Want to have the best chance to win your fantasy football league? Then do the smart thing by waiting on a quarterback in your draft. It amazes me the difference between high stakes public leagues and “industry insider” leagues (I like the phrase “industry insiders” instead of experts) compared to your average Joe friendly league. By difference, I mean that in those high stake/industry leagues, top-tier quarterbacks last forever in drafts, compared to the friendly league, where quarterbacks seem to fly off the board in the early rounds. That is because smart fantasy players know that drafting a quarterback in the early rounds or paying up for one in an auction league is one of the worst ways to build a winning fantasy team, but why is that?

First off, scoring for your league doesn’t matter at all. Whether a passing touchdown is four points or six points, or bonuses are granted for 300-plus yards, it is all relative. Quarterbacks are going to outscore every other position, but having an elite QB doesn’t give you that big of an advantage. However, the one thing that does make a difference is that running quarterbacks have a little more value in leagues where passing touchdowns are four points instead of six points. They have a little less value in leagues where a passing touchdown is six points because guys like Russell Wilson and Cam Newton throw fewer touchdowns than their counterparts.

Most fantasy football analysts say that rostering two quarterbacks is wasting a bench spot. However, I prefer two quarterbacks on my roster because it allows me play the best matchup, have a backup plan in case the better QB gets injured and prepare for bye weeks. Also, since I’ve built up depth in the earlier rounds of the draft, having two quarterbacks is not going to waste a roster spot because I already have plenty of depth at the other positions.

No one would put classify a guy like Ben Roethlisberger as an elite QB, but he had only two less 300-plus passing games than Andrew Luck. Guys like Matt Ryan and Philip Rivers can put up similar fantasy points as Andrew Luck on any given Sunday. Ryan and Eli Manning finished with more passing yards last season than Aaron Rodgers. I’ll let that sink in for second.

While Andrew Luck did have eight games with three or more total touchdowns, guys like Philip Rivers and Tony Romo were right behind him. As a matter of fact, Romo was one of the best quarterbacks in fantasy during the second half of the season. Luck was definitely one of the most consistent quarterbacks, but he isn’t necessarily the reason why people won fantasy weeks. Peyton Manning struggled during the fantasy playoffs last season, as he averaged 239 passing yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in Weeks 14-16. That is far from elite. If you had Peyton Manning during those weeks, it was unlikely you advanced in your playoff matchups.

The key to waiting on quarterback is to draft two solid mid-tier quarterbacks, which is a lot easier to do in a 10-team league opposed to a 12-team league, but the strategy works in both cases. Guys like Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan and Tom Brady are going to slip in drafts because they aren’t in the same class as the elite guys based on their cumulative fantasy points for the season, but any one of those guys can put up the same, if not more, fantasy points than an elite guy on any given week. Also, two mid-tier options can equal one elite quarterback as long as you play the matchups correctly.

People forget that fantasy football is a week-to-week game, as they tend to focus on how a guy is going to perform over an entire season instead of worrying about one week at a time. Before I go any further, let’s take a look at the top 15 quarterbacks from last season based on total fantasy points.

*Scoring is based on ESPN’s standard scoring: .04 points for a passing yard and four points for a passing touchdown.

Aaron Rodgers – 342 fantasy points, 21.4 fantasy points per game

Andrew Luck – 336 FPs, 21 FPs per game

Russell Wilson – 312 FPs, 19.5 FPs per game (849 RYDs and 6 RTDs in 2014, 539 RYDs and 1 TD in 2013).

