4 Must-Have Quarterbacks (2026 Fantasy Football)

When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and which to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football quarterbacks Pat Fitzmaurice is targeting everywhere in early drafts.

2026 Fantasy Football Draft Advice

Here are four quarterbacks fantasy football expert Pat Fitzmaurice loves to target in early drafts.

Justin Herbert (LAC): ECR QB7 | ADP QB9

Over the first three years of his NFL career, Justin Herbert averaged 287.5 passing yards and 1.9 TD passes per game. Over the last three years, he’s averaged 233.3 passing yards and 1.5 TD passes per game. There hasn’t been a discernible difference in Herbert’s passing efficiency over those two periods. The downturn can be traced to (at various times) conservative play-calling, offensive line injuries, or a shortage of quality pass catchers. Those problems appear to have been resolved, and Herbert could have a banner season in tandem with new Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel (under whom Tua Tagovailoa led the league in passing yardage three years ago).

Trevor Lawrence (JAC): ECR QB9 | ADP QB10

As the 2025 regular season reached its conclusion, Trevor Lawrence was playing the best football of his five-year NFL career under first-year Jaguars head coach Liam Coen. Over his first 10 games, Lawrence averaged 215 passing yards, 1.1 TD passes and 16.6 fantasy points per game. He averaged 6.4 yards per pass attempt over that span, and his passer rating was 79.4. Over his last seven regular-season games, Lawrence averaged 265 passing yards, 2.6 TD passes and 26.6 fantasy points per game. He averaged 8.4 yards per pass attempt over those seven games, and his passer rating was 108.6. Lawrence also had his most productive season as a runner, with 359 rushing yards and nine TD runs. With Brian Thomas Jr., Jakobi Meyers and Parker Washington (and perhaps occasional contributions from Travis Hunter), Lawrence has a good set of wide receivers. Now, we’ll see if T-Law can pick up where he left off.

Brock Purdy (SF): ECR QB12 | ADP QB13

Brock Purdy‘s pass-catching corps will look a lot different in 2026. Free-agent addition Mike Evans is expected to be Purdy’s new No. 1 receiver, and the 49ers added WR Christian Kirk in free agency as well. Ricky Pearsall is still around, but Jauan Jennings and Kendrick Bourne are gone. TE George Kittle is recovering from a torn Achilles and might not be ready for the start of the season. A nagging turf toe injury limited Purdy to nine starts in 2025. He threw 20 TD passes despite missing all that time, but he also threw 10 interceptions. Purdy has ranked inside QB1 range in fantasy points per game in each of his three full seasons as a starter. Consider him a low-end QB1 in 2026 fantasy drafts.

Jordan Love (GB): ECR QB18 | ADP QB18

It’s possible Jordan Love is simply a better real-life fantasy quarterback than fantasy quarterback. In 2025, Love ranked second among all quarterbacks in expected points added per dropback, third in defense-adjusted value over average, third in QBR and sixth in passer rating. And yet Love averaged only 16.1 fantasy points per game, which ranked QB19 among quarterbacks who made at least eight starts. Love finished QB5 in 2023, his first full season as an NFL starter, and hasn’t finished in QB1 range since. It’s partly because the Packers have been so run-heavy the last two seasons, finishing 31st in pass rate over expected in 2024, 22nd in 2025. Love hasn’t offered much rushing production either, with 282 rushing yards and one TD run over the last two seasons. Love might be a top-10 quarterback in reality, but it’s best to regard him as a high-end to midrange QB2 in 2026 fantasy drafts.

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