Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Waiting On A Quarterback Is A Tried And True Winner

Michael Fabiano | Aug 27, 2025

Cardinals QB Kyler Murray has top-10 potential in fantasy football leagues, and you can get him later in your drafts. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The quarterback position is the most important in the National Football League. But in the world of fantasy football, it's not nearly valued as much in all traditional leagues. In most cases you only need to start one quarterback, and since there's only 10-12 teams in many leagues, it makes little sense to fill the position too soon.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule.

If you want an elite quarterback like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, or Jayden Daniels, you'll need to draft them in one of the first four rounds. Joe Burrow could cost you a Round 4 pick, but more likely he'll come off the board in the fifth. Beyond those five field generals, you can wait a lot longer and still get good value.

Case in point … Baker Mayfield, Bo Nix, and Kyler Murray, can all be drafted outside of the top 70 picks based on FantasyPros average draft position (ADP). Mayfield and Nix were top-end quarterbacks last season, and Murray has top-10 upside.

Still later, you can grab another top-10 quarterback from last season in Jared Goff, and others like Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy and Justin Fields are all outside of the top 100 picks.

Going even further, you can land some strong breakout candidates in Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix Jr. outside the top 120 in some cases. Heck, the latter isn’t coming off the board until the 160s!

Of course, all leagues are different.

You might play in a league with folks who value quarterbacks more than the norm, and that changes things. There are also Superflex leagues where quarterbacks are far more valued because you can start two every week. But often, you can load up on running backs and wide receivers, grab a tight end and then get a quarterback in the middle to late rounds without having your starting lineup suffer as a result.

So, when you’re building your draft strategy, don’t feel like you need to force a quarterback in the earlier rounds. Trust me, you’ll find plenty of value later.

Here are my quarterback rankings with auction values, which shows how you can grab a great fantasy football QB for pennies on the dollar, as well as my quarterback draft bargains list to help you make your decison.