Lineup Fantasy Football Show - Updated Top 24 QB Rankings & Tiers | 2026 Fantasy Football

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

2026 Fantasy Football Rankings for the Top-24 QB picks are here for your fantasy draft. Mitch and Mello break down every running back into definitive tiers including true QB1s, high upside picks in your fantasy draft, screaming value in the middle rounds, and even household names you might want to fade this season. 0:00 - Fantasy Football Top 24 QB Rankings & Tiers 0:43 - Josh Allen 2:13 - Lamar Jackson 4:08 - Drake Maye 6:10 - Joe Burrow 8:16 - Jayden Daniels 10:21 - Jalen Hurts 12:48 - Justin Herbert 14:48 - Caleb Williams 17:35 - Trevor Lawrence 19:43 - Brock Purdy 22:13 - Jaxson Dart 24:43 - Dak Prescott 26:45 - Patrick Mahomes 28:54 - Bo Nix 31:37 - Kyler Murray 33:15 - Matthew Stafford 35:04- Jared Goff 36:59 - Malik Willis 38:58 - Baker Mayfield 41:40 - Tyler Shough 43:42 - Jordan Love 45:33 - Cam Ward 47:18 - CJ Stroud 48:31 - Sam Darnold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are ranking and tiering the top 24 quarterbacks for fantasy football here in 2026. We're breaking down the biggest names plus some quarterback league winners that you can grab later in your drafts. Let's go. Welcome into the live fantasy football show. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello.

And Mello, it is time to break down some quarterbacks here for fantasy football in 2026. Last year we had Drake May, we had Matthew Stafford, some of these great values. We're going to be talking about the big names. Then we're also going to be talking about some of the later guys that you can get that I genuinely think we both agree could be league winners this season. But let's start out with a guy that you're going to have to pay a premium price tag for. Yeah, number one on the list, no surprise is it's Josh Allen. We keep saying it on this show, but you kind of have to

anytime you talk about Josh Allen and fantasy that he was, he's been a top two quarterback each of the last six years. The quarterback won overall in four of those six years. He has not missed a game due to injury since his rookie year. Insane. He has the safe his floor and highest ceiling of all quarterbacks probably is drafted too late every year honestly when you look at just how safe of a pick he is and how much of a difference maker he is at quarterback. I think the only argument for not grabbing him at cost or maybe even above it in like the early third round, the only real argument to me is that quarterback feels deeper than maybe ever this year and there's so many great values late. That's the only reason I sometimes am talking

myself out of paying up to just get that Josh Allen advantage. But otherwise, it's hard to argue against just like knowing you're going to win the quarterback battle pretty much every week in grabbing Josh Allen. I think you put everything as well as it could. So I don't have a ton to add there. I just think I want to emphasize your point. I remember texting you like a week or two ago when we were kind of getting our like mid-July rankings done. And I was like, maybe we do this every summer, but this really does feel like the deepest quarterback year in recent memory. Oh yeah, there are so many guys going undrafted in a lot of one quarterback leagues that I think could have a top 10 finish. Absolutely.

On to number two, I think this is the guy that we would agree is the one that could dethrone Josh Allen as the quarterback one and none of us would bat and I. That's Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens. I'm so tired of having the is Lamar Jackson good debate. Lamar Jackson is so unbelievably elite and as much as I love Josh Allen, I think there's a very real argument that he's a guy that should have three MVPs. He was the overall quarterback one in 2024. In fact, the overall quarterback one in history back in 2024, which was just two years ago. Now back healthy. You introduced Declan Doyle of the Ben Johnson coaching tree into this offense as the new

offensive coordinator. I think the sky's the limit. And like I said, I think he's really the only guy that none of us would bat an eye if he took that QB1 spot. No. Like you said, he did it just a couple years ago over Josh Allen. If you guaranteed he stayed healthy, I think there's a real argument. meant he should go even above Josh Allen, not saying he should even if he stays healthy,

but there's an argument. The injury concerns are somewhat legitimate, though. He's missed 14 games over the last five years due to injury. Yeah, very different story from Allen. Yeah, who Alan, I mean, you just know he's playing 17 games or at least 16. Um, sometimes he says the last week, but never due to injury. I think there's also some concern around Lamar Jackson, and that as he gets older, he might start rushing less, which obviously is a huge part of his fantasy success. Last year was, the first season since 2018 that he averaged under 50 rushing yards per game. And he didn't even get close to it.

He was at 26.8. So I understand the fears there. But what I don't understand are the people that think he might be just completely washed or that he's just like not good. That's absurd. He is still very good. If he can stay healthy, he's definitely worthy of being the second quarterback off the board. And he gets the unfair knock as an elite Russian quarterback that he doesn't also have

an incredible passing resume. And I think that's ridiculous. No, yeah, he's a guy who's led the league in passing touchdowns before. He's been close to the top of the league in multiple years. He's a very good, complete quarterback. Speaking of which, I mean, all these guys at the top of our rankings are, but Drake May coming in here at number three, our sweet, sweet prince, Drake May.

Early off season, I was pretty worried that he'd be getting drafted too high this year coming off like this quarterback two season where he almost won MVP. But honestly, he's pretty reasonably priced right now. He has an ADP of 57 per Fantasy Pro's ADP data, which for the third quarterback off the board, that's pretty late from 2021 to 2025. The latest ADP of the third quarterback off the board was 37th overall per Fantasy Pro's. Now Drake May is available 20 spots later than that when he was the quarterback two last year. And he only had 450 rushing yards.

I say only as if that's not a lot, it is. But for somebody as mobile as him, I wouldn't be surprised as. see him top that in 2026 or in future years. And he now has AJ Brown, too, who obviously is the best receiver he's ever played with, fits this offense so well. I'm not aggressively targeting trade man drafts just because we've talked about how deep quarterback is and I don't feel like I need to draft one all that high. But I actually think he is a value and I don't really mind taking him at ADP because

I think it's totally fair at cost. I had been so torn on him earlier this spring because I just felt like, Like, I say this as a Patriots fan, like I felt like there has to be some regression, right? But you make such a good point. It's like the rushing numbers weren't insane. Like, you're not expecting him to fall off of that. I think 450 is like probably pretty close to the floor you're going to get from rushing for Drake May. And then the truth of it is, he was the quarterback two last season.

