Fantasy Football 2014: Passing vs Running at quarterback

Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Quarterback in Fantasy Football is as much about running as it is passing. The top ten is up for debate and Aaron Rodgers has the #1 spot secure. Dan Salem and Todd Salem debate in part two of this week’s TD Sports Debate. Two brothers from New York yell, scream and debate the NFL and sports.

[Part one – The elite fantasy quarterbacks]

TODD:

The reason a ton of weight is put on the running ability of fantasy quarterbacks is because it vaults their stats way up! This isn’t rocket science. The risk of owning them is real, but the rewards are vast.

Last season, based on some basic, ESPN-standard scoring metrics, Tom Brady was the 13th highest-scoring fantasy quarterback. Said another way, Brady was not good enough to even start in a 10 or 12-team league. This may have been a fluke since his receiving options were certainly limited in 2013, and Brady still put up good numbers. He threw for over 4300 yards and 25 touchdowns. You know how many times Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman ever did EITHER of those things in ANY season of his career? Z.E.R.O.

And yet, Brady finished behind the likes of Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson in fantasy points because he produced nothing on the ground.

With that said, I still kind of agree with you! You forgot Matt Ryan in your re-rankings, but I believe in Philip Rivers, Brady and these other pocket passers more than the ESPN experts do as well.

If I had to create my own top ten for fantasy quarterbacks, I would try to rank guys based on how comfortable I would feel starting them week in and week out. Even though quarterback is a pretty deep position (Andy Dalton threw for over 4000 yards and more than 30 touchdowns last year), I don’t want to be searching for waiver fodder every three weeks. Russell Wilson was frustrating as hell to own last year, whereas someone like Tony Romo finished behind him in total points for the year, but was much more consistent throughout the season, especially during the fantasy playoffs.

And one last point, why is everyone sold on Nick Foles? Get him out of the top ten until he does it for more than half of one season.

1) Rodgers (Of course we both put Rodgers first, partly out of worry that Manning will slow down at some point, but also because of the added rushing ability of Rodgers… Hypocritical much??)
2) Manning
3) Brees
4) Stafford
5) Luck
6) Newton
7) Brady
8) Matt Ryan
9) Kaepernick
10) Rivers