SUPERFLEX Roster Construction Strategy
By: Andy Cason of Football Card Quest and the Football Card Strategy Show.
Depending on whether or not your league is PPR or Standard Scoring, and whether or not your league has a SUPERFLEX spot will change the way you want to draft to dominate your league this year.
SUPERFLEX has become very popular and is more closely correlated to the sports card market, which is why most, if not all, of the leagues I play in these days are of the SUPERFLEX format. This is a league that has 2 flex positions but one of them is labeled as SUPERFLEX, meaning you can start a QB in that spot on a weekly basis. With the ability to start 2 QBs any given week in this format, and the fact that even below average QBs still tend to put up double digit fantasy points on a weekly basis because the entire offense runs through them, there is emphasis placed on the QB position. If you have never done one of these drafts, I highly recommend it. You will see Quarterbacks drafted early and often, prioritized just like they are in the sports card market.
In Superflex formats its not uncommon to see Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Justin Herbert taken off the board in the first 3 picks, even before Jonathan Taylor, Chistian McCaffrey, Justin Jefferson, and Cooper Kupp.
This means that you need to be ready when its your turn to draft in the first round, and I would highly recommend you begin building your roster with a cornerstone QB. There will almost always typically be a couple people in the league that pivot to taking an RB, WR, or TE in the first round but you should not do this unless your picking at the back end of the round and nothing but QBs have been taken off the board, thus leaving you with a pick between one of the super elite RBs or WRs (this year its Jonathan Taylor, Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson, Ja’marr Chase, Travis Kelce, or Mark Andrews). Outside of these few players I would highly recommend you take a QB, because they will quickly disappear and you’ll be stuck draft QBs that will probably average 10 to 15 fantasy points per week with you opponent having QBs that average 20 to 40 fantasy points per week.
Not to mention, you will want to have 3 QBs on your roster in this type of league in case one gets injured on you decided to punt the position and didn’t take your QB until round 4 or 5. QBs carry so much value in this type of league that you will definitely want to ensure you’ve got 2 good QBs on your roster before round 5. This is how the winningest superflex rosters are constructed each year.
The rest of your lineup will be pretty standard. It’s important to note there has been a talent pool shift this year in that we have one super elite RB in Jonathan Taylor but several super elite receivers. There seems to be more value later in drafts at RB and less at WR and TE. So in some of these super flex drafts I am definitely drafting WR and TE early if the super elite are available and sometimes not drafting my first RB until round 5 or 6. In a superflex format you may still be able to draft some really great RB talent there.
In closing, the SUPERFLEX format MUST be viewed differently than a standard league. To win in this type of league, you will want to do things you would never think of doing in a standard league, whether PPR nor not. Its an absolute blast though, with added value on an otherwise stacked position in single QB leagues (think everyone having a great QB in single QB leagues), and I love the close correlation to the sports card market with all the additional value placed on QBs.