You tack on an elite wide receiver one in AJ Brown. So it's honestly very tough to poke holes in Drake May as at least a top five quarterback in fantasy this season, which when you look at the ADP, like you said, I think that pretty. price is completely fair for him. And a guy that I thought was maybe going to get overpriced, like you said, is actually in a pretty good spot this season. Yeah, I don't have a problem with the cost at all. On to number four, let's talk about Joe Burrow.

I think, though, when you're looking at quarterbacks who could pass for 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns, he's kind of like at the top of that list for me, the premier pocket passing quarterback for fantasy football paired with, in my opinion, the best wide receiver duo in the NFL, Jamar Chase, and T. Higgins. We get him back healthy, still a horrific defense. Now they're up against the third most difficult rushing schedule in the NFL. I expect to burrow to drop back a lot this season and hopefully put together a huge fantasy year, kind of mirroring, if not better than that quarterback three overall finish in 2024.

Yeah, it's totally in his range of outcomes. And I'm generally very much of the mind that you should never draft a pocket passer high in fantasy because mobility is so key in fantasy. And if you're not getting the rushing yards and the rushing touchdowns, you need probably 40 plus touchdowns through the air to make up for it. But that's something Joe Burrow can do. He's the exception to the rule where you can take a pocket passer high because he is such an elite passer. And he's in the situation that you couldn't script any better between the great weapons that he has and the Petra defense where the game scripts force them to throw the ball. I will say it feels like an unofficial rule in fantasy, though, that if you draft Joe Burrow, you need Jamar, Chaser T. Higgins. One because it's just so fun to have the stack.

Yes, one because it's so fun, but two, because I think if you're drafting Joe Burrow here versus a couple of the guys that we're going to talk about later that we kind of view as value versions of Joe Burrow, you're basically banking on this being like a historically great passing offense. That's the bet you're taking on Joe Burrow, taking him in these top four quarterbacks. So if that's the case, like you do kind of have to do whatever you can to make sure that you end up with, I mean, you would have already had to have drafted Jamar Chay. or T. Higgins. So I think that's

probably my best advice, and that's a great point. Like, if you're going to get Joe Burrow, make sure you got one of those guys. Yeah. And then you just become so lethal. Like any given Sunday, those two players, you could just drop a 70 piece. Easy. Easy. And you're doing the gritty in your living room.

Next thing you know. Back to the mobile quarterbacks, though. We have Jaden Daniels here at five. Let's go. Mitch, people are such suckers for recency bias. I can be too. I'm totally guilty of it. But because Jaden Daniels got hurt last year, his ADP is a full 38 spots lower right now

than it was during draft season last year. And that gap is just far too big. We probably were drafting him too high last year. Obviously hindsight 2020, he got hurt. But even hindsight aside, that probably was too high even if he had stayed healthy last year. But now I think we might be a little bit too late last year because he is so mobile and he runs the ball so much.

And I keep coming back to it because this, I mean, it's, I think it's the theme of this year with quarterback, how deep it is, it makes it difficult to navigate when you should take a quarterback. But with that said, Jaden Daniels, I think in the sixth round is a discount. I actually think that's phenomenal value. I don't falchie with you wait, but for someone who is so good as a rookie, I mean, as a rookie, he was a quarterback five overall. Yeah. You saw what he did on the ground. He led the NFL and scramble rate among quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks. He was second and rushing attempts among all quarterbacks.

That's exactly what you want in your fantasy quarterback. The lion does not concern himself with the injury riddled 2025 Jaden Daniels season. I'm fully burning the tape. Like you say, he was a quarterback five as a rookie, led the NFL and rushing EPA among quarterbacks, which led him to finishing second in rushing yards behind Lamar Jackson with 891, does it in the air to 3,500 passing yards, 25 touchdowns. He's in that upper echelon of true dual threat quarterbacks. that to me, I think this is like kind of where the tier breaks a little bit. And we start getting

into guys that I'm not as confident about. But the Jaden Daniels disrespect needs to stop. Yeah, it's recency bias is what it is. And if he bounces back like we think he will, he'll be probably drafted too high next year because that's just how the market responds. Absolutely. Let's jump to number six, a guy that we're not drafting as high as we used to Mello. And that's because of the horrific year we saw in 2025 for the Philadelphia East. Eagles. Let's talk about Jalen Hertz. And the unofficial Eagles podcast is back. I don't know why it is our cross to bear to defend the Eagles bounce back offense in like every episode. But no more Kevin Petula. We expect huge things this year closer to what we saw in 2024 than 2025. And even in

that disastrous offense, Hertz still finishes as the quarterback eight. And I know AJ Brown's gone now, which feels like an even bigger knock, but you add Mackay Lemon. And now something I don't think is being addressed enough is the offensive line too. I think that was such a big issue last year. And I think people are going to talk so much about the offense was terrible. And now you remove AJ Brown. So now he's going to be even worse. I think this is going to be a much better year for Jalen Hertz.

And I think he's like shaping up to be one of those guys that everyone in your home league is going to be grossed out by picking and you can get at a really, really good cost. Yeah. Your home league buddies who listen to the lame stream media that are just. Disgusted. Fake news media. No, I think Jalen Hertz still will be just fine. Like you said, the offensive line I think isn't getting talked about enough how injured they were last year. I think one of the funniest things with Jailen Hertz is after they won the Super Bowl a couple years ago,

people were crowning him like he's a fringe top five quarterback in the real life NFL. And then last year happened and people are acting like he doesn't even deserve to be a starter. Yet from a fantasy perspective, he was the quarterback eight in both of those seasons. Like he had the same exact finish in fantasy in both. of those years. So I think that's the sign that we're overreacting. His ceiling probably is lower than it was, you know, a few years ago when he was having quarterback two, quarterback three finishes. But he still, I think, can get close to it if he has especially enough work on the ground. Tush push still legal. That is actually a big deal for him because that means, you know, he's...

