What if I told you there was a quarterback being taken at the tail end of the deepest fantasy drafts, but plays better than some eighth-round picks?
numberFire's 30 for 30 presents: Fitzmagic, the Ryan Fitzpatrick story.
Fantasy Football Calculator's ADP data, Ryan Fitzpatrick is going undrafted. That's not that odd, though, since Fantasy Football Calculator drafts aren't very deep, and there are plenty of good quarterbacks out there to choose from.
But what about deeper leagues? Those rosters surely see Fitzpatrick drafted as a top-tier QB2, right? According to My Fantasy League's ADP, Fitzpatrick is the 31st quarterback off the board, going as the 220th pick, on average.
Both of the New York Jets' quarterbacks are going ahead of a starter who finished as a middle-of-the-road quarterback last season in part-time duty? I'm not sure I want to live in this world anymore.
Fitzpatrick is the starter on a team with Andre Johnson, the best receiver he's been paired with in quite some time, as well as DeAndre Hopkins. This gives him a one-two combo at receiver that trumps his targets in Buffalo and Tennessee, where he still produced as a viable backup passer in fantasy leagues.
He's also got Arian Foster, arguably a better back than any he's played with before. And his competition on the Texans for snaps includes a 24-year-old, fourth-round rookie in Tom Savage, and Case Keenum, one of the worst quarterbacks in the league last year according to our metrics.
There's no reason for the Houston signal-caller to fall this far in fantasy drafts.
Even if he doesn't play a full season, he should still surpass his lowly draft value, as our current projections have him only throwing 363 passes but still finishing 28th among quarterbacks. Should he start the whole season, and there's no reason to think he won't (barring injury), that number will skyrocket into the low 20s or high teens.
The secret is out on this magic trick. Ryan Fitzpatrick is too good to go this late in fantasy football drafts.