I'm very much on team late-round quarterback for Fantasy, which means I'm not likely to draft the position in the early part of drafts. But this year is a slight exception, in that I think the second tier is potentially very strong, at least in part because of rushing potential on top of strong passing upside, and I don't mind considering them as early as Round 7.
In a lot of leagues, each of Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, and Deshaun Watson will be gone by Round 7. But there are always later-round options at quarterback, and this year I'm perfectly fine with a few different players in the very last round of a typical draft. I think Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson will be incredible again in 2020, but it's hard to justify an early quarterback when the type of elite talent that is on the board is available through Round 3 or arguably even Round 4.
Except in the right types of alternate formats — I took Jackson in the second round of one league this year where rushing attempts carry 0.25 bonus points, and anything rushing-related, including rushing first down bonus points, should boost Jackson. For Mahomes, anything that increases the gap between elite passing stats and mediocre ones, like increased negative points for interceptions or incompletions, or bonuses for 300-yard games, would increase his value a bit.
Otherwise, I'm likely to look at the quarterback position in the second tier, or, falling short of getting any of the top-six passers, I'm not likely to draft a quarterback until after Round 10. Specifically, I want plenty of exposure to Cam Newton and Jared Goff as later-round passers, but players like Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz, Josh Allen, and Matthew Stafford are all targets for me as well, if the price is right.
Each of the five times Newton has played 16 games in his career, he's finished as a top-five quarterback in 4-point per passing touchdown leagues and at least QB6 in 6-point per touchdown leagues. Before 2019, he'd rushed for at least 350 yards and four touchdowns in every season of his career, and his eight-year season average has been over 600 rushing yards and seven scores on the ground. Whatever injury-proneness you attribute to him, he was still putting up a very solid rushing floor despite it, with 2019 being the only exception.
Now in New England, Newton's an easy buy for me at his QB19 ADP. Goff is likewise an easy buy, after his 3.5% touchdown rate was more than two percentage points lower in 2019 than the 5.9% and 5.7% he posted in his first two years under Sean McVay. And in the later rounds, I'm happy to leave a deeper draft with Gardner Minshew or even Tyrod Taylor lined up as Week 1 starters. Both start the season with manageable matchups and some rushing upside.
Here are my current quarterback rankings for 2020 leagues, and I've always been one to use tiers so they are separated into that format. You can consider these a hybrid of 4-point and 6-point passing touchdown formats — my other rankings are all in PPR, but I've never differentiated at quarterback in part because I play in leagues with the best and most obvious scoring system, 5 points per passing touchdown.
These rankings won't be updated between now and the beginning of the season, but you can always find Jamey Eisenberg's, Dave Richard's, and Heath Cummings' rankings for both PPR and non-PPR formats on the Draft Prep landing page, along with mock drafts, team outlooks, sleepers, breakouts, busts, and so much more.
Tier 1
Patrick Mahomes
Lamar Jackson
Tier 2
Kyler Murray
Dak Prescott
Russell Wilson
Deshaun Watson
Tier 3
Matt Ryan
Carson Wentz
Josh Allen
Tom Brady
Matthew Stafford
Drew Brees
Cam Newton
Jared Goff
Tier 4
Aaron Rodgers
Ben Roethlisberger
Daniel Jones
Tier 5
Baker Mayfield
Gardner Minshew
Joe Burrow
Ryan Tannehill
Jimmy Garoppolo
Teddy Bridgewater
Philip Rivers
Kirk Cousins
Dwayne Haskins
Sam Darnold
Tyrod Taylor
Drew Lock
Ryan Fitzpatrick
Derek Carr
Nick Foles
Which players are poised for breakouts, which sleepers do you need to jump on, and which busts should you avoid at all costs in your Fantasy football league? Visit SportsLine now to get early rankings, plus see which WR is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that out-performed experts big time last season.