It is. Like, the Tush push makes him lead the league in attempts by quarterbacks, in rushing touchdowns by quarterbacks. That's a difference maker and that's why I still think he should be ranked relatively high. I think it's a bigger deal than people make it out to be when you consider like the four to five touchdowns that it could cause and that difference being like 24 to 30 points. That's a substantial difference when you're looking at quarterback finishes. That's like an extra winner two on your fantasy season. Absolutely. All right. Well, moving on to number seven now, a different quarterback from that same draft class, Justin Herbert. Mitch, call me Madison Beer, because I'm really hot and bothered by Justin Herbert right now.

A little side confession here, I actually have no idea what Madison Beer's famous for. I just know that she dates Justin Herbert and is allegedly very attractive. She makes music, right? I don't know. I'm not cool enough to know. I don't know a song that was released in the last like two years. We just like exposed ourselves as being like washed up right now. Yeah, I'm officially unct status.

unfortunately. I digress though. The line unk. I'm all over, Justin Herbert though, this year. Give me the guy who was once being drafted as a top three quarterback off the board in fantasy who should have a really good, healthy offensive line for the first time, maybe ever.

And now he's got the best play caller he's ever had, without question, one of the best offensive play callers in the league, in my opinion. Everything is coming together. I think he's going to be phenomenal in 2026. I do too. I think Justin Herbert is in, and I don't think that this is like the worst kept secret in fantasy football right now about how much everyone's expecting this LA Chargers offense to take such a big step up.

But you look at what Herbert did last season and I don't expect him to do it this year because of what you mentioned with the improved offensive line and hopefully them figuring things out. But he was second in the NFL and rushing yards among quarterbacks. Like Justin Herbert is one of those quietly dual threat kind of guys that I don't think you're going to be getting those numbers from him again. But he adds a little bit of rushing prowess. He's still got Ladd-McConkey. We're all excited about Ronde Gadsden.

QJ every year just kind of exceeds everyone's expectations. And then, of course, you've got Amarian Hampton that people are more excited than us about his past catching ability. And so if all of these things ring true and you bring in Mike McDaniel, like, what's to stop Justin Herbert from jumping right back into like the top three quarterback conversation in fantasy football for 2026? Exactly, especially because we've seen it before. Like, he's been up there before in his career.

It's definitely in his range of outcomes. 100%. Let's jump to number eight, Caleb Williams. Mello, you have enlightened me on something with Caleb Williams, something that I tweeted the other day and I created what felt like a civil war in my mentions. But I think Caleb Williams really might just be expensive Bo Nix this season. And that is, as I had to say on Twitter, a fantasy football take, not a real life NFL take, because I think Caleb Williams is eons ahead of Bo Nix in terms of talent. But in 2024, Caleb Williams was the quarterback 16. Bo Nix was the quarterback seven. In 2025, Caleb Williams was the quarterback six. Bo Nix was the quarterback seven. And both seasons,

Bo Nix has had more touchdowns. They've had almost the exact same amount of passing yards last year. Bo Nix had way more back in 2024. And then they've got just about the exact same rushing ability, which I don't think a lot of people really consider. And yet we are drafting them at a difference that is absolutely bonkers. I want to say it's like the quarterback six. and the quarterback 14 off the board right now. And so the further along in the summer, the more, I hate to say it, I think I'm taking the stance

that I'm kind of out on Caleb Williams at cost. I agree at cost. And I like Caleb a lot as a player, as you do too. Like, I think we want to make that clear. Like, we both think Caleb's great. It's just, in especially a year, we keep talking about how deep quarterback is. He's not really the guy I want to take a shot

on most of the time. I mean, sometimes he falls below ADP or sometimes I have the Dunez A or Burden or Loveland and I want the stack and like best ball and I have drafted him there.

But I mean, otherwise, it's tough to me to make that argument with where he's going at cost. Quarterback five, last year definitely could do it again. But unless he throws for like 40 plus touchdowns, which is absolutely possible in this offense,

it's just hard for me to imagine that top three finish. There's guys going so much later like a bonex like you mentioned that I would, rather have less but are pretty comparable in what I think their season-long finish will be. So I just prefer waiting

as opposed to taking Caleb with where he's going. The argument I've seen a few times is like, oh, well, he has a much better chance of finishing as the QB1 overall than Bo Nix. And I'm like, yeah, I guess like 0.03% is higher than 0.01%. But I don't, neither of these guys profile as the type of player that is going to finish

as the QB1 overall. But the difference is that there's a huge gap between Bo Nix's price and production, and I don't think that gap exists for Caleb Williams. Exactly, yeah. And I agree. Caleb will not be the quarterback one because the Bears run it too much, and Caleb himself does not run it enough even though he is mobile. So he does not have that kind of upside.

But the next guy we have here at quarterback nine is honestly another example of someone I think is like a cheaper version of Caleb Williams. And that's Trevor Lawrence. Like, just to compare him with someone like, Caleb, not that I want to stay on Caleb for too long, but they're both dual threat quarterbacks on ascending offenses with great offensive play callers, an embarrassment of riches for past catchers. Yeah, Lawrence is going as the quarterback 11, Williams, the quarterback 7, so four spots later, even though we only have them one spot here.

And Lawrence actually finishes the quarterback four last year, higher than Caleb Williams did. I'm not, again, trying to be anti-Kaleb here, but that's to me an example of why Trevor Lawrence is a guy you can wait on. We saw the breakout last year. he was very, very good. Down the stretch last year, he was honestly a league winner. Oh, absolutely.

