Fantasy Sports

Ranking Second-Year QBs After Jayden Daniels: Bo Nix Vs Caleb Williams Vs Drake Maye

The sophomore quarterback crop could be one for the ages.
Alan Goldsher|
Will second-year signal caller Caleb Williams elevate both his Chicago Bears and your fantasy football team?
Will second-year signal caller Caleb Williams elevate both his Chicago Bears and your fantasy football team? | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Chicago BearsDenver BroncosNew England PatriotsAtlanta Falcons

We can all agree that Jayden Daniels is really good at football.

In 2024, the electric Washington Commanders rookie won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, landed in the Pro Bowl, posted the league’s fourth-highest QBR (70.6), and set a rookie record for completion percentage (69.0%).

Fellow rookies Drake Maye, Bo Nix, Michael Penix, and Caleb Williams didn't play their way into that conversation. All four were solid, and at times spectacular, but they weren’t close to elite.

Fortunately for, respectively, the New England Patriots, the Denver Broncos, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Chicago Bears, the young’uns put some great stuff on tape, enough great stuff to give their teams confidence that there’s a face of the franchise in their buildings.

But do Maye’s, Nix’s, Penix’s, and Williams’ bodies of work give fantasy players that kind of confidence?

Probably not, and understandably so, but as the four enter their sophomore years, they have to be factored into your fantasy draft strategy. They might not be QB1s to start the season, but that doesn’t mean that come November, they won’t be a league-winning surprise.

The question now is, which of the four is best set to blow up fantasy box scores? Let’s find out. (All average draft positions [ADP] courtesy of FantasyPros.)

4) Michael Penix (Atlanta Falcons)

Current ADP: 267 (QB26)

The Scoop: The University of Washington product didn’t get the first of his three 2024 starts until December 22, but to his credit, he played some solid ball as the season wound down, highlighted by a Week 18 masterpiece against the Carolina Panthers in which he racked up 312 yards and a pair of touchdowns. It all added up to 26 fantasy points, that week’s tenth-best total.

2025 Season-Long Fantasy Outlook: Now that Penix has the keys to the Falcons’ car, we’ll get to find out if he can drive the damn thing. He’s loaded with top-shelf skill players (Bijan Robinson, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Darnell Mooney), and is thus poised for nice passing line each and every week. Thing is, he’s far from a good rusher—we’re talking 11 total yards in his three starts, ugh—which dings his fantasy value, big-time.

3) Drake Maye (New England Patriots)

Current ADP: 184 (QB17)

The Scoop: Heading into the 2024 NFL Draft, the former North Carolina Wolverine was getting mixed reviews: Some scouts saw him has a top-pick talent, while others felt he was, at best, a mid-first-rounder. Turned out the Maye Truthers were on point, as even with a mediocre O-line and a subpar receiving corps, he had his fair share of quality outings, posting 18 or more fantasy points in seven of his 12 starts.

2025 Season-Long Fantasy Outlook: New England gave Maye a whole bunch of sweet gifts over the offseason, hiring semi-revered head coach Mike Vrabel, signing mercurial receiver Stefon Diggs, drafting bowling balling running back TreVeyon Henderson, and improving a meh offensive line. The fact that they boast the league’s second-easiest schedule puts Maye on the precipice of QB1 status.

2) Bo Nix (Denver Broncos)

Current ADP: 83 (QB8)

The Scoop: What do Patrick Mahomes, Brock Purdy, Kyler Murray, and Justin Herbert have in common? In 2024, they all finished below Bo Nix in fantasy points. This stems in part from the fact that Nix led the Broncos in rushing in five of their 17 regular season games; his 430 rushing yards ranked him eighth among quarterbacks.

2025 Season-Long Fantasy Outlook: As of this writing, the Broncos’ running back room is populated by rookie R.J. Harvey, sophomore Audric Estime, and third-year man Jaleel McLauglin, all three of whom are decent enough players, but none of whom are Christian McCaffrey. This means Nix will again be on the run a whole bunch, and if he can improve on his 66.3% completion percentage, he’ll justify his lofty ADP.

1) Caleb Williams (Chicago Bears)

Current ADP: 155 (QB13)

The Scoop: If Caleb Williams wasn’t the top pick of the 2024 Draft—and if he hadn’t been labeled by many as “generational”—you’d have looked at his stats and though, “Hunh, dude’s not bad.” But he was the top pick and he was labeled generation, so there's a large contingent of NFL watchers who think he's a bust. But if he’d have had an offensive line that kept him from getting sacked 68 times, that particular conversation would be very, very different.

2025 Season-Long Fantasy Outlook: Of the four second-year signal callers in question, Williams’ team did the most improving over the offseason, hiring an offensive mastermind in Ben Johnson as their head coach/offensive coordinator, drafting a pair of touted weapons in Luther Burden III (WR) and Colston Loveland (TE), and adding All-Pro OG Joe Thuney, among others, to what was a historically bad O-line. Williams might be one of those players who slips below his ADP, and if that’s the case in your league, pounce.

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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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