Fantasy Sports

Daniel Jones Will Dominate, Jordan Love Won’t—10 Fantasy Football Bold Predictions: Quarterbacks

Alan Goldsher|
Daniel Jones, fantasy star in waiting?
Daniel Jones, fantasy star in waiting? | Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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When it comes to high-end fantasy football quarterbacks, it’s relatively easy to nail your predictions.

Will Josh Allen be good? Yep.

Lamar Jackson? Yep.

Patrick Mahomes? Joe Burrow? Jalen Hurts?

Yep. Yep. And yep.

But when you slide down a level or two, anything goes. Like your preseason QB18 could finish the season as the overall QB5, while your QB11 might be benched in Week 6.

All of which is why when it comes to the middle-to-lower-end of the quarterback position, it’s safe to make fake football prognostications—because if you’re wrong, you never stood a chance in the first place, but if you nail it, you’re a genius.

Me, I’m far from a predictive Einstein—last summer, I had C.J. Stroud finishing top-five in QB fantasy points (oopsie)—but here’re ten 2025 fantasy quarterback boldies that might elevate me to genius status.

1) Daniel Jones Will Finish 2025 As a Top-12 Fantasy Quarterback

I’m sure Anthony Richardson Sr. is a fine individual, always nice to his family, always happy to take his dog for a stroll, always ready to sign an autograph. But he’s not good at playing football, nor is he good at staying healthy.

These are problems if you have hopes of become a quality starting NFL quarterback.

Considering they signed free agent Daniel Jones to a $14 million contract, it appears that Richardson’s Indianapolis Colts are finally hip to the fact that the fourth overall pick of the 2023 Draft isn’t ready for prime time. (He might never be ready for prime time, for that matter.) So if Richardson doesn’t demonstrate in training camp that he can stay out of the trainers room and complete a few passes, it’ll be time for The Danny Dimes Show.

And when given the opportunity, Danny Dimes can put up some fantasy numbers.

Of the ten games he played last season with the Giants, Jones topped 18 fantasy points on four occasions, highlighted by a Week 10 24.40-point explosion against a feisty Commanders D.

When he lands Indy’s starting gig—and I say when, not if—expect the same on a more consistent basis.

2) Jordan Love Will Finish 2025 Season Outside the Top 15

Love hasn’t done anything wrong—the dude can play—but there are a whole lot of signal callers who can also play, and the middle of the 2025 rankings is going to be tight, tight, tight, meaning three interceptions could mean the difference between landing at QB12 or QB21.

Love will throw those three interceptions. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a Packers-hating Bears fan.

3) Bryce Young Will Shock Us All

Throughout the latter portion of the 2024 campaign, the former Crimson Tider was a useful fantasy option, averaging 21.9 fantasy points per game over the final six weeks of the season.

That’s not an elite number, but with another year of experience under his belt—not to mention a shiny new toy in rookie receiver Tetaiaro McMillan—he could play himself into the QB15 range.

4) Trevor Lawrence Will Become a Thing

It’s not like Lawrence has ever been a bad NFL pro or anything. But he’s never been great.

But now that he has highlight-play-in-waiting rookie WR Travis Hunter lining up across the field from super-soph Brian Thomas Jr.—not to mention the nifty backfield timeshare of Travis Etienne Jr. and Tank Bigsby—he could come close to living up to that generational tag. So consider drafting him higher than you should.

5) Caleb Williams Will Outscore All Sophomore QBs—Including Jayden Daniels

And speaking of quarterbacks who were prematurely cited as generational, let’s say howdy to Caleb Williams.

Williams had a perfectly fine rookie season, a season that was all but dismissed because his Chicago Bears stunk, and fellow freshman QB Jayden Daniels was epic.

But with new head coach Ben Johnson—who helped turned Jared Goff into an MVP-level quarterback—in the house, Williams will take advantage of a slick playbook, an upgraded O-line, and an improved pass-catching corps (D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, Colston Loveland), and will become the first quarterback in Chicago Bears franchise history to top 4,000 passing yards.

Additionally, Johnson will draw up plenty of QB rushes, so let’s watch the fantasy numbers fly.

6) C.J. Stroud Will Rediscover His Rookie Form

As noted, coming into the 2024 season, I had Stroud as my QB4 or QB5—and don’t give me a side-eye, because you probably did too.

Unfortunately for prognosticators like me, the league figured him out, and he regressed a whole bunch. But this off-season, he will have figured the league out, and come September and beyond, will make fantasy magic with Nico Collins and Christian Kirk.

7) Michael Penix Jr. Will Outplay His ADP

As of this writing, Fantasy Pros has the Falcons’ field general listed as QB22. There are 32 starting NFL quarterbacks, so some quick calculations tell us that fantasy drafters aren’t impressed with the second-year man.

They probably should be.

Penix heads into 2025 as the unquestioned starter, and will be armed with a top-shelf playmaking trio of Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts. He probably won’t hit the top 15, but the very least, he’ll finish the season ahead of current QB19, J.J. McCarthy.

8) Aaron Rodgers Will Tank

The Pittsburgh Steelers took a flyer on Rodgers simply because the other options were, well, there weren’t really any other options, were there?

On Draft Night 2025, by the time the Steelers were on the clock with the 21st pick, the highest rated available quarterback was Tyler Shough, who wasn’t quite good enough to grab in round one, and they weren’t happy enough with last year’s part-time starter, Justin Fields, to give him a long-term deal, and Mason Rudolph is Mason Rudolph, so here we are.

Rodgers, who doesn’t have much gas left in the tank, is getting by with brains and muscle memory, but that’s not enough to make him a legitimate piece of a winning fantasy roster. In ten-man leagues, the future Hall of Famer is, at best, a streaming option.

9) Sam Darnold Will Regress—A Lot

Last season in Minnesota, Darnold was the second coming of Andrew Luck. The previous six seasons, however, he was the second coming of Heath Shuler.

Last season in Minnesota, Darnold was throwing balls to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.

Last season in Minnesota, Darnold played under the tutelage of quarterback whisperer Kevin O’Connell.

This season, none of the above will be a thing, making Darnold a mid-season candidate for the waiver wire.

10) The Cleveland Browns Will Start Four Quarterbacks

Training camp quarterback battles are a blast. But that’s if there are two QBs. Add a third into the mix, and it gets murky.

But when you have four, count ‘em, four signal callers who all have legitimate claim to the starting job, it goes beyond murky, into the land of WTF.

The Browns aren’t going anywhere this season, so Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders will all get a crack behind center, meaning exactly none of them merits a spot on your season-long fantasy team.

If you’re feeling contrarian, one of the Cleveland Four might be worth considering for a DFS lineup. But probably not.

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Alan Goldsher
ALAN GOLDSHER

Alan Goldsher has written about sports for Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Apple, Playboy, NFL.com, and NBA.com, and he’s the creator of the Chicago Sports Stuff Substack. He’s the bestselling author of 15 books, and the founder/CEO of Gold Note Records. Alan lives in Chicago, where he writes, makes music, and consumes and creates way too much Bears content. You can visit him at http://www.AlanGoldsher.com and http://x.com/AlanGoldsher.

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