He's definitely bound for touchdown regression. That is the one knock I will give. Like, there's no way, but he had like 11 rushing touchdowns or something last year. Nine, but yeah. Nine, yeah. That will, in all likelihood, come down,

but they still like to run him on design runs in the red zone. He'll still have some touchdowns. And also, just a little side note, his pass catchers are relative affordable. They're not going super late. But if you wanted like a BTJ or a Parker Washington or Jacobi Myers stack, it's pretty easy to pull off. I want to apologize to our audience because I did lie about something earlier when I said that the Bengals had the best wide receiver duo in the NFL.

It is Parker Washington and Jacoby Myers. And Trevor Lawrence last year, 23.3 points for game and the QB won in fantasy after his by week in terms of weapons, like you said, we've gotten to the point where Brenton Strange, who we'll talk about next episode, is like barely even an afterthought. And then you've got Parker Washington, BTJ, Jacoby Myers, and even Travis Hunter, like, who we don't think he's going to be playing at times. But like, he's not going to not get offensive snaps. Like, it is, like you said, I think that's a perfect word for it, an abundance of riches, an embarrassment of riches.

And so I think Trevor Lawrence, if you end up with him as a QB1, like, I wouldn't feel too bad about it this season. No, he's someone I'm drafting a lot of. But Mello, sound the alarms. want to talk about my favorite value, the guy I have heated up on so much this offseason. Let's talk about Brock Purdy. I'm actually leaning towards making him one of my my guys when we talk about that later on this August. He is tied for second in points per game last season among quarterbacks with 21.1. He averaged 32 points per game in the fantasy playoffs if you want to talk about an actual league winner. And now you can get him for the low, low price of the

quarterback 12 in fantasy football. What are we doing? In just four seasons in the NFL, he's finished first in touchdown rate, as well as fourth overall. And now you add Mike Evans to the equation. The tradeoff of Joanne Jennings for Mike Evans is like nuclear bomb versus coughing baby. Like this is such an upgrade for this 49ers offense. I just like truly am like, and then we've talked about this, Christian McCaffrey, like, he's incredible, but the rushing efficiency took a nosedive last year. And then Christian McCaffrey would have been like the wide receiver 15.

if you just looked at what he did in the air, it's like weapons, weapons everywhere for Brock Party. He's also got the sneaky rushing ability. Like, this one is such a slam dunk to me. And if healthy, I don't think there's a shot in the world he finishes lower than the quarterback 12. Literally not a shot in the world. Yeah, he's just got to stay healthy.

Also, I thought you were a Joanne Jennings, Stan, calling him coughing baby. I am. But you compare him to my guy, Mike Evans. He is coughing baby, even though he was Kevin Durant going to the Minnesota Vikings, as we all know. I concur with everything you said, though.

I think Mike Evans for this offense is a really big deal. Kittle coming along really well with the rehab. All the reports are positive. Of course, ahead of schedule as every player ever always is, except for Malik Neighbors, I guess. I was shocked. Yeah, Malik Neighbors is the first player in NFL history

to be behind schedule. Which is really bad news. But, I mean, the vibes are pretty positive right now in San Francisco. Weird comparison that you're probably not going to like. but to me, Purdy almost kind of reminds me of Rishi Rice. He's like the Rishy Rice of quarterbacks. And obviously not in personality or conduct because in that regard, they could not be more opposite.

But the way they're similar to me is they both been sneaky elite and fantasy on a per game basis, but people don't really realize it because we haven't seen the season long finish yet due to injuries or Rice's case suspension. But like on a per game basis, they have been phenomenal. And I don't disagree with you at all that. Rock Pretty stays healthy. I think he'll definitely finish better than the quarterback 12. All right. Well, moving on to someone else I know you've liked Mitch. And that is Jackson Dart here at the quarterback 11. He's plummeting right now. Plumming. He is plummeting. And all of a sudden, I'm interested again. I'm all the way

back in again. Back in March, he was getting ranked as like the quarterback 7, I think, which was definitely too rich for my blood. But now he's going like quarterback 10 or 11. That feels good to me. That feels right to me. No Malik neighbors is scary. So obviously that's, I think, why he's falling. And I think if I am taking him, I like to pair him with somebody a little bit more safe, like a pocket passer with some stability that I can take with like my last pick if I am taking the shot on dark. Right.

But there's so much upside still. Second year quarterbacks who rush for over 400 yards as rookies almost always hit on their ADP. In fact, Jaden Daniels is the only one who has not done it in the last 11 years. he finally broke the trend of those quarterbacks hitting on their ADP. Dart could be the latest guy on that list to hit on his ADP though. Yeah, he's just become increasingly harder to price with the Malik Neighbors injury, but that's like not what you're excited about with Dart. I mean, obviously you are.

You're excited for him to have a guy like Malik Neighbors, but we're so excited about the rushing ability. John Harbaugh just came out and said, like, there's no reason to hold back and not give it your all with Jackson Dart, at like throwing his body into every car crash possible on the field, which to me, that just says John Harbaugh is like, yeah, I could probably win with James too. So get after it, buddy.

But yeah, I think a quarterback 11 price tag and the upside you're getting out of him, it honestly reminds me a ton of Lamar Jackson back in 2019 when we were drafting him in like the ninth, 10th round in his year two season that, you know, he broke out and won an MVP. And I'm not saying Dart's going to do that. It just feels similar to me of like a guy that showed a lot in his rookie year and he's got the rushing upside and we're just burying him a little bit where I think he's got a much higher ceiling than a few of the guys we've even talked about. It's just that the floor is so low. Right, which is why I didn't like him when he was going like as the quarterback six or seven off the board. But where he's going now, it's worth the moonshot, I think, to take that shot on upside.

100%. Let's get into our final quarterback of the QB1 range. but before we do, if you haven't, we would appreciate it so much if you hit that subscribe button. We've got a ton of awesome fantasy episodes coming up, plus some free fantasy tools we're going to be dropping as we get into August. But Mello, let's talk about Dak Prescott, aka Joe Burrow Light, whatever you want to call him in that regard. He was last year's quarterback five. He's still got C.D. Lamb.

