I think we all need to keep an eye on some of the young, mobile quarterbacks available in drafts this year. Especially Tyrod Taylor. He has a Sleeper Quarterback of The Year look to him. To a lesser degree, Marcus Mariota and Colin Kaepernick.
Running back stats, as reminder, tend to be dramatically overvalued in this little game that we created. That’s the way most of us play, anyway. A 10-yard run tends to be worth as much in the fantasy world as a 20-yard completion. So when you do the math, running quarterbacks tend to be really nice producers.
Robert Griffin III is a nice example of this. Back in his rookie year, he was a pretty ordinary passer (213 yards per game, with 20 TDs in 15 starts) but only four quarterbacks put up better overall numbers because of what he did as a scrambler.
Tim Tebow, for crying out loud, was the 12th-best (per-game) quarterback in 2011, even those he averaged only 150 passing yards per game, with 11 TDs in the 11 games he started. But Tebow averaged 57 rushing yards, with 5 TDs in those same 11 games, turning him into a viable fantasy option.
Taylor has this kind of look about him. Looks like he’ll run for 40-60 yards in a lot of games. And as well as he’s thrown the ball in the preseason (completely over 76 percent of his passes) that has me thinking he’ll be probably the most undervalued quarterback in fantasy drafts this year.
I suppose Mariota and Kaepernick also need to be brought into the conversation, given that they can also run. They’re also very athletic. But Mariota looks like he wants to stay in the pocket and go through his progressions first. I don’t think he’s going to run nearly as much as Taylor. And Kaepernick has the double negative of having not run quite enough in recent years, and also really struggling as a passer.
Anyway, I offer this chart. For this one, I started by pulling out all quarterbacks who’ve started at least half of the season since 2000. Of those quarterbacks, 22 averaged over 36 rushing yards per game. Of that group, all but five ranked among the top 9 fantasy quarterbacks. That’s per-game production, and using standard scoring.
Do not fall asleep on Tyrod Taylor.
| QUARTERBACKS AVERAGING 36 RUSHING YARDS PER GAME | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | St | Pass | TDP | Run | TDR | Rk |
| 2000 | Donovan McNabb, Phil. | 16 | 210.3 | 1.31 | 39.3 | .38 | 8 |
| 2000 | Kordell Stewart, Pitt. | 11 | 161.0 | 1.00 | 36.7 | .55 | 9 |
| 2001 | Daunte Culpepper, Minn. | 11 | 237.5 | 1.27 | 37.8 | .45 | 2 |
| 2002 | Michael Vick, Atl. | 15 | 195.7 | 1.07 | 51.8 | .53 | 5 |
| 2002 | Donovan McNabb, Phil. | 10 | 228.9 | 1.70 | 46.0 | .60 | 1 |
| 2002 | Daunte Culpepper, Minn. | 16 | 240.8 | 1.13 | 38.1 | .63 | 2 |
| 2004 | Michael Vick, Atl. | 15 | 154.2 | .93 | 60.1 | .20 | 16 |
| 2005 | Michael Vick, Atl. | 15 | 160.8 | 1.00 | 39.8 | .40 | 7 |
| 2006 | Michael Vick, Atl. | 16 | 154.6 | 1.25 | 64.9 | .13 | 6 |
| 2006 | Vince Young, Tenn. | 13 | 158.9 | .85 | 40.6 | .54 | 9 |
| 2010 | Michael Vick, Phil. | 11 | 258.5 | 1.82 | 52.1 | .82 | 1 |
| 2011 | Tim Tebow, Den. | 11 | 150.0 | 1.00 | 56.6 | .45 | 12 |
| 2011 | Michael Vick, Phil. | 13 | 254.1 | 1.38 | 45.3 | .08 | 6 |
| 2011 | Cam Newton, Car. | 16 | 253.2 | 1.31 | 44.1 | .88 | 4 |
| 2012 | Robert Griffin III, Wash. | 15 | 213.3 | 1.33 | 54.3 | .47 | 5 |
| 2012 | Cam Newton, Car. | 16 | 241.8 | 1.19 | 46.3 | .50 | 4 |
| 2013 | Terrelle Pryor, Oak. | 9 | 196.2 | .78 | 61.4 | .22 | 17 |
| 2013 | Robert Griffin III, Wash. | 13 | 246.4 | 1.23 | 37.6 | .00 | 11 |
| 2013 | Cam Newton, Car. | 16 | 211.2 | 1.50 | 36.6 | .38 | 7 |
| 2014 | Russell Wilson, Sea. | 16 | 217.2 | 1.25 | 53.1 | .38 | 6 |
| 2014 | Colin Kaepernick, S.F. | 16 | 210.6 | 1.19 | 39.9 | .06 | 19 |
| 2014 | Cam Newton, Car. | 14 | 223.4 | 1.29 | 38.5 | .36 | 9 |
—Ian Allan