Pat Fitzmaurice has gone position-by-position to provide you with fantasy football draft strategy and advice. Here’s how Fitz is preparing for his fantasy football drafts. His primers include fantasy football draft strategy, targets, rankings, tiers, and more.
Here are each of Fitz’s complete Fantasy Football Draft Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE
Below we dive into some of his fantasy football draft strategy and advice for Quarterbacks.
- Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- Fantasy Football ADP
- 2025 Best Ball Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- Free Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator
Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Quarterbacks
Let’s explore some fantasy football draft strategy and advice from Pat Fitzmaruice for each position.
Quarterbacks
The big question is how much to invest in the quarterback position. Is it best to draft one of the top quarterbacks in an early round, or to focus on other positions in early rounds and draft a quarterback later?
There is obvious appeal to investing in a top quarterback. The quarterbacks who provide needle-moving rushing stats on top of their passing stats are highly valuable.
Josh Allen has averaged 24.2 fantasy points per game over the last three years, never averaging fewer than 22.6 fantasy points per game in any of those seasons.
Allen’s average draft position (ADP) is 28 overall, so he’s typically drafted early in the third round in 12-team leagues. Players with similar ADPs include receivers Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Terry McLaurin, and backs Chase Brown and Kyren Williams.
If you wait to draft your top quarterback, Kyler Murray and Jared Goff are among the other options. Murray has averaged 18.5 fantasy points per game over the last three years (but has missed 15 games over that stretch). Goff has averaged 18.2 fantasy points per game over the last three years.
While Allen is either the first or second quarterback selected in most fantasy drafts, Murray has an ADP of QB0 (78 overall) and Goff is at QB10 (85 overall).
Murray is typically drafted in the mid-seventh round of a 12-team draft; Goff in the early eighth round. Wide receivers with ADPs between Murray and Goff are Deebo Samuel, Calvin Ridley and Rome Odunze. The one running back with an ADP in that range is Tyrone Tracy.
You could draft Allen in the early-to-mid third round and one of Samuel, Ridley, Odunze or Tracy in the early-to-mid seventh round.
You could also draft one of Wilson, Smith-Njigba, McLaurin, Brown or Williams in the early-to-mid third round, and either Murray or Goff in the early-to-mid seventh round.
Is the 2025 fantasy scoring gap between Allen and Murray/Goff going to be bigger than the gap between the third- and seventh-round wide receivers/running backs?
The key factor to this is opportunity cost. At what point do we get an affordable opportunity cost for drafting a quarterback rather than a player at another position?
In a 1-QB league, you only have to start one quarterback, but you have to start somewhere around 5-6 running backs and wide receivers, depending on lineup configurations. And it’s good to have depth at those positions to guard against injuries and underachievement.
You can probably guess which way I lean in the early versus late quarterback debate. I tend to load my shopping cart with receivers and backs early on and find my quarterback somewhere from the sixth to eighth round range.
I don’t want to be underpowered at wide receiver in any PPR league or in any league that requires you to start at least three wideouts. While I’m willing to be a bit more patient at running back, I generally like to get one in the first three rounds and another by the end of the seventh round.
Tier 1
Jayden Daniels is coming off a sterling rookie season in which he threw for 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns, with an additional 891 rushing yards and six touchdown runs. The Commanders upgraded Daniels’ supporting cast in the offseason, adding Deebo Samuel, along with stalwart left tackle Laremy Tunsil. Expect more fantasy goodness from the No. 2 pick in last year’s NFL Draft.
The NFL didn’t outlaw the tush push, so Jalen Hurts has a chance to extend his streak of four straight seasons with double-digit touchdown runs. In four seasons as an NFL starter, Jalen Hurts has finished QB6, QB1, QB2 and QB6 in fantasy points per game. The reason for last year’s slippage? Hurts was knocked out of a Week 16 game with a concussion and missed the last two regular-season contests.
Tier 2
- Patrick Mahomes
- Baker Mayfield
- Drake Maye
- Justin Fields
- Brock Purdy
- Bo Nix
- Kyler Murray
- Caleb Williams
After averaging more than 20 fantasy points per game in each of his first five seasons as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback, Patrick Mahomes has averaged fewer than 19 fantasy points per game in each of the last two seasons and has finished outside the top 10 in that category among quarterbacks. Subpar protection from his offensive line and a season-ending injury to receiver Rashee Rice early on didn’t help, but it’s now difficult to envision Mahomes leading all quarterbacks in fantasy scoring, as he did in 2018 and 2022.
Baker Mayfield hit career highs in passing yardage (4,500), touchdown passes (41), completion percentage (71.4%), yards per attempt (7.9) and rushing yardage (378) last season. Mayfield had never thrown 30 touchdown passes in any previous season, so we should probably expect regression. It’s also possible the Buccaneers’ offense is less effective this year, with 2024 offensive coordinator Liam Coen leaving to take the Jacksonville head coaching job. But Mayfield has a terrific supporting cast and has turned a corner in his career.
Caleb Williams is an interesting case. The No. 1 pick of the 2024 NFL Draft finished his rookie season with 3,541 passing yards, 20 touchdown passes and six interceptions in 17 starts, adding 489 rushing yards but no rushing touchdowns. He also took a league-high 68 sacks. But the Bears’ offensive line was leaky, and the play-calling was questionable. Bears general manager Ryan Poles hired highly regarded play-caller Ben Johnson as Chicago’s head coach, upgraded the offensive line in free agency and added tight end Colston Loveland and wide receiver Luther Burden in the draft. Williams may take a big step forward this year, and his fantasy value soars.
Check out Fitz’s full Quarterback Fantasy Football Draft Primer 
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