He's still got George Pickens. He's still got Jake Ferguson. And when we look at these situations of, like, how different is he really from Joe Burrow? in terms of the fact that he's got a wide receiver 1A and wire receiver 1B combo. They've got the really bad defense. And yet we're drafting him so much lower. The only issue is, and the reason why I'm starting to move down on him slightly, is that when we started the summer, I was seeing him getting priced closer like the

quarterback 13, quarterback 14, and he's now officially moved up to the quarterback 9. So it does pain me to say we're actually now below consensus on Dak Prescott. But I also don't knock anybody if you have the conviction in this Cowboys offense, take him as that quarterback nine. Because again, when healthy, like, this is about as safe of a floor as you're going to get out of a guy. Actually, Mitch, it's an even-numbered year, so he's going to suck. Sorry. That's true. Nothing you said.

That's where the, if Healthy really was holding a lot of weight there. No, I'm pretty much on the exact same pages you with Dak. Like, even earlier when you said, you think Joe Burrow is the best one thing. two receiver in my head. I'm like, ah, Cowboys have a pretty good case for it too. And Dak, of course, also a good pocket passer. So I think he's going to be very good. I think the other thing that goes through my head, though, that makes me just a little bit worried is Dak through the ball 600 times last year. You look at the moves. The Cowboys made at the deadline last year and they already got better down the stretch at the end of last season and now they made

other moves this off season, both in free agency and the draft. Could the defense be good enough where they're not throwing the ball a ton? And that will bring Dak back to as a quarterback who doesn't run a ton, maybe. But with that said, I am very much in agreement with you that outside of Joe Burrow, DAC is easily the top pocket passer I want in fantasy. 100%. And that brings us to what I, the nervous that makes me, or the ranking that means me the most nervous on this list.

And that's Patrick Mahomes at 13, Mitch. Is this super disrespectful? Like the greatest quarterback of the last seven of eight years? If he was coming back like fully healthy and there was no injury last year, and maybe be disrespectful, but I think there's a lot of question marks here. There are 100%. It's just, it's like thinking the serial killer is dead and then he slit your throat. That's how I feel about ranking Mahomes here.

And he was sneaky really good in fantasy last year. Like the Chiefs were kind of a disaster, but we talked about it, like the quarterback two before he tore his ACL. And despite missing three games, he rushed for the most rushing yards of his career last year, which kind of caught me by surprise to see. Obviously coming off the ACL, I don't think he'll do that again. Yeah. But the good news is all indications are he's progressing well.

The rehab's gone great. He'll be 100% for week one, allegedly. So things are trending in the right direction. I'm not super excited about some of the question marks that you alluded to, but he is a guy we've seen do it so consistently, both in real life and in fantasy. And he's going late enough that it's like, you might just be getting a steal.

Yeah, I started the summer. Like my concerns around the homes were really like, will he be back for week one? Once he is, we've seen mobility be such an important part of this fantasy production, whether it be rushing or honestly just his mobility in the pocket is kind of what gives him such a Superman type of ability. And now all of a sudden,

it's like we injected him with the super soldier serum and he's just going to be back for week one. And I don't understand the science behind it. But if he's back for week one, like it's Patrick Mahomes, man. Maybe 13's too low for him. But to me, like the thing I actually really want to do is probably not draft him, but when he's a little slow out the gates to start the season,

go and try to trade for him in like week three. Yeah, once he gets fully back up to speed, he could be a, I mean, he's a guy who's had quarterback one finishes, like quarterback two, three finishes. The last couple years haven't been great, but I think there's a good chance he's in full form by October and then could be a league more. Yeah, that's, I couldn't agree more. Let's jump to number 14. Let's talk about value menu, Caleb Williams.

Our man, Bo Nicks. We already honestly just talked about him so much. So if you skipped over the Caleb Williams timestamp, I'd just go back and listen a little bit about Bo Nix. But this is the year three quarterback I'm targeting at cost. And I know I said, like, I have no issue with Drake May. If you want to take Drake May really early, I just for myself, I'm probably going Josh Allen,

maybe Lamar if he drops a little bit past ADP. And then if I miss those two guys, for the most part, I'm like waiting until we get to this range. I think you can tell I perked up once we got into like the quarterback 10, 1112. like I love these guys. And so this is the guy that I'm really probably the most excited to target at cost. And I think there's something inherently unsexy about picking Bo Nix and fantasy,

probably because we watched him play for what felt like a decade of college football. But I do think there's a level of disrespect and like hand up. We were part of it. And I want to get on the right side of history here with Bo Nix and say I am a recovering bolliver. Yeah, same. I'm a bo lever now. I've seen the light. I haven't always been a bolliver.

He's a guy, though, like we talk about waiting on these quarterbacks, and some of these one quarterback redraft drafts I'm doing and mock drafts. Like, he's there literally with my last pick sometimes. Absolutely. How can I not take him? He's been the quarterback seven the last couple of years. Your last pick and you get the quarterback seven two years in a row. It's like Amund Rae, getting the Y Receiver 3.

He's target brand Amin Ra. Like, the one knock and the reason even we have them lower than the quarterback seven is the ceiling is cap. Like, he doesn't have the potential, I think, to have, like, a top three or four finish because of his own physical limitations. But he could be the quarterback seven again. And even if the Broncos pass rate falls from fourth last year, at least neutral pass rate was fourth in the NFL last year, even if that falls because they have a new offensive play caller, which I don't know why Sean Peyton is giving up play calling duties. I can't make sense of that. But no, let's say that neutral pass rate falls.

