damien-harris.jpg

Preseason football is here and that means it's crunch time for Fantasy Football draft prep. The quarterback position has undergone a lot of changes, and in 2020 we saw a clear Tier 1 of difference makers for the first time in a while. How will that impact a landscape that had shifted toward waiting to draft the position in one-quarterback leagues? We can't wait to find out, but for now, as always there will be value if you wait for it.

Today, we're tapping the Fantasy Football Today team to gauge their favorite quarterback breakouts for the 2021 season. Without further ado, let's dive into it.

Quarterback breakouts

Jamey Eisenberg's picks

Jalen Hurts, Eagles

Hurts has the chance to be a top-five Fantasy quarterback this season, and he's someone to target in all leagues now that Carson Wentz was traded to the Colts. Hurts looked the part of Fantasy star last year when he scored 20, 43 and 19 Fantasy points in his first three starts against New Orleans, Arizona and Dallas, and he was on pace for  4,517 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, as well as 1,269 rushing yards and five touchdowns over 16 games. That's likely not realistic, but his rushing potential gives him a huge advantage over most quarterbacks. If he improves as a passer -- and the Eagles gave him a nice weapon with DeVonta Smith with the 10th overall pick in the NFL Draft -- Hurts has the chance to be special this year. He's someone you can draft with a mid-round pick in all leagues, but he has top-five upside based on his sample size in 2020.

Joe Burrow, Bengals

Burrow is expected to be fine following last year's torn ACL and MCL, which ended his rookie campaign in Week 11. Prior to going down, he showed you flashes of his upside as a weekly Fantasy starter in all leagues. His 268.8 passing yards per game was No. 7 in the NFL. He had at least 21 Fantasy points in four of nine complete games, and he had two games with at least 300 passing yards where he failed to top 20 Fantasy points, which is some poor touchdown luck. He got an upgrade at receiver with former LSU teammate Ja'Marr Chase with the No. 5 overall pick in the NFL Draft, and Chase joined Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd to give Burrow elite weapons. You should be able to draft Burrow as a bargain on Draft Day, but he has the potential to be a top-10 Fantasy quarterback this season -- if not higher -- as long as he's healthy.

Dave Richard's picks

Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins

A recap of the Dolphins offseason: They signed Will Fuller, drafted Jaylen Waddle, fortified their offensive line and added only Malcolm Brown to their run game. Sure seems like they're doing what they can to put Tagovailoa in a position to play well. Perhaps that means a bump in pass attempts after attempting 32.0 throws per game in his nine starts, completing 63.9% of them. Tagovailoa came out mostly sharp in his preseason debut save for a boneheaded throw to his tight end when a safety was there to pick off the pass. But he did well without Fuller or DeVante Parker, and he barely relied on Waddle. Count on the playmakers at receiver to help boost Tagovailoa's numbers with after-catch plays, and count on Tagovailoa to add a few rushing touchdowns to his total to raise his Fantasy floor. There's no reason to not take him with a late speculative pick. 

Jalen Hurts, Eagles

After an ugly start to training camp, reports from the field say Hurts has begun to figure things out. In his preseason debut against the Steelers he attempted seven passes and was on the money on four of them, just missed a deep lob on another, had a smart throw-away on another and was a little low on one pass. For Hurts, who completed just 52% of his throws last year, that's a good thing. Everything else around him is perfect: The Eagles O-line is healthy, the tight end group is deep and the wideouts have a chance to be better than expected via the addition of DeVonta Smith and the progression of second-year receivers Jalen Reagor and Quez Watkins. And his schedule isn't bad, especially early on with matchups against the Falcons, 49ers and Cowboys. You'll know pretty quickly if Hurts is the real deal, and you won't need to spend a pick in the first seven rounds to find out.

Heath Cummings' picks

Jalen Hurts, Eagles

There's little doubt that Hurts has the upside to be the league-winner. He showed it in the three and a half games he played as a starter last year. In those games, Hurts was on pace for nearly 4,000 yards passing and more than 1,000 yards rushing. Think Lamar Jackson, but with more passing yards. Now he was also pretty inaccurate and the new regime hasn't exactly behaved as if it is sold on him. For Hurts to be the league-winning breakout, he needs DeVonta Smith to be a true No. 1 receiver and his offensive line to not fall apart like it did last year. If those things happen, 4,000/1,000 may as well.

Joe Burrow, Bengals

Burrow has struggled early in camp as he recovers from last year's ACL injury, but he fits the recent breakout mold remarkably well. Second-year quarterback who only played part of his rookie year, but has massive upside as evidenced by his college production and draft pedigree. Bonus, he may have one of the best receiving corps in the NFL and his defense could put him in a lot of situations where he's chasing the score. The Bengals averaged 40 attempts per game in Burrow's starts last year. If that's the game plan in 2021 and Burrow makes the second-year leap, he could challenge for the league-lead in passing yards.

Chris Towers' picks

Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins

Tagovailoa wasn't great as a rookie, but I'm optimistic he's going to take a big step forward in Year 2. Partially, it's because I'm a big believer in his talent and think he's going to show it now that he's a year further removed from the hip injury that ended his college career. But it's also because I have a lot more faith in the offense around him this season. Just 30% of Tagovailoa's targets in 2020 went to his top two targets, DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki, who dealt with injuries down the stretch. Gesicki and Parker figure to be his No. 3 and 4 targets now with the addition of Jaylen Waddle and Will Fuller, who both bring the ability to make big plays both with the ball in their hands after the catch and down the field. Actually, all four of them do -- it's a very underrated group of weapons. By all accounts, Tagovailoa has looked much better in training camp than this time a year ago and is especially drawing praise for his work on the deep ball. Tagovailoa isn't far off from Joe Burrow as a prospect in my eyes, and his receiving corps might be just as talented. Snag Tagovailoa as a discounted breakout candidate in the late rounds.

Jalen Hurts, Eagles

Hurts is kind of the platonic ideal of the "Konami Code" QB. Whether he's a good enough passer for the Eagles to invest in long term is still very much an open question, but it's also largely immaterial to his Fantasy prospects. He's such a dangerous rusher that as long as he's not "so bad he gets benched" bad, he's probably going to be worth starting for Fantasy. In his three full games as a starter, he rushed for 238 yards, a 1,200-yard pace for a full season. I'm skeptical he would be able to keep that up over a full season, but it's worth noting that he rushed for 92.7 yards and 1.5 touchdowns per game at Oklahoma, while Kyler Murray averaged 71.5 yards and 0.86 touchdowns the previous season in the same number of games. He has as much rushing upside as anyone short of Lamar Jackson at the position and will be a top-12 QB for as long as he remains the starter. 

So which sleepers, breakouts and busts should you target and fade? And which QB shocks the NFL with a top-five performance? Visit SportsLine now to get Fantasy cheat sheets for every single position, all from the model that called Josh Allen's huge season, and find out.