Best ball at its heart comes down to two things: roster construction and player takes.
After the second consecutive year where over 65 quarterbacks made starts, many managers fear taking just two quarterbacks in 2024, even though it’s been proven optimal over several years.
Whether you opt for two or three quarterbacks, this article will set you up with complimentary pairings that fit together on a number of levels. ADP is taken from Underdog’s Big Board contest.
Best Ball Quarterback Pairings to Draft (2024)
Josh Allen (BUF) & Trevor Lawrence (QB – JX)
Best quarterbacks in not letting pressures get converted into sacks this season (PFF, including playoffs)
1. Josh Allen (10% of pressures turned into sacks)
2. Patrick Mahomes (10.4%)
3. Brock Purdy (13.3%)— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) January 30, 2024
If you’re looking to pay up at QB and take the most expensive quarterback off the board, then you need to be ready to leave the draft with only two quarterbacks and wait a while after selecting your first. The reason is that we only have so much draft capital we can afford to spend on quarterbacks, and if you’ve paid up early, then you need to be spreading your picks around on WRs, RBs and even TEs.
Josh Allen was the QB1 in 2023, as the only QB to break 23 points, delivering 13 top-12 weeks, which was the second-most at the position. Allen will cost you the 18th pick currently, so we want to find someone reliable to be a QB2 but not too expensive.
Enter Trevor Lawrence at the 111th pick. Lawrence was solid but not spectacular in 2023, averaging 17.8 points per game and managing only five top-five finishes. Still, our bet is already made on Allen having to perform up to his expensive ADP, so we can afford to expect a lesser outcome at our QB2 position. With Lawrence having 10 top-12 finishes last year, we know his floor is fairly steady.
Lamar Jackson (BAL) & Kyler Murray (ARI)
Celebrating Lamar Jackson all day today. pic.twitter.com/NIJfPtDN0M
— Zach Bollinger (@zachbollinger18) February 8, 2024
If there’s an all-upside QB pairing currently available, then this might be it. Kyler Murray will be a year further removed from his ACL injury and spend his first proper offseason getting to grips with Drew Petzing’s offense, potentially with the addition of Marvin Harrison Jr.
Meanwhile, Lamar Jackson will have his offseason not dominated by contract speculation for the first time in four years. He will also spend a second season getting to grips on a relatively new offense. Jackson is going at pick 35, so we can afford to take our second QB slightly earlier than if we were drafting Allen, and Murray’s ADP of 96 works out nicely.
Both QBs have the potential for dominating performances at any given point. Still, both also occasionally get scripted out of touchdowns, so pairing them together gives us access to high-ceiling outcomes more often than not. Drafting these two players also allows us to draft some relatively cheap but high-upside stacks.
Justin Fields (CHI) & Joe Burrow (CIN)
Considering the entirety of Justin Fields time with the Bears, not just the DJ Moore year, how many situations could he be traded to that would be worse than what he’s dealt with so far?
— Tom Strachan (@NFL_TStrack) February 8, 2024
If we were to wait slightly later to take our first quarterback, then opting for Justin Fields at pick 69 is intriguing. He’ll likely rise in cost if the Bears eventually trade him to a good landing spot. After three difficult years in Chicago, it’s worth considering how many situations could be worse than his surroundings for much of his NFL career so far. Any team trading for Fields likely wants to use his legs, with him averaging 52 rushing yards per game in 2023 and 76 in 2022.
Pairing Fields with a pocket-passer makes sense, as his floor is still somewhat low, thanks to his ability to take sacks so often. Joe Burrow is available at pick 78, 32 picks later than in 2023. Even if he loses Tee Higgins, he’ll likely bounce back if he can stay healthy, helped by the Bengals being set for a soft schedule in 2024.
Anthony Richardson (IND) & Jared Goff (DET)
The only QB’s to score 65+ fantasy points in their first 3 NFL games since the year 2000:
⁃ Robert Griffin III
⁃ Cam Newton
⁃ Patrick MahomesAND…
⁃ Anthony Richardson (who played just 32% of snaps in his 2nd start)
A-Rich has LEGENDARY upside. pic.twitter.com/iuMS0nMl7n
— David J. Gautieri (@GuruFantasyWrld) February 6, 2024
Along a similar vein, drafting Anthony Richardson and Jared Goff at picks 62 and 114, respectively, feels like a nice pairing. Richardson brings the ceiling, and Goff brings the stability.
Richardson only played four games, but in those games, he averaged 18.2 points, which includes two games where he left early. Richardson scored 20.9 and 29.6 points in the two full games he played. Richardson finished as a top-12 QB in PPG and, in four incomplete games, scored 72 points. We can’t draft Richardson with worries about his health; we have to expect the pick to pay off. Still, that doesn’t mean we can’t pair him with a safe bet at our second QB spot like Goff, who had seven top-12 finishes in 2023.
Justin Fields (CHI) & Caleb Williams (USC)
QB Caleb Williams.
Climb the pocket. Throw the 9 route (from the opposite hash). pic.twitter.com/OG5mVsoabl
— Matt Bowen (@MattBowen41) February 8, 2024
Another Fields pairing we could consider is taking him at pick 69 and stacking him with Caleb Williams at 115. It seems impossible that the Bears end up with both of these players on their roster come September. It also opens up the idea that we can stack Bears pass-catchers onto this one, and no matter what, we’ll have the QB throwing passes to them. Caleb Williams is not a faultless prospect, but he’s good enough to start from day one and be fantasy-relevant.
Caleb Williams (USC) & Matthew Stafford (LAR)
Another Williams pairing that stands out is with Matthew Stafford. Stafford’s ADP is falling 15 spots after Williams’s at the 130th overall pick. Stafford played excellently in 2023, creating an instant firecracker of a relationship with Puka Nacua. Taking two QBs in quick succession in this area of the draft allows us to stack up on elite players elsewhere earlier on and then be done with the QB position before it descends into questionable players.
Last year’s BBMIV winner of $3 million did so with a 3QB build, using Tua Tagovailoa, Jordan Love and CJ Stroud, who all found themselves close to, or in this range of the draft.
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