Quarterback rankings for 2021 fantasy football leagues

UPDATED 8/22

The NFL season is quickly approaching and that means it’s time to start wrapping our heads around fantasy football rankings. Last season saw Lamar Jackson fall while Josh Allen rose and Aaron Rodgers returned to form, as all three confounded their average draft position. Who will those quarterbacks be this season? Will there be a Justin Herbert in this crop of rookies? Does Patrick Mahomes regain his 50 touchdown pace?

2021 Fantasy Football rankings: Quarterbacks

When drafting quarterbacks, you always feel like you have a good idea how they will do. You just watched 16 games of Lamar Jackson absolutely dominating. How can he not dominate just like he had been? Well, it really doesn’t take all that much to throw a player off from a great season. Last year Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson both went in the second round and then it wasn’t until Dak Prescott’s ADP of 47th, the end of the fourth round, that you see another quarterback taken.

This season Mahomes is going 14th overall, Josh Allen 26th and Kyler Murray 35th overall. Can Mahomes throw for 55 touchdowns and 5,500 yards and put himself so far ahead of the pack that he’s worth picking in the first round? Sure. Will he? Probably not. That’s not a knock on Mahomes, but he would have to put up huge numbers to be worth that pick. Last season Allen led all quarterbacks in fantasy points and was drafted as the 10th quarterback at 82nd overall. The next quarterback in the final tally was Rodgers, who was right next to Allen in ADP. Then Kyler Murray, who was drafted 59th overall. I could go on, but the odds of the first quarterback drafted ending up as the best fantasy quarterback aren’t great.

There are a lot of great quarterbacks who can put up points in a variety of ways and with the bulk of fantasy leagues only needing you to play one, you’ve got a good chance of getting a stud with one of the Top 12 off the board and another chance to grab a backup who might end up being Justin Herbert or Ryan Tannehill, who finished ninth and seventh in QB fantasy points last year.

So, just wait. Trey Lance, Justin Fields, Joe Burrow, Matthew Stafford, and Tom Brady can all be had in the sixth round or later.