Peyton Manning – 307 FPs, 19.1 FPs per game

Ben Roethlisberger – 295 FPs, 18.4 FPs per game

Drew Brees – 290 FPs, 18.1 FPs per game

Matt Ryan – 268 FPs, 16.8 FPs per game

Tom Brady – 267 FPs, 16.7 FPs per game

Ryan Tannehill – 266 FPs, 16.7 FPs per game

Eli Manning – 263 FPs, 16.4 FPs per game

Tony Romo – 258 FPs, 17.2 FPs per game (played in 15 games)

Philip Rivers – 254 FPs, 15.9 FPs per game

Joe Flacco – 249 FPs, 15.6 FPs per game

Jay Cutler – 244 FPs, 16.3 FPs per game (played in 15 games)

Matthew Stafford – 237 FPs, 14.8 FPs per game

Cam Newton – 237 FPs, 16.9 FPs per game (played in 14 games)

Again, guys like Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers are at the top of the list, but what stands out to me is the fact that the guys at the lower end of the rankings averaged only four-to-five less points per game than Luck or Rodgers. Think about it like this: A first or second running back/wide receiver is going to average a lot more points than their counterpart that is drafted in rounds seven through 10, but that is not the case for quarterbacks. A guy like Ryan Tannehill, who will go almost undrafted in a standard 10-team league, averaged only four less points per week than Rodgers or Luck. Now, combine Tannehill with a guy like Tony Romo and you suddenly have a combo that can equal an elite quarterback.

While Russell Wilson performed as an elite QB last season, almost 40 percent of his fantasy points came from rushing yards/touchdowns. That is something you definitely can’t depend on, as there will be plenty of weeks that Wilson will score less fantasy points than an average quarterback because the rushing yards, and especially the rushing touchdowns, are not something on which you can depend on a week-to-week basis. One last note about Wilson, he passed for 300-plus yards only two times, while he passed for less than 200 yards in SEVEN games, which is brutal for ANY quarterback, yet alone, a guy that is going to be viewed as a top-tier option.

Depth is another huge factor in fantasy football because players get hurt all the time. Literally, it seems like every week a big name running back or wide receiver gets hurt, which causes them to miss a couple of games. That means you should draft as many elite guys at those positions as possible. When you wait till the later rounds of a draft to get a quarterback, it allows you to stack your team with quality running backs and wideouts. That way you can be prepared for those injuries and won’t have to count on a waiver wire player in your starting lineup.

Despite how mundane they are, snake drafts are still the most common form of drafts for most leagues. The key strategy in a snake draft is to wait, wait and wait even more on quarterbacks. You want to fill out your entire starting roster before you even think about drafting a quarterback. Even after you fill up your starting lineup (excluding kickers and defenses), there will be plenty of quality wide receivers in rounds five through eight. Those are also the rounds that you can reasonably reach on some running backs that could emerge as the leading running backs for their respective squads.

Auction leagues are similar to snake drafts, but in an auction league, it is all about value. Waiting on a quarterback is crucial in these types of drafts because guys like Luck and Rodgers are going to be super expensive. However, once there are only a couple teams without a quarterback, the amount of money it takes to get a QB significantly drops no matter how good that QB is. Anyone that spends a lot of money on an elite quarterback is not going to spend money on a mid-tier QB. That means you can essentially get pair of high quality QBs for cheap, which will allow you to spend extra money on some top-tier running backs and wide receivers. It is amazing how cheap you can a high quality QB in an auction if you don’t spend on one early.

It is tougher to wait on quarterbacks in two quarterback leagues because they fly off the board, but that doesn’t mean you should pay up for an elite quarterback. You can still wait on QBs and build a roster full of elite players while everyone else drafts quarterbacks early. The key is to AVOID the elite ones by getting two-to-three quality mid-tier QBs that you can interchange each week . It is tough to find QBs on the waiver wire in these leagues, so getting a backup QB is crucial in these types of leagues. At the same time, you don’t want to be stuck with a crappy quarterback as your number two QB, so while you can wait in this type of league, you will still have to draft one or two them earlier than you would in a standard league. Depending on a rookie QB is also not preferred, as most rookies struggle their first year in the NFL, especially the quarterbacks.

If, after all of what you just read, you still believe in drafting a QB early, than do some mock drafts with the “waiting on quarterback” strategy and you’ll see how amazing your team looks with this strategy. Don’t be the “Average Joe” at your draft by taking a QB early, be the smart guy or “expert” in the draft by waiting on a quarterback so you can build a title contending team. Because after all, as much fun as fantasy football is, we’re all in this to win our league and waiting to draft a quarterback is one of the best strategies you can do in order to gain an advantage in your league.