How many quarterbacks should I draft in best ball?

Photo credit: Adrian Kraus, The Associated Press (AP)

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You're on the clock in the 14th round of a best ball draft. You already have two quarterbacks on your roster, including spending a very early pick on your first quarterback. Should you take a third, or are you okay just having two? How many quarterbacks should I be drafting in best ball tournaments versus "cash" games?

It's a common dilemma that most best ball drafters face in their drafts, regardless of the site you're playing on. Here, I hope to share the strategy that has given me success in the past - and can hopefully help you make better decisions when you're on the clock in your next best ball draft, too.

First, let's talk about "cash" games

I'm defining these as your 12-man, one league, top three get paid type contests. If you're playing on Drafters, for example, these are the contests labeled with "12 Person Draft" on them. These are what I call "closed" ecosystems - only one person gets to draft each quarterback. In nearly all instances, I'm trying to take three QBs, regardless of where I select them. Why? Well, it has to do with the closed ecosystem itself.

• I don't need to chase as much upside necessarily, because I only need to beat nine others to cash and 11 others to win the league. So taking three starting QBs, ideally with different bye weeks, can act as a hedge.

• But! You get the added bonus if you're being somewhat aggressive with your QB picks of removing a scarce resource from your competition, too. If every team drafted 3 QBs, then 36 would be drafted in a league with 32 starting quarterbacks - and that's assuming we know what QBs are going to be the full-season starters for teams, which is almost never the case. By staying ahead of the QB curve, you make your opponents make bad choices late or scramble to get a guy.

Tournaments: DraftKings, Drafters & Underdog

In tournaments, you face off against your draft room for the regular season, but then need to advance through one-week playoffs where other draft room winners advance. This complicates things. No longer are you the only person in the room with a specific QB; now you may have to face another team, or even multiple teams, with the same QBs as you.

Deciding how to draft in these cases is trickier. For me, being totally honest, a lot of it comes down to vibes in the draft room itself. But there's three questions I try to answer when I'm on the clock and only have 30 seconds to make decisions:

1. How much draft capital did I invest in my QB1?

2. Can I optimize stacking with my QB1 and QB2 and be satisfied with only that?

3. Is there a third stack option available to me as a QB3

In these tournaments, you're going against tens of thousands of teams. Optimizing how you play the QBs in stacking scenarios is more important than how many quarterbacks you should take.

Of course, taking just two quarterbacks adds risk, because if one gets hurt, you walk a fine line - and risk taking a zero during a bye week - but you also can add additional upside to your team at other positions, too. For example, you may take an extra handcuff running back who ends up becoming the starter by the end of the season, and so long as your quarterbacks stay healthy, you're instantly better off than your competition who made the opposite decision.

Make it simple. How many quarterbacks should I draft?

Again, I don't always consider these rules as black and white, but in most cases, the breakdown for me is as follows:

• If I'm taking an "elite" quarterback, usually picked within the first five rounds or so, then I'm mostly deciding early on to only take two QBs - and, again, stack them both - unless there is a third QB who has fallen way past their ADP and I can create a stack around them.

• If I'm not taking my first QB until the later portions of the draft (say, round 10-11 or later), then I'm almost always taking three QBs. I need to have the options of lucking into an elite score, and ideally I can make that up by having three options instead of two.

• In between those scenarios is mainly coming down to reading the board and looking at what stacking options still exist. If my QB1 is taken in the 7th round and my QB2 gets drafted in the 10th, maybe I feel comfortable just chancing things with these two; but if my QB2 gets drafted in, say, the 13th, maybe I'm less comfortable with that QB's upside so I try for a third.

Remember that playing best ball is an art, not a science. Following any of these rules as gospel could prevent you from creating the best teams that you could otherwise have if you trust your instincts inside of a draft room. That being said, these are the guidelines I use - along with all of the player analysis, rankings, guides, Discord conversations and more - that come with being a Basement Brewed Fantasy Football subscriber.

See you in the best ball streets!