They're running the ball more. you'd hope that at least Jalen Waddle helped counteracts that having another great receiver on this offense to help Alex out. So with all that said, like, we haven't met 14 and pardon me feels guilty, that might be too low. It's just a ceiling limitation, but still, I'm loving taking him

with where he's going in drafts. Thank you for adding in the addition of Jalen Waddle. I can't believe we haven't even mentioned that yet talking about him between now and the Caleb Williams conversation, but I also by the way, just feel like Sean Payton's going to take back play calling duties by like week three, because is going to piss him off on like one drive

when he would have done something differently and they stall out. It's like performative. He's got... Yeah. They're gonna only score like 13 points in like week two and Sean Payne's going to be like, nope, my job again.

Yeah, we're not doing that anymore. All right, well, one of our other favorite late quarterbacks here, Mitch, Kyler Murray at 14, or at 15 rather. If Black Ops hadn't just been re-released, I'd probably have him at 9, Mitch. I'd probably... I'm a bad much higher. Feels like he has a certain cap he's allotted every year between passing yards and called duty XP.

And any time he earns XP, it lowers his passing yard total on the season. I kid, of course, though, because if you've listened to this show, you know I'm such a strong believer in Kyler Murray. He doesn't even need to win the job in Minnesota because J.J. McCarthy already lost it a long time ago. Kyler's career low in rushing yards per game is 30, and he's had as many as 51 per game in a season. he is healthy, he has the best weapons he's ever had in his career, he has the best offensive play caller he's ever had in his career, he's sort of playing for his career, at least his career as a starter, you know, he's motivated. I think he's my single favorite late round quarterback to draft. The only person washed here is me when I try to play called these days. It's like the

most demoralizing experience of my life. I think Kyler Murray still got it. And I think that's like for some reason a hot take. But I'm not going to belabor the point. You put him in best situation in his career with KOC, the Reclamation Project King with quarterbacks, give him Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hawkinson. Kevin Durant, aka Jawan Jennings. Like, this is a star-studded roster that this is a guy who's never not been a quarterback one in points per game except for last season. I'm high on Kyler Murray too. But let's jump into number 16 last year's quarterback three. And pretty much nothing has changed situationally. And yet we still have him here at the quarterback 16. That is Matthew.

Stafford. I think we're both in agreement that what he did last year is just not repeatable and that him and Adams are probably like one A and one B for the biggest candidates for regression in fantasy football. But that being said, I think Matthew Stafford, if healthy, is a lock to finish higher than this. I just think he doesn't have anywhere near a quarterback three ceiling again. And I know that sounds silly, but I just think that the situation last year was magical and perfect and everything went exactly how it needed to. Plus the fact you had guys like Jaden get hurt and Lamar get hurt. And I just foresee those two guys ending up in the top five. And so it's just a hard sell for me to imagine Saford having like league winning upside.

I envision it closer to like a 20, 24 type of year where he finished as the quarterback 15. Agreed. There's no scenario he finishes the quarterback three again unless he somehow throws for close to 50 touchdowns again. But this is what I mean when I say that quarterback's so deep this year. You can get last year's quarterback three, the defending MVP. Yes. super late in drafts and like he's a guy even though I know he will regress undoubtedly if i'm taking a kiler murray or if i'm taking a jackson dart i'm pairing it with him with matt stafford

a lot of the time so i have like my safe pocket passer yeah and stafford transcends pocket passer which is why he can't finish all that high again unless he throws for a ton of touchdowns he is a statue he had as many rushing yards last year as he has Lombardies on his career and i know that sounds like a joke but he literally had one rushing yard last year one single washing hard yard. That's ridiculous. Yeah, so he's not going to do what he did last year again through the air either, but do I think he'll be a low-end quarterback one, high-end quarterback two? Sure, and I'm fine taking that late in drafts. Yeah, me too. And similarly, another pocket passer we have here, Jared Goff at 17. Let's go. Not far behind Stafford in the mobility race,

or I guess he's ahead of him if we're making it a race. I don't think Stafford's winning a race against too many people, but I don't know. I'm going off the rails here. What I do know, is that Goff was second in both passing yards and touchdowns last year. So I feel like kind of a jerk for ranking him this low, especially because he still has the same weapons and the situation hasn't really changed all that much. So to me, he's like Stafford Light. We have them back to back.

And they're just good pocket passing quarterbacks. You can take late in your draft and pair him with a mobile guy. If I had any balls, I would put him above Dak Prescott. He's this high on our list. because of me. I actually do have him ahead of Kyler and Stafford. Did you know Vegas has Jared Gough with the highest passing yards line this season and the third highest passing touchdown line? I'm not even that surprised by it. This is why I feel like a jerk. I feel like a dummy for having him this low, but I just can't put him above some of those other names. I feel like I need

to do a bet alert right here, but like I'm like kind of considering putting a really long shot bet on Jared Gough to win MVP. I think his biggest issue would be the narrative around it. I think it's hard for them to sell Jared Gough as an MVP, but I just think he could have such a sensational season. Last four years, he was the quarterback 9, 6, 7, and 10. He's just Mr. underrated to me here. And like, we have him at 17. Right now in ADP, Jared Gough is going as the quarterback 16. Like, this, when I'm thinking about a guy I would pick up as like a safety blanket when you're targeting some of these like higher end, high ceiling, low floor guys, like this is the one I'm going after. Yeah, I don't blend you at all for that. I think that's a totally good shot to take.

