What position scores the most points in fantasy football? Tips and strategy to build 2024 roster
Building the best fantasy football roster requires managers to have specific strategies for each position during their drafts. While it's always important to have some of the highest-scoring overall players, reaching too high on any position could result in failing to optimize the overall roster construction.
Here are some important things to know about the highest-scoring positions.
Highest-scoring position in fantasy football
Quarterbacks have been the highest-scoring overall position in fantasy football by a fairly significant margin. In 2023 alone, nine of the top ten and 14 of the top 15 highest-scoring overall players were QBs. Only Christian McCaffrey at sixth and CeeDee Lamb at 14th cracked the top 15 last year.
To further demonstrate how quarterbacks dominate the overall fantasy scoring list is by seeing the relatively mediocre options that outscored the elite players in other positions. For example, Sam Howell was ranked the 13th highest-scoring fantasy player last year. This means that he recorded more total fantasy points than every non-QB besides McCaffrey.
Behind QBs, scoring formats will often determine which position is the next highest scoring. In PPR leagues, wide receivers will hold more value but in non-PPR formats, running backs are the next best position. This means that it's always important to have different draft strategies depending on the format and scoring settings of a particular league.
When to pick a QB in fantasy football
While quarterbacks are the highest-scoring position in fantasy football, traditional leagues that only have one starter may allow managers to still wait a bit before drafting one. Superflex and 2QB leagues will change this strategy as QBs often dominate the early rounds of a draft. For traditional one-QB formats, it's usually still wise to use the first three rounds on the best available wide receivers and running backs.
When analyzing the ADP for all of the elite QBs ahead of the 2024 fantasy football season, Josh Allen is the only one often drafted before the fourth round. He currently has a third-round ADP with Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts coming in one round behind him and Lamar Jackson most often picked in the fifth round.
The fact that so many QBs are capable of posting big fantasy scores is the main reason why managers can afford to wait a little bit longer to take one during their drafts. It's easier to find value in the later rounds for this position such as the Howell example from last year than it is to make up for missing out on elite WRs and RBs.