Drafters Strategy:: QB Quotient

WRITTEN BY: MIKE JOHNSON (@MJOHNSON_86)

The optimal approach to the quarterback position is one of the largest differences between Drafters cumulative contests and the playoff style formats most other sites use. Here are some big picture thoughts for the QB position on Drafters::

• “Winning weeks” isn’t the priority at the position, IT’S ABOUT THE SILO
• All top-10 teams the last few years have scored 350+ points from their QB Silo
• The average point total from the QB position of top-10 teams is consistently around 390-400 points
• Your total score from your QB Silo if you rostered both of the top-2 QB’s the last three years was 432.5 (2023), 496.1 (2024), and 462.7 (2025).
• The number of QBs to score at least 200 points through Week 17 the last three years has been 20 (2023), 19 (2024), and 21 (2025). Basically like clockwork, 20 QBs per season will drop 200+ points.
• The number of QBs to score 290+ points each of the last five years has been 10, 9, 7, 10, and 10. 

These numbers lay the groundwork for a critical number I call the QB Quotient. The takeaways from the above numbers are that there are a lot of players who will contribute to rosters and the margin for gaining on the field is relatively slim. Every high placing team gets 350+ points from their QB silo, but we basically never see any score over 420 points. There are a lot of ways to get there, but in order for it to matter we need to do so without overspending at the position. The QB Quotient is how we think about and track the allocated draft capital to give ourselves the best chance to finish highly. Calculating your QB Quotient is simple, you just add the rounds you drafted your first two QBs and divide by two. So if you took a QB in the 6th then another in the 10th, your total is 16 and then you divide by two which gives you a QB Quotient of 8. The interesting thing about this is that over the last 4 years, roughly 90% of top-10 rosters have a QB Quotient between 8.5 and 11.5.

What this is telling us is pretty straightforward – don’t overspend at a onesie position where the advantage of “dominating” the position is relatively low. The biggest difference this has on Drafters as opposed to other sites is that on other sites there is a real tangible advantage to having the right QBs on the right weeks. If Joe Burrow scores 40 points in Week 15 and you have him stacked with Tee Higgins who scores 30 and you also have Dak Prescott stacked with Ceedee Lamb and they combine for 70 points themselves in Week 16, you’re in an awesome position to advance to the Week 17 Finals. But on Drafters, you likely spent a 6th and 8th round pick on those QBs to give you a QB Quotient of 7. Even in their best case scenario seasons, Burrow + Dak would only give you about a 40-point advantage on other contending teams while robbing you of two top-100 “Flex” options. It becomes very thin very quickly to try to contend with the top teams in a contest with over 100,000 entries. The biggest mistake I see people making on Drafters is falling into this exact trap by drafting their first QB somewhere in the 4th to 7th round but then having the QB of a WR they took early in the draft “falling” to them in the 8th to 10th round. This value seems too good to pass up, but by doing so they are suboptimizing their roster. Think of it this way, if the Lamb and Dak combo truly hits then every roster in the contest who has Dak is going to get a great QB score and those who didn’t also spend a pick on Burrow basically get an extra top-70 positional player that you have to try to catch up against. A healthy amount of those rosters will hit on a player who puts up a lot of points. It gets very thin, very quick.

Again, we want a QB Quotient between 8.5 and 11.5. A QB Quotient below 8.5 robs you of too much draft capital in relation to the massive field you are competing against when you consider the relatively low amount of points you can actually gain. Meanwhile, waiting too long at QB limits your shots at spike weeks (a lot of QBs who score in the low to mid 200’s for season long points do so on consistency, but don’t go over 20 points often). You’re going to need 350+ points from the position in total to contend, which is an average of 20 points per week, so having three or four QBs who each only go over 20 a couple of times makes that a really tall task. Take Josh Allen in the 3rd or 4th round? Sure….but then just wait until the 13th round or later and take someone like Sam Darnold, Aaron Rodgers, etc. who you can be confident will be starting and give you a decent outing on Allen’s bye week (barring injury) and maybe gives you 2 or 3 other good weeks where they might add a few points over Allen. If Allen (your top-40 pick) misses any more than a couple of weeks you’re not winning this contest anyways, so use his selection to basically say he’s scoring around 350 this season by himself so just focus on the other three positions for almost the entire rest of the draft.

One other note on this, stacking is obviously popular for other contests and also has a lot of value on Drafters. However, you never want to reach to force stacks. Many high placing rosters stack, but the QB isn’t a “must” as a part of it. You can still fill your QB silo in other ways (especially if it allows you to save draft capital for other positions). 

(Editor’s Note:: When figuring out my QB Quotient, if I am picking within one spot of the “turns” I use halves to denote my investment. By this I mean if I pick in draft spot 1, 2, 11, or 12 I don’t use the exact round a player was selected. For instance, if I took Lamar Jackson at pick 62 I consider his number 5.5, rather than 6. My reasoning for this is if you are at the actual turn you obviously just have back-to-back picks and if you are one away from the turn you can often tell which positions the person at the turn will pick.)