Can an inefficient QB still be a good fantasy option?
Yahoo Fantasy's Josh Norris and Joel Smyth decide if Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis can be a late round QB steal with rushing upside.
Video Transcript
Malik Willis be 2022 Justin Fields with a horrible offense but still rush and scramble for enough yards to be good in fantasy?
The age-old question, Joel, can a bad player on the actual football field be a good player for us in fantasy football?
I totally think so.
I totally think so.
I did a little research project recently looking at the preseason projections that we have the last seven years.
There has only been eight quarterbacks drafted outside of the top 15 quarterbacks to be projected for over four rushing points per game.
Malik Willis is one of those.
Of the previous eight, we have one injury, one miss, and six huge hits.
Like, not even ADP quarterback 17 being the quarterback 12.
Right.
Like, this is Drake May being the quarterback 16 off the board last year and going, or finishing as the quarterback two.
One of those- Yep six big hits was 2022 Justin Fields.
I know the receivers are pretty bad.
They're pretty bad.
But I think if he can just get to eight or nine rushing points per game, which is possible for Malik Willis here, I don't mind it at all.
No, I, I love this.
And that was a tongue-in-cheek question.
Like, I actually think Malik Willis is a good player, and look what he showed against the Baltimore Ravens last year.
Mm-hmm.
His one start, he was throwing the rock all over the field.
But just from really a surface level idea for fantasy football, we don't get many late-round quarterbacks with this type of rushing anymore because people like you are making the audience way smarter than we were, like, 10 or 15 years ago, you know?
But it goes back to, you know, I, I think people get running quarterbacks wrong in that they believe rushing is the ceiling, when in reality, rushing- Mm-hmm is the floor, and then the passing unlocks the ceiling on top of it, right?
Like, since 1990, 47 quarterbacks have rushed the ball 100-plus times in a season.
41 of those 47 had a top 12 quarterback season in fantasy points per game.
So that's what we're gonna get from Malik Willis, you know?
Offensive line might be better.
Receivers, absolutely terrible.
Tight end, who knows?
Greg Dulcich is a fun late-round punt at tight end.
But if I really push quarterback, I love going the combo of, like, Kyler Murray and Malik Willis and seeing who scores better in the first three weeks and then booting the other one.
And especially in Superflex, I love having Malik Willis as my second quarterback because that means I took value in other positions earlier on versus other people reaching on that spot.