On to number 18, speaking of lottery ticket, high ceiling, low floor, let's talk to Malik Willis. True lottery ticket. In a small sample size, he did have last year the highest EPA per play of any quarterback in the NFL, the highest scramble rate, and completed 85.7% of his passes. You are taking a shot here, like basically saying, I think that the rushing floor will be, good enough to make him a quarterback one, kind of a Justin Fields, what was a 2022 season with the Bears where he finished as a top five quarterback without really doing much through the air. And I think you're just kind of hoping for that same thing with Malik Willis. That's totally what it is. But at cost, that is a shot I want to take. In addition to Calais. Absolutely. Like I think Malik Willis and Caller are my two favorite late round quarterbacks

for upside for what they could do. As long as Malik Willis gets bench, it's like you said, he could have a Justin Fields year where he's not even good in real life, but he's a top 10 fantasy quarterback all of a sudden. Given his skill set and the situation that he's in where he's going to be running for his life, I would not be surprised in the slightest if he leads the league and scramble rate. Like I really think he is going to scramble so much, one of the best athletes in the league, especially at the quarterback position, you're going to have game scripts that work in his favor. They're going to be playing from behind. The dolphins are going to have to call pass plays. Whether he actually throws the ball or takes off running, whatever, he's

He's getting fantasy points either way. And my favorite thing is, I'm man enough to admit it could be a complete disaster because it is the Miami Dolphins and it is Malik Willis, who we've never really seen be a true starter before. But even if it is an unmitigated disaster, with where he's going in drafts, you can just come after week three and not think twice about it. Yeah, right. But the upside is you have a season long starter who finishes as like the quarterback eight.

Yeah, this is actually probably closer to the Lamar Jackson comparison I did for Jackson Dart, not in the MVP sense, but in the sense of like the. value you could be getting for a guy getting drafted that late. Yeah, he is a guy. I mean, he's going undrafted in leagues and I'm snatching him up anywhere I can. Next year, though, we have Baker Mayfield at 19. Remember last year he was going as the quarterback seven? Good times. It doesn't feel real. It felt like a good pick at the start of the year, too. Yeah, yeah. He was like the favorite for MVP and all these things, and then obviously it didn't work out. And I mean, that price was ridiculous last year going for the quarterback seven. It's because he threw 40 touchdowns in 2024 and where suckers for

recency bias and we thought it could happen again. But now all of a sudden, he's cheat and he's healthy, healthier than he was for the majority of last season. So he's not someone I'm really drafting a ton of just because I have them late enough where there's other quarterbacks I prefer in one quarterback leagues. But he's a great bounceback candidate. And if you're in two quarterback or super flex leagues or best ball, he's a perfectly fine guy to take a shot on. I think he's actually kind of a value. He was dealing with a sprained MCL and PCL from week two on last season. Mello, do you know where he finished?

I'm not as high as he was the first month of this season. Quarterback 12. Wow. I would have guessed like 18. And we have dropped him now all the way down to an ADP. Let me double check this before I say it. He was the quarterback or he is the quarterback 19 off the board. He was the quarterback three in 2024.

even with all the injuries used the quarterback 12 and we're I mean you lose Mike Evans I'll admit that and I'll cede you that point we're all talking about the Emeka-Buka breakout there's so many people who are so excited about Jalen McMillan we're on the bandwagon

of Chris Godwin is one of the best values and sleepers and fantasy football this year why are we all disrespecting Baker Mayfield not to mention Baker Mayfield another guy that also has some rushing ability absolute junkyard dog like when I'm watching a fourth quarter game like guys I want to see with the ball in their hands,

like Baker Mayfield's up there. Honestly, you're making a very compelling case. I might have to bump him up. I don't know over who because quarterback's so deep and I love so many of these guys. That's been this whole exercise. I'm just like, I think we're too low on this guy. I think we're too low on this guy. I think we're too low on this guy.

It's like, I think the real takeaway here is, I think that you've got to have conviction on certain guys to break away from the pack because I don't think there's ever been a year where there's so many guys that are going to just be so close. It almost feels like a tight end landscape to me. I think we've just gone full circle and all of a sudden, I am drafting Josh Allen on my drafts.

So I get that bumped over everyone being the same. Let's move on though to number 20. To me, this is a guy who absolutely just like breaks into an LR tier after Baker because now we're getting into the more of like, we haven't fully seen it and what are we expecting. Tyler Shuck from the New Orleans Saints, I consider myself a Shuckhead. I like a good Shuck as much as the next guy.

but I do think the hype has gotten a little out of control this off season. We're still above consensus with this pick, but the gap is closing very quickly. And that being said, I do think there's a ton to get excited about. You have Callan Moore as the head coach. You pair him with this kid who has sneaky, a phenomenal stretch at the end of the year, where he was the quarterback 8 from weeks 13 through 17. He had Chris Olive.

Now you give him Jordan Tyson. You give him Travis A. Chan, who we don't love as a fantasy asset, But obviously, from a real NFL perspective, having an extra weapon, like, that's a great bump. And so the upside's certainly there. This is just truly going to be a like, is he really the plan for the Saints? And I think we're going to find that out. I think that might be the one thing people aren't factoring in is I think people are just expecting that the Saints are more committed to this guy than we're thinking as a fantasy community. Yeah, that's the risk.

Like, he doesn't have the draft capital. They could bench him. But the good news is it's not like they brought in a veteran, or a notable. veteran that could take the reins over. It seems like he has some sort of stability, which is good. I'm not as big of a shuckhead as you, but there's absolutely a lot of promise there. And I think people don't acknowledge his rushing upside enough.

No, absolutely. It wasn't something we expected him to have in his toolkit coming out of Louisville at like 85 years older, however old he was. He was old enough to rent a car before he completed an NFL pass. Yeah. He was a backup to Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert's like second to last year in college, which is just absurd.

But we saw the sneaky wheels last year. He averaged 25 rushing yards per game after the week 11 by, which isn't a ton by any means, but it's a notable nice little floor razor. He also had three rushing touchdowns over that stretch. So you're not solely relying on the passing with Tyler. Yeah, that's a great point. Somebody you are relying on the passing a little bit more heavily, though, is Jordan Love here at 21.

Jordan Love is like the prime example to me of a quarterback who is much better in real life than in fantasy. Yeah. And it's not that he's completely immobile. He just doesn't run very much, especially compared to modern quarterbacks where like over half the league starters at this point are dual threats. So if you're not a true dual threat, even if you run a little, you're essentially like a pocket passer in the new sense of the phrase, I guess. But because he doesn't run, you're relying on like 45 plus 100. yards and 35 plus touchdowns through the air for him to get to quarterback one territory, which is already a tough bet even if the Packers gave him that volume.

