Superflex 2026: The Late-Round QBs Winning Drafts

The published take on superflex is always the same: quarterbacks go early, so pay up. True enough — twelve passers leave the board inside three rounds this year. But the drafts I'm winning aren't decided in Round 1. They're decided by who's still grabbing startable quarterbacks in Round 5 while the room panics about having only one. The gap between a QB's 2QB cost and his PPR cost tells you exactly where the market is wrong.

The Round 5 QB shelf

Look at where the position bottoms out in 2QB. Kyler Murray goes 5.05, Sam Darnold 5.09, Jordan Love 5.10. In standard PPR, Murray isn't even inside the top 140 drafted here. That's a QB1-caliber ceiling costing you a fifth-round pick in a format where you need two starters. The room that spent picks 1.07 through 2.11 loading up on passers is now taking wideouts, and the value falls to whoever waited.

• ▸Kyler Murray (MIN) 5.05 in 2QB, off the PPR top-140 board entirely
• ▸Sam Darnold (SEA) 5.09 in 2QB, undrafted in standard PPR
• ▸Jordan Love (GB) 5.10 in 2QB, undrafted in standard PPR
• ▸Tyler Shough (NO) 4.12 in 2QB, undrafted in standard PPR

None of these four register in the PPR top 140. In one-QB leagues nobody wants them. In 2QB they're weekly starters, and three of the four are going after pick 60. If you build RB-WR early and take two of these, you've spent premium capital on skill players while paying rookie-round prices for your QB room.

The middle-round bargains

Between the top tier and that Round 5 shelf sits a group the market keeps underpricing relative to their standard cost. Baker Mayfield goes 4.06 in 2QB but doesn't crack the standard board until 11.09 — that's a seven-round market disagreement on the same player. Jared Goff (3.01 vs 9.04) and Bo Nix (3.07 vs 10.04) tell the same story. These aren't ceiling bets; they're proven volume passers the one-QB crowd shrugs at.

• ▸Baker Mayfield: 4.06 in 2QB, 11.09 in PPR — a full seven-round swing
• ▸Jared Goff: 3.01 in 2QB, 9.04 in PPR
• ▸Bo Nix: 3.07 in 2QB, 10.04 in PPR
• ▸Justin Herbert: 3.02 in 2QB, 9.10 in PPR

Where the top actually reshuffles

The elite skill players hold their footing. Gibbs, Bijan and Nacua still leave inside the first five picks. But Josh Allen jumps to 1.02, Drake Maye to 1.07, and both Bengals passers crash the first round — Lamar at 1.08, Burrow at 1.09. Nine of the top 23 picks are quarterbacks. That's the price of the position. The question isn't whether to draft one early; it's whether you let the run drag you into reaching for arms while the McCaffreys and Achanes slide.

Note who falls. Jaxson Dart goes 3.06 in 2QB, Trevor Lawrence 2.07, Caleb Williams 2.10 — young starters priced like proven ones. If you're taking a QB in that range, Dart and Williams carry the same weekly-start floor as the veterans going a round earlier, and both have rushing upside the pocket passers around them don't.

How to attack it

The trap is treating superflex like standard and taking one QB early to feel safe. You need two, and the format punishes indecision. Either commit — two of the first 23 picks — or fully punt and stack the Round 4-5 shelf. The dead zone is one early QB and a scramble later, because by the time you're forced to move, the Mayfield-Goff-Nix tier is gone and you're left drafting an arm you didn't want.

In 2QB, the winning move is either two quarterbacks in the first three rounds or none until Round 4 — the middle path is how you end the draft short a starter.

Run the standard-versus-2QB gap on every passer before your draft. The wider the split, the softer the market. Murray, Darnold, Love and Shough don't even appear in one-QB drafts, which means half your leaguemates have no read on them at all. That's the edge — not paying for Allen at 1.02, but knowing exactly which arms fall to you when everyone else already has their two.