Keep Your Old Quarterbacks
Building a Dynasty · Part 8 of 11
Dynasty Strategy - Keep your old QBs
It's easy to understand selling your old QBs for cheap. Age is not a friend in dynasty fantasy football. I can't tell you that I have a ton of statistics on this but it seems pretty clear that these days QBs can maintain a career deep into their 30's and even into their 40's and stay fantasy football relevant. It wasn't always this way, that's because quarterbacks used to be treated like this...
But now they are protected by rules that favor the passing game and scoring. QBs cannot be hit in the head and they cannot be hit below the knees as long as they are in the pocket. They are not allowed to be hit while sliding out of the pocket. Mind you, these are good for the game and good for player safety so I am not complaining, I am suggesting you not get rid of your QBs just because they are old. Matthew Stafford is 38 years old and just finished as the QB3 in fantasy scoring. Not a game manager hanging on, an honest weekly starter at an age when most people had already sold him. Dak Prescott is 33, Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield are both 31, and Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are 30. If Stafford plays until he is 40 and the others play until 38, that is a combined 25 years of dynasty fantasy football production still on the table. Will that happen in each of these players cases? Probably not, but it's not outlandish to believe that most of them will last that long.
I've seen Tom Brady going for a late first round rookie draft...
https://twitter.com/BrianMaloneFF/status/645960447653474304
I've seen Philip Rivers given away for an injured and unproven (yet high potential) WR...
https://twitter.com/JudgeIto4/status/797447476185796609
Big Ben traded for Goff and a 5th...
https://twitter.com/DynastyTrades/status/729431296980590592
And I'm not saying any of these trades on their face are wrong...or even bad. My point is that QBs that have a HISTORY of performing at a high level for fantasy purposes should be kept at all but the highest cost. Potential is important but if you're QB is in their mid-30's there is no reason to trade them. They are more valuable to you on your roster unless you have other productive assets already in your possession at the QB position. While the running back is the engine of your dynasty team, the quarterback is the transmission. A dynasty team won't perform optimally if it doesn't have a QB that can kick it into high gear most weeks and get you two TDs. Young QBs still developing in their 20's often are not consistent enough to do that for you. Experienced QBs in their mid-30's are, so why would you get rid of them?