The problem is they don't even give him that volume. So it's really hard for him to get those numbers. Green Bay's been a super run heavy team the last couple years, especially since they brought in Josh Jacobs. They've been bottom six and past attempts each of the last two years. If that changes, which who knows, maybe it could. Jordan Love could absolutely be a value in drafts. I'm just not so sure it will change, so I'm not bad interested.

I feel like I'm having a real Marie condo moment with him where this one just doesn't spark joy. I know, so things that people will point to, they'll say he was the quarterback five overall his rookie season. I just, I don't see Matt LaFleur ever having him drop back and attempt 500 plus passes anymore like he did that year. And since then, he's at a quarterback 15-17 finish. So if you're like, yeah, I want to draft a guy that I can feel confident is probably going to outperform my ADP, like, I guess, but he's just, the ceiling's not there for me, and I'm just not interested in Jordan Love this year. Yeah, totally fair. Two quarterback leagues, though, if you want just a stable quarterback to, go for it. Yeah, safe guy, mid-end quarterback too.

Let's talk at number 22, a guy that absolutely does not have a safe floor, and that's Cam Ward. I actually hate that we have him this low, though. I think he is one of the guys that we're furthest apart on. He's sandwiched in our rankings right now between two guys that I don't think. have a ton of upside. Meanwhile, I think Cam Ward's the exact opposite. He's the QB22 on our list. Last season, he finished as the QB 23 as a rookie throwing to Ilocke Aminor, Chimari-Dek, and the corpse of Calvin Ridley. Now he enters year two with Wondale Robinson, 1,000-yard receiver last season, plus the number four overall pick in the NFL draft, Carnell Tate. You bring in Brian Dayball, who I think is a great offensive mind. And so for me, I think this is just too low.

And I think this is a guy worth taking a bet on, especially in Super Flex when you're looking at those second quarterbacks. Yeah, I do like the upside of a year two quarterback who's the first overall pick and just gain those two great receivers you mentioned. I think I just like the upside in real life a little bit more than I do in fantasy. I just don't know that the breakout will translate to fantasy because he only had 159 rushing yards as rookie that ranked 26th among quarterbacks. we talk about continuously how important that is. And also while he was the quarterback 23 overall, he didn't miss a game. And he was actually 41st in points per game among quarterbacks, which means you need a pretty significant ascension for him to flirt with quarterback one territory.

I think we could see the breakout. I'm not saying I think Kim War is a bust in real life. I think it could very well work out. I just don't know that that's worth the shot to me in fantasy. That's completely fair. And it all goes back to, yeah, I think I'm just going to draft Josh Allen. Yeah, the moral of the story is just draft Josh Allen. Wrapping up here, though, 23, another kind of icky pocket passer, C.J. Stroud.

Yeah. The 2023 quarterback class, which had three quarterbacks going to the top four, has a chance to go down as one of the most disappointing of all time. Stroud's the first one we're even talking about here today at 23. With that said, I actually do think he's going to outperform this quarterback 23 ranking because he's done it all three years of his young career. he's been better than the quarterback 23. Problem like we've talked about with some of these other guys like Jordan Love, for example, is just the ceiling.

I just don't see a realistic world where Stroud is a top 12 quarterback when you look at how much the Texans you're going to run the ball and how good their defense is and the offensive line problems. If the offensive line problem is fixed to a certain extent though and they're better and that's a pretty big if, I do think we could see Stroud perform pretty close to what he was his right year. Not maybe quite there, but I think he could get back to close to it. and be a really nice value in like two quarterback leagues. It's just a super limited ceiling. This just feels exactly like Jordan loved to me. I just, I think he's going to beat out his quarterback 22 ADP.

I just don't think you're going to actually be happy with what the result is. I think it's going to be like he's going to be the quarterback 19. It's like nice. You got a little value. Nice. Yeah, I got a little closing line value. Check this out. Let's jump here, though,

and let's wrap this thing up quickly with Sam Darnold at number 24. Sammy Super Bowls. Obviously, this is a fancy football list on a real life list. because I said during the playoffs last year, and this feels blasphemous, but I think Sam Darnold is a top 10 real-life NFL quarterback. But we're probably too low here. I think I just look at the regression and Clint Kubiak leaving town. It's tough to get as excited,

but I think as we move closer to the season, he's got the potential to jump guys like Stroudon Love, who I clearly haven't been all that complimentary of. And maybe even Cam Ward, I just, I'm such a Cam Ward stand, that it's hard for me to get there. but like there's like a boredom and a stink attached to Sam Darnold's name because of earlier in his career when in reality over the past few seasons he's continued to prove to us that he's actually a very good NFL quarterback. Yeah, he is and you just won the Super Bowl, like you said.

This does feel kind of disrespectful. I like kind of was ashamed of myself once I realized we had 24, especially because he's been the quarterback 13 and quarterback 9 over the last two years, significantly better than this. But it's just again, like who do I put him above? I love so many of these guys and he doesn't run the ball, which I sound like a broken record, bringing that up with so many guys, but it does matter so much. It's important.

It's very important. And you mentioned like Clint Kubiak leaving. And I agree that Sam Darnold's a very good quarterback. I'm not questioning that one bit. But I think it's fair to consider the fact that he's probably been pretty significantly elevated the last couple years by Kevin O'Connell and Clint Kubiak. We don't know what this offense is going to look like without Clint. so I don't feel great enough to put Sam Donald much higher than this.

And I think that's entirely fair for our 24th quarterback. Thank you so much for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed our top 24 quarterbacks for the 2026 fantasy football season. If anybody didn't make the list, let us know down below. And if anybody should be higher on this list that we didn't talk enough about, let us know down below and we'll try to break them down further in a future episode. But Mello, before we get out of here, do we miss anything? Nothing for me.

All right. We'll catch you guys next episode.