Thanks for your comment, Ninja. You raise a good question. I realized from your comment that I probably should have explained when a quarterback is deserving of a first-round pick. It's rare, but with the RBBC providing a solid plateau in running back value after the first few rounds in recent years, quarterbacks have taken over some of the top positions in fantasy production, especially in leagues that award six points for passing touchdowns.

Just this last season in one of my six-point touchdown leagues, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler, Kurt Warner, Peyton Manning and Donovan McNabb all topped the season-long fantasy point ranks ahead of the first RB on the board, DeAngelo Williams. Now, most of these guys could be had in later rounds and surprised owners by exceeding expectations, but the elite of the elite members of this group — Drew Brees and Peyton Manning — cost their owners a first or second round pick in this league.

Assuming Tom Brady owners replaced him with Matt Cassel post-injury and counting them as the same player, the other two members of what I would argue was the elite of the elite at QB last season — Tom Brady/Matt Cassel and Tony Romo — both also finished within the top 15 fantasy players.

Looking at these numbers, it's easy to see how building a team around the right quarterbacks, the elite four or five who are almost guaranteed to finish among the top, can pay off. Last season, you could draft an elite quarterback like Brady, Manning, Brees or Romo and still get Michael Turner, DeAngelo Williams or Matt Forte in later rounds, providing you with quite the formidable team.

Say you passed on the lower-end first-round picks like Steven Jackson or Marshawn Lynch last season and instead took Brees in the first and went RB in the second and third rounds. It's hard to argue that was a bad move when you look at the season-long totals. Sure, you could have drafted a QB like Aaron Rodgers late and lucked out, but it's hard to predict which of the mid-range QBs will rise to glory from season to season.

Taking a quarterback is no longer as taboo as it once was — as I discussed last preseason — http://tinyurl.com/6xnwjg — but it's only acceptable if you 1) take one of the elite quarterbacks who can consistently turn in dominant fantasy performances and 2) do your homework on how to adapt your strategy to build around a quarterback. You must know your running backs and wide receivers to maximize your value throughout the rest of your draft.

As I discussed in this article, Romo is no longer one of those guys you can depend on in the early rounds. He was that guy in 2007, but he fell off a little with injury in 2008 and is likely to dip a bit more in production in 2009.

Love to continue this discussion. Draft strategy changes from year to year, league to league and pick position to pick position, but it never gets old.