Yahoo Fantasy Cram Session: Should you ever take a QB in round one?

Liz Loza, Matt Harmon & Andy Behrens debate if you should ever take a QB in the first round of a fantasy draft, even in the case of Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LIZ LOZA: Andy, switching to you as the only analyst in the game to successfully predict Lamar Jackson's QB one season last year, here's the question for you. Is there a real case for any quarterback to go in the first round ever, even Mahomes and the aforementioned Jackson?

ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, I can tell you that historically it has always been a bad idea. Historically, we can come up with reasons why this should happen. People have made the case for Michael Vick. They've made the case for Andrew Luck. They've made the case for Peyton Manning. I remember a case for Kordell Stewart, for Daunte Culpepper, right?

These things have happened throughout time, and it never works out. It didn't work out for Brady when he was coming off the greatest quarterbacking season in history. I will say in the case of Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, we have a guy who put up the highest-scoring season total in quarterbacking history, right, for fantasy purposes.

And then in Lamar Jackson, the highest per-game average that anybody has ever put up. In fact, Jackson last year, the per-game scoring difference between him and the number two quarterback was greater than the per-game scoring difference between the number two and the number 24 quarterback. So it was a huge, massive, stupid positional edge to own Lamar Jackson last year.

That said, is he actually gonna back that up? Are all those passing touchdowns gonna be there? Maybe it doesn't matter. If he's running for 1,200 yards, maybe it doesn't matter, right?

A little part of me believes that Lamar Jackson is just a different sort of iteration of the quarterback position and it can happen again. Maybe not almost 30 fantasy points per game but something like 24, 25. And yeah, that would justify an early pick. I don't blink when somebody takes either Mahomes, who's the best quarterback in the game today, or Lamar Jackson in the first couple rounds.

But again, historically it hasn't worked out well. And the whole idea is to find that next Lamar Jackson. I don't know that there's gonna be a next Lamar Jackson. I don't know that anybody in the game beyond him or Mahomes can put up those kind of numbers. But the idea is to find the value, the guy that you can take as the QB eight, QB 10 who produces a top-three finish.

LIZ LOZA: So then who is that person for you? Who do you find yourself drafting when you are waiting on the position?

ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, if it's anyone, it's Kyler Murray, right? I feel Kyler Murray, although his price--

LIZ LOZA: Then you're not waiting that long then. Then you're not waiting--

ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, that's the thing. We've built some of that into his draft cost because he goes off the board as like the QB five, the QB six. But he is several rounds after Lamar Jackson. If somebody in your hometown league is taking Lamar Jackson or Mahomes at the end of round one, early in round two, which is about where they go, you are at least gonna be able to get Kyler Murray in like round five, round six.

MATT HARMON: Josh Allen. Just take Josh Allen, Andy.

ANDY BEHRENS: Oh no. Oh no, this is a terrible response. We either need to edit this out or we need to squash this right now. Josh Allen's so bad.

I get it. I get it with--

MATT HARMON: He's not that bad.

ANDY BEHRENS: --Josh Allen. I get it with the rushing yards. What an abysmal college quarterback who has been a brutal passer. It's a great situation in terms of the receiving corps. Love that.

I got my issues with Josh Allen though. Because so far to this point in his NFL career, if he doesn't run for a touchdown, he can't help you. He's never thrown for 270 yards in a game. It drives me-- yeah, I have issues with Josh Allen. I have to rank him inside the top 10, right, because he's gonna run for six, seven, eight touchdowns.

MATT HARMON: Just talk to me when he's QB three this year, Andy.

ANDY BEHRENS: Oh no.

MATT HARMON: I'll talk to you in the winter.

ANDY BEHRENS: Oh no. I'm ill.