The Weekly Bender: Is Robust-QB a Preferred Draft Strategy?

Thu Jun 5 9:55pm ET
By HOWARD BENDER
Fantasy Writer

If there’s one thing I can say after more than 30 years of playing fantasy football and over 20 years in the fantasy sports industry…

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

There's more than one way to crack an egg.

There's more than one path to the top of the mountain.

All roads lead to Rome.

Dress it up however you like, the bottom line is that there are numerous ways to win a fantasy football championship. Every road begins with the first pick of your draft, but in the spirit of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, the directions you can take afterward are virtually limitless. We’re all looking to land in the same spot – the winner’s circle – but the paths to get there can be incredibly different.

If you want to go with an anchor-RB strategy, go for it. Robust-RB? For sure. Zero-RB? Not my favorite, but yes, you can certainly forge a path toward winning if everything breaks right for you. Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of different draft strategies and while each one has its pros and cons, there are clear-cut examples out there of people winning with their preferred methodology.

What about Robust-QB in a best-ball format?

Is that even a thing? Well, if you are following the current run of drafts in the $10,000 Beat Bender Best Ball Championship, you’ll not only see it, but you could be seeing it more often than you would have even imagined. I haven’t gone through every single draft in the tournament, but in four of the drafts I’ve participated in so far, I’ve seen the strategy unfold.

Check out these four draft boards:

In each of these drafts, there has been a team that not only finished with at least four quarterbacks on their roster, but also has at least two of the top-five quarterbacks, according to recent fantasy football ADP. To do that, you need to have at least two quarterbacks within your first five picks of the draft. Doing so is an interesting strategy as you are not only ensuring yourself (more or less) of strong quarterback production each week, but you are also taking that production away from your opposition. Is it fool proof? No, of course not. Things happen. Injuries occur. But you are certainly increasing your chances of having a dominant performance at a very key position in fantasy each week while, at the same time, forcing your opponents to scramble at a position no one wants to be scrambling around for.

But what about the rest of your team build? Investing so heavily at one position means you are slighting another. Normally, you could say, “No problem, I’ll just grab an extra QB while everyone else is pushing for Brock Bowers, Trey McBride or some other tight end who goes way too early.” But in these Beat Bender leagues, it’s TE-premium (1.5 PPR), so maybe throwing away that position is the wrong move.

Before I break down and/or criticize these Robust-QB drafts, I should be fair and at least share my draft strategy. They do change from draft to draft, depending on what falls to me, but for the most part, there is a base. A foundation, if you will.

My typical game plan is to go with a heavy lean on running backs early, check out quarterbacks or maybe even tight ends available and then bulk up and basically play receiver roulette. With only two receiver spots you can play the percentages, right? Grab anywhere from six to eight receivers in a 20-round draft and only need two, maybe three, to pop off each week. That’s not something you can do at the running back position. Late-round running backs usually need an injury or two for them to move up the depth chart and see an increased workload. You find a high-volume passing offense and you could see two, three or maybe even four guys have a strong day.

Now let’s take a look at how the rest of the roster looks for a Robust-QB draft strategy.

Draft 1:

In one of the first drafts I did, the person at Pick 3 went to town on the quarterback position. Already solid with a second-round Josh Allen selection and with two strong running backs in Saquon Barkley and Kyren Williams, one would assume the wide receiver position would be the next stage of attack. But rather than follow what most would consider a solid draft plan, this person went with Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts in back-to-back picks. Mind blown? A little. But mind really blown when they added Jordan Love in the 13^th round.

I do like the group of running backs, all things considered. D’Andre Swift, Aaron Jones and Isiah Pacheco may not be my favorites but all three will be seeing lead carries out of their respective backfields. But are Zay Flowers, an injury-prone Cooper Kupp and Vikings No. 2 Jordan Addison enough to lead the charge each week? There’s upside later on with Jack Bech and Jaylin Noel, but Adam Thielen’s days of being explosive are long gone. If he remains the security blanket for Bryce Young, then he’s got a decent floor, but the receiving corps is definitely lacking.

One thing I do really like, however, is what this drafter did with the tight end position. These drafts are TE-premium, so adding guys who are expecting decent target shares like Colston Loveland and Jake Ferguson is definitely going to be helpful in filling out the flex spots, if needed. Helpful for sure, but I’m still not sold that three top quarterbacks and a fourth from the mid-tier is the proper way to go.

Draft 2:

Based on the name, the person picking at Pick 7 is likely to be the same as the person in the previous draft. But in this one, they went a slightly different direction. They still took two elite quarterbacks early in Daniels and Hurts, but he took his foot off the gas and stayed more focused on running backs and wide receivers in the first 10 rounds. His running backs are solid and is receiving corps is much more improved, especially now that we’re hearing Aaron Rodgers is definitely going to the Steelers. I don’t think much of him, but I do like DK Metcalf with Rodgers under center a lot more than I do with Mason Rudolph.

They grabbed CJ Stroud and Jordan Love in Rounds 11 and 12 which works for me as they basically punted the tight end position here. Tyler Warren has promise, but it would be surprising to see him using more than one tight end each week. His flex spots belong to the receivers, maybe a running back. Funny enough, I think I actually like his first draft more than this one.

Draft 3:

This draft, the build was similar to what we just saw in Draft 2. Two elite QBs in Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson with two mid-tier guys in the later rounds in Love and Stroud. The name is different on the team, but they do smell similar, don’t they? Draft 1 was heavy on running backs and quarterbacks, the second one was a fairly even mix of running backs and wide receivers with two elite QBs and now this one leans a little WR-heavy with selections of Ja’Marr Chase, Garrett Wilson and Marvin Harrison Jr. all inside the first five rounds. They added a few running backs in there with Aaron Jones and Tony Pollard, but the lean back into the receivers for Kupp, Deebo Samuel and Jayden Reed give you a third way to go about a Robust-QB draft. Overall, I would say this is my second favorite of the three with Draft 1 still in the lead.

Draft 4:

By the time you are reading this, I am hoping this draft will be finished, but as of writing, we are in the 17^th round, so the last few picks are still unknown. But for our exercise here, the top of the draft is what matters most and, once again, we see two elite QBs off the board in Allen and Daniels going to the team picking fifth. Is it the same person or is it someone else? Similar names all around.

What I like about this one is the heavy lean on running backs just like we saw in the first draft. The Detroit backfield was secured and then guys like Swift, Jones and Pacheco in the early-middle rounds to complement. The only receiver taken in the first eight picks was Marvin Harrison Jr. but then from Round 9 on it was all receivers, save for Love and Justin Herbert to corner the market with four QBs in total.

The quality of receivers is a mix. Deebo and Reed are going to be decent PPR guys and Matthew Golden offers some explosiveness. But then Luther Burden and Emeka Egbuka both have question marks as they are somewhat buried on their respective depth charts. That’s not to say they won’t be able to pop late in the season like we often see rookies do, but the receiving corps as a whole lacks consistency. Yes, you only need two, maybe three, guys to pop, but he’s also not supplementing his pass-catchers with the tight end position. Dalton Kincaid and Dalton Schultz are position-punt choices with minimal upside. I’ll rank this one-third of the group.

These Beat Bender drafts should be going on throughout training camp, but I am hearing that the contest is filling up pretty quickly. I’ll be looking to do more drafts over the next two months, so if you want to take me on for your chance at $10,000, just click here and I’ll see you in the draft room!

Bender out.

The Weekly Bender: Is Robust-QB a Preferred Draft Strategy?

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