There are hundreds of ways to build a fantasy football roster, and you could make a case that almost any strategy can lead to a championship.
One approach I’ve used successfully in the past is to avoid elite quarterbacks early in drafts and instead use a “quarterback-by-committee” strategy, commonly known as streaming quarterbacks throughout the season.
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Fantasy Football Draft Strategy & Targets: QB Streaming
What is Quarterback Streaming?
When streaming quarterbacks, fantasy managers rely on multiple quarterbacks throughout the season rather than investing heavily in one elite option. It often involves drafting two lower-ranked quarterbacks with different bye weeks or consistently utilizing the waiver wire to start quarterbacks based on favorable weekly matchups.
Below are a few key factors to consider when streaming quarterbacks.
Fantasy Production
How has the quarterback performed from a fantasy perspective so far? While season-long fantasy football rankings matter, recent trends can be just as important.
Matchup Analysis
Who is your quarterback facing this week? How have opposing quarterbacks performed against that defense? Does the defense struggle against the pass? Do they generate turnovers? Identifying exploitable matchups is critical.
Game Location
Will the game be played outdoors or in a dome? The weather can have a significant impact on quarterback production. It’s also worth examining home and road splits, as some quarterbacks perform dramatically better in one environment versus the other.
Vegas Odds and Betting Lines
Sportsbooks can provide valuable insight into projected game environments. Games with high totals and close spreads often signal shootout potential, creating more opportunities for passing volume and fantasy production.
Streaming is Simple
Fantasy football lineups require multiple running backs and wide receivers every week, and the gap between an elite quarterback and a solid quarterback is often much smaller than the gap between an elite running back/wide receiver and a replacement-level option.
By waiting to draft a quarterback, you can stockpile talent at the more scarce skill positions while still finding productive quarterback play throughout the season.
In Weeks 1-13 last season, an average of nearly two quarterbacks per week (1.8) finished inside the weekly top five of the position, despite not finishing the year among the top 15 quarterbacks overall. That statistic alone shows there are plenty of opportunities to find weekly difference-makers outside the elite quarterback tier.
Which Quarterbacks to Target?
Fortunately, FantasyPros has a tool called for this. The Quarterback by Committee Finder helps answer that exact question.
Using quarterbacks drafted outside of the top 12 at the position, the tool identifies Brock Purdy and Baker Mayfield as one of the strongest committee pairings. Another intriguing combination is Brock Purdy and Daniel Jones, assuming Jones returns healthy.
What stands out isn’t necessarily the individual quarterbacks, but how their schedules complement each other. The tool automatically identifies the stronger matchup each week, allowing fantasy managers to maximize production without investing premium draft capital at the position.
For example, Mayfield opens the season with favorable matchups against Cincinnati and Dallas, while Purdy provides attractive spots against Miami, Arizona and Washington. Together, they create a season-long quarterback profile that rivals that of many quarterbacks selected much earlier.
If you’re willing to dig even deeper, filtering for quarterbacks with an ADP outside of the top 18 still produces some surprisingly viable combinations. A rotation of Mayfield, Jones and Tyler Shough projects to average nearly 20 fantasy points per game.
The fact that these pairings can still approach 20 fantasy points per game highlights just how deep the quarterback position has become. Rather than spending an early-round pick on a quarterback, fantasy managers can use those selections to strengthen their running back and wide receiver rooms while still receiving solid weekly quarterback production.
The biggest challenge with this strategy isn’t finding the quarterbacks — it’s having the discipline to trust the process. Don’t feel pressured to spend an early-round pick on a quarterback.
While players like Josh Allen and Drake Maye offer tremendous weekly upside, fantasy championships can still be won by maximizing matchups and taking advantage of the depth at the quarterback position.
Sometimes the best value isn’t drafting the superstar quarterback — it’s finding the right one each week.
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