamar Jackson (14.69%)

  • 7. Justin Herbert (13.25%)

  • 8. Brock Purdy (13.08%)

  • 9. Jared Goff (12.42%)

  • 10. Patrick Mahomes (11.68%)

  • 11. Tua Tagovailoa (10.99%)

  • 12. Josh Allen (10.8%)

Jackson and Allen are of course the real-life MVP frontrunners, the two highest-scoring fantasy quarterbacks on the year — both coming off historic seasons — but neither was a golden-ticket player in our game. Keep this fact in mind next August when you’re tempted by one of these guys in the second or third round. In that draft range, the opportunity costs are not trivial — you’re passing on a potential difference-maker at receiver, running back or tight end just so you can feel good about the position that’s actually easiest to fill.

Remember, Mayfield, Darnold and Nix were in-season pickups for nearly every manager who relied on them in the money weeks. Burrow was selected in the sixth round of an average draft, Purdy in the ninth, Daniels in the 10th and Goff in the 11th. All of these guys were acceptable fantasy answers.

Basically, there was not a definitive best method of addressing the position this past season. You could win with a luxury QB, a mid-rounder, an end-gamer or a waiver flier. Even in a season that produced the first 4,000-900-40 quarterback in league history, there were many different ways to solve the QB problem.

If the disconnect between the value of quarterbacks in reality and fantasy doesn’t sit well with you, we get it. Welcome to the club. It isn’t too difficult to devise league scoring settings that create meaningful separation at this position. If you simply make the switch to Superflex, you’ll find that quarterbacks receive an appropriate level of draft-day respect.

If instead you remain committed to the one-QB life, that’s OK, too. Just please remember that tens of thousands of managers won fantasy titles in 2024 with a sketchy name at the top of their lineup. In standard leagues, this is not a roster spot requiring a significant draft investment.