There’s a lot more to drafting a successful fantasy football roster than pure rankings. But it’s essential to enter your draft with a good set of rankings. They provide an important baseline to help guide you throughout your draft.
Here are our fantasy QB rankings, including a couple of highlighted players worth further discussion.
Ranking the Top Fantasy Quarterbacks
1) Josh Allen | Buffalo Bills
2) Jalen Hurts | Philadelphia Eagles
3) Patrick Mahomes | Kansas City Chiefs
4) Lamar Jackson | Baltimore Ravens
5) Anthony Richardson | Indianapolis Colts
6) Kyler Murray | Arizona Cardinals
7) C.J. Stroud | Houston Texans
8) Joe Burrow | Cincinnati Bengals
9) Dak Prescott | Dallas Cowboys
10) Jayden Daniels | Washington Commanders
11) Jordan Love | Green Bay Packers
12) Kirk Cousins | Atlanta Falcons
13) Brock Purdy | San Francisco 49ers
14) Caleb Williams | Chicago Bears
15) Tua Tagovailoa | Miami Dolphins
16) Jared Goff | Detroit Lions
17) Justin Herbert | Los Angeles Chargers
18) Trevor Lawrence | Jacksonville Jaguars
19) Aaron Rodgers | New York Jets
20) Matthew Stafford | Los Angeles Rams
21) Deshaun Watson | Cleveland Browns
22) Baker Mayfield | Tampa Bay Buccaneers
23) Geno Smith | Seattle Seahawks
24) Will Levis | Tennessee Titans
25) Derek Carr | New Orleans Saints
26) Russell Wilson | Pittsburgh Steelers
27) Justin Fields | Pittsburgh Steelers
28) Sam Darnold | Minnesota Vikings
29) Daniel Jones | New York Giants
30) Aidan O’Connell | Las Vegas Raiders
31) Gardner Minshew II | Las Vegas Raiders
32) Bryce Young | Carolina Panthers
33) Bo Nix | Denver Broncos
34) Drake Maye | New England Patriots
35) Jacoby Brissett | New England Patriots
Who Are the Best Quarterbacks To Draft in Fantasy?
Anthony Richardson, Indianapolis Colts
The modern fantasy football landscape doesn’t wait for players to actually prove it — you have to pay for it in advance. That’s where we are with Anthony Richardson.
To an extent, you could argue he already “proved it” in his limited action as a rookie. Although he started just four games, Richardson’s fantasy upside was on full display.
Richardson made it through 90% of the snaps in three games last season. In those games, he scored 21.9, 17.7, and 29.6 fantasy points, respectively.
MORE: Try PFN’s “Who Should I Draft?” Tool
While it can be dangerous to extrapolate from a very small sample size, the manner in which Richardson scored his fantasy points correlates with what we expected of him. The major question is whether he can sustain it over a full season.
We know QB rushing numbers are more predictable than passing. Richardson averaged 6.25 rush attempts for 34 yards per game. In this case, it’s fair to project that to be mostly sustainable across a full season. The only thing standing between Richardson and a massive season is health.
Kirk Cousins, Atlanta Falcons
Let’s talk about Kirk Cousins. Why exactly is this perennial low-QB1/high-QB2 suddenly being treated like he forgot how to play football?
The answer is probably the combination of his injury and age. I guess that makes sense?
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not overly concerned about a quarterback recovering from a torn Achilles. Lower body strength matters for throw velocity, but by all accounts, Cousins is fully recovered. It’s not as if he needs that elite burst on the ground.
Prior to going down, Cousins was at 19.3 fantasy points per game. Sure, he’s on a new team, but he has what we believe to be competent head coaches and comparable, if not better offensive weapons.
Outside of 2016, we’ve never seen Cousins be bad in fantasy. Excluding that season, he’s averaged between 17.9 and 20.0 ppg every year he’s been a starter.
We know Cousins isn’t giving us a league-winning season. His lack of mobility prohibits him from having that sort of upside. But if you completely punt the quarterback position, you can get a guy who consistently finishes as a back-end QB1 at a price below guys who don’t have that sort of pedigree yet also lack that high-end upside.