NFL

Fantasy Football: How Important Is a Win for a Quarterback's Production?

There are many factors that go into scoring in fantasy football, but quarterback scoring increases with victories -- unless we're talking about Tyrod Taylor.

We've all been there.

It's Sunday morning, and you're staring blankly at your quarterback options. You look at useful information such as their health, the weather conditions, the location, their projected point totals, the spread, and you still can't make a decision.

While I don't have the magic answer on who to start, it's probably a good idea to look at a quarterback's chances of winning his game.

Sweet Victory

I figured that winning led to more fantasy points on average, so I created a list of the 32 projected starting quarterbacks for this upcoming season. I then took their career averages in wins and losses via the Rotoviz Game Splits App and came up with the following findings.

Average FPPG in Wins and Losses

The blue bars represent the average fantasy points per game scored by each quarterback in wins over their careers. The orange bars represent their fantasy output in losses. Next, we'll look at the raw data that was produced.

QuarterbackWinsLosses
Aaron Rodgers27.1521.64
Alex Smith18.3913.27
Andrew Luck25.422.74
Andy Dalton22.0316.96
Ben Roethlisberger20.818.62
Blake Bortles20.9320.35
Brian Hoyer12.8613.32
Cam Newton26.7721.33
Carson Palmer20.5317.91
Carson Wentz17.6416.07
Cody Kesslern/a12.03
Dak Prescott25.338.22
Derek Carr24.1716.01
Drew Brees25.919.34
Eli Manning19.7816.42
Jameis Winston21.4820.49
Jared Goffn/a10.44
Joe Flacco18.9416.19
Josh McCown18.6612.32
Kirk Cousins25.117.16
Marcus Mariota28.0317.28
Matt Ryan22.1219.3
Matthew Stafford26.1818.41
Mike Glennon17.3916.47
Philip Rivers21.0918.91
Russell Wilson24.1218.92
Ryan Tannehill21.516.68
Sam Bradford18.6216.49
Tom Brady24.0715.71
Tom Savagen/an/a
Trevor Siemian16.2416.53
Tyrod Taylor19.5623.53


The 32 projected starters averaged 21.71 fantasy points per game in wins, and just 17.07 in losses, a difference of 4.64 points per game.

Some quarterbacks on this list -- Blake Bortles, Brian Hoyer, and Jameis Winston, among them -- have not had their fantasy performances affected by wins or losses, while others have seen their scoring change dramatically.

Tyrod Taylor

Tyrod Taylor stands out because he has performed better in losses.

Taylor has averaged 11 more pass attempts and 73 more passing yards per game in losses. He can do plenty of damage with his legs -- he topped 40 rushing yards and found the end zone on the ground in 6 of his 15 starts -- but when forced to pass in a losing effort, he's been deadly.

In fact, among these 32 starters, Taylor has averaged the most points per game in losses. The online sportsbook Pinnacle is projecting the Buffalo Bills to win 6.5 games this season after they won 7 in 2016. That's good news for TyGod, who is going later than he should be.

Marcus Mariota

Contrary to Taylor, Marcus Mariota has been a fantasy football juggernaut in his team's victories.


Mariota has averaged 10.75 more fantasy points per game in wins than in losses, the biggest discrepancy among the 32 starters. Mariota has also averaged more fantasy points per game in wins than any quarterback on our list, albeit, with an 11-game sample size. Per Pinnacle, the Titans are projected to win 8.5 games this season after winning 9 in 2016.

Matthew Stafford

Like Mariota, Matthew Stafford has been dominant in wins.

While his pass attempts have seen an uptick in losses, his efficiency fell off a cliff. Stafford has been usable over his career for fantasy purposes, but has been a top-five option in wins. Unfortunately for Stafford, the Detroit Lions are projected to win 8 games after winning 9 in 2016.

The Takeaway

You should never base your fantasy football decisions off of just one variable. If you're stuck in a coin-flip situation when looking over your options before kickoff, the numbers suggest going with the quarterback whose team is more likely to win that week according to the Vegas odds.