By Dan O’Shea
I feel like I’ve been writing a lot lately about quarterbacks, but can you blame me? It’s been a banner year for QBs so far, with Drew Brees threatening to break his own single-season passing yardage record and Aaron Rodgers hovering around the pace of the single-season touchdown pass record (Tom Brady’s 50 in 2007).
Aside from a slew of great QB performances this year, we are also seeing the acceleration of a recent interesting trend: The running QB. The resurgence of Michael Vick, since last year, along with the arrival of Cam Newton and Tim Tebow points to a running revival of sorts among field generals (Rodgers, too, was an early harbinger, though with his arm working so effectively this year, he is way off his usual pace for rushing yards.)
If all QBs keep their present rushing pace, Vick could finishing with almost 900 yards rushing, and Newton and Tebow could easily clear 600. Last season, Vick led all QBs with 676 yards rushing, and no one else even surpassed 300. Newton already has seven rushing TDs this year with half a season left; Vick led the position last year with nine.
This is a big deal in fantasy football, as Tebow demonstrated again last week, adding at least 11 fantasy points to his total (more in leagues with bonus points) by rushing for 118 yards. His passing stats: 124 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs. The latter is good for about 18 points in most Yahoo! leagues – nice, but pedestrian for a QB. The 29-point total, however, made him the third-highest fantasy scorer among QBs. (One of the key things to remember here is that 100 yards rushing in most leagues is 10 points, while 100 yards passing is usually more like four or five points.)
It will be interesting to see if other NFL teams pick up on the trend. With Northwestern’s Mike Kafka and Vince Young, Philly is currently cornering the market on thoroughbred QBs. In Minnesota, Christian Ponder has shown early potential to run effectively, and the Vikings also have Joe Webb. Miami, which led the re-introduction of wildcat formation to the NFL a few years ago, has decent running QBs in Chad Henne, now on IR, and Matt Moore.
If some of this talent gets spread around the league, along with the potential arrival over the next few years of University of Michigan’s Denard Robinson and even Northern Illinois University’s Chandler Harnish, running QBs could become a hot commodity in future fantasy drafts.
Expert Wire
* Yahoo! Scouting Notebook plays devil’s advocate to my big theory, arguing Tebow is nothing more than a short-term gimmick.
* NFL Soup likes Ponder, along with pocket QB Carson Palmer, now with the Raiders.
* Fantasy Knuckleheads reports that Cowboys WR Miles Austin is hobbled again.
* Bleacher Report likes Redskins RB Roy Helu as Mike Shanahan’s Flavor of the Week.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on November 8, 2011