Week 16 Fantasy Football Updated Quarterback Rankings: Brock Purdy, Justin Herbert Rise

It’s time for the penultimate week of the fantasy football season. If you are reading this, congratulations! You are a semi finalist and a legitimate championship contender.

Welcome to Week 16!

Best Quarterbacks in Week 15

In Week 15, we saw tons of chaos and plot twists. Trevor Lawrence led the way with a whopping 44.3 fantasy points. He became the first quarterback to post over 300 yards, five passing touchdowns, one rushing score, and over 50 rushing yards. Lawrence is hitting on all cylinders as we approach the most critical point of the NFL season.

Trevor Lawrence is the only player in NFL history with 5+ Pass TDs, 1+ Rush TD and 50+ Rush Yds in a single game 😤 pic.twitter.com/k7vyNLso93
— NFL on Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) December 15, 2025

Four other signal callers cleared the 25-point threshold: Bo Nix, Kirk Cousins, Brock Purdy, and Jared Goff. After being blown out by the Seattle Seahawks, Cousins put together his most complete game of the 2025 campaign, totaling 373 passing yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions on Thursday Night Football against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He’s making the case for a decent streaming option in SuperFlex leagues this week. Meanwhile, Purdy and Goff are now in top form.

Rounding out the top 10 last week were Josh Allen, J.J. McCarthy, CJ Stroud, Jalen Hurts, and Jaxson Dart. Not many would have anticipated Drake Maye, Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes finishing outside of the top 10.

Week 16 Quarterback Preview

The quarterback position is a critical one and we’ve already got some interesting storylines heading into Week 16. Patrick Mahomes suffered a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season. The Kansas City Chiefs are out of the playoff picture and with Gardner Minshew taking over, Kansas City could have their first losing season since 2012.

Phillip Rivers made his much-anticipated return for the Indianapolis Colts and while the 44-year-old wasn’t terrible, he wasn’t very good either. He finished with just 120 passing yards, one touchdown, and one interception en route to 6.3 fantasy points and a QB29 finish. Despite a four-game losing streak, Indianapolis should give Rivers another opportunity in Week 16 against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football.

The Washington Commanders finally snapped their losing streak in Week 15 after defeating the New York Giants in an NFC East showdown. Marcus Mariota will start the rest of the season as the Commanders have officially shut Jayden Daniels down with the team mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.

Commanders to shut down QB Jayden Daniels for final three games of season. (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/Zxb4aJF84U
— NFL (@NFL) December 15, 2025

At the bottom of this week’s rankings are backups Kenny Pickett and Brady Cook who took over for the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Jets, respectively. Fantasy managers should stay far away from either option.

This is the part of the season where sentimentality gets benched, second-guessing gets cut, and one wrong call can send you from contender to spectator by Monday night. Use our quarterback rankings to make the right start-sit decision.

But before we dive into the best and worst quarterback matchups for Week 16, let’s take a look at where the top 12 fantasy quarterbacks stand entering the most important week of the season to date.

Best Fantasy Football Quarterbacks in 2025

Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills
Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs (INJURED)
Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams
Drake Maye, New England Patriots
Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars
Bo Nix, Denver Broncos
Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears
Jared Goff, Detroit Lions
Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers
Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers

The QB landscape looks wildly different than it did on opening night, but dual-threat quarterbacks still reign supreme. All teams will be in action in Week 16. Thank goodness bye weeks are officially a thing of the past.

With Week 16 kicking off Thursday night as the Los Angeles Rams visit the Seattle Seahawks in a game that could decide the fate of the NFC West, let’s examine some of the noteworthy quarterbacks in our fantasy football rankings.

J.J. McCarthy Enters QB2 Discussion in SuperFlex Leagues

Not long ago, it felt like McCarthy was one bad drive away from being benched and one bad fantasy start away from being sworn off entirely. The rookie’s first season under center had more lowlights than highlights, and the calls for Minnesota to shake things up were getting louder by the week. However, McCarthy seems to have settled in—and he’s picked a perfect time to do it. Back-to-back games of 20-plus fantasy points have put him back on the radar just as the fantasy football semifinals arrive.

The timing isn’t a coincidence. McCarthy’s turnaround has come against secondaries that simply can’t hold up, and he took full advantage against Washington and Dallas. More importantly, the favorable matchups continue in the final two weeks of the fantasy season. In Week 16, he gets a New York Giants defense that is allowing the fourth-most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks. And in Week 17, he draws a Detroit Lions secondary that allows the fifth-most points per game to quarterbacks. New York has been especially charitable, allowing seven of its last nine opposing quarterbacks to clear 18 fantasy points. McCarthy is a prime waiver wire target entering Week 16.

While Justin Jefferson still looks like a shell of his former self, McCarthy has accounted for six touchdowns over his last two games (five passing and one rushing). No one is mistaking his season-long numbers for elite production, but the floor has stabilized in a meaningful way. In eight starts, he’s topped 16.7 fantasy points five times, which is more than enough to keep fantasy managers afloat at the position.

Fantasy football isn’t about style points in December—it’s about opportunity. McCarthy isn’t a finished product, and there will be moments that make you wince, but the volume is there and the matchups are too good to pass up. Against a Giants defense that has consistently propped up opposing quarterbacks, McCarthy checks every box as a smart, playoff-ready streaming option, particularly in SuperFlex formats.

Brock Purdy Enters Top 5

Week 16 Fantasy Football Must-Start Quarterback: Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers — San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) runs with the ball during the first quarter against the Tennessee Titans at Levi's Stadium. | Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

Purdy’s season has been anything but linear, with injuries and inconsistency forcing him to navigate a few rough patches along the way. Still, San Francisco remains firmly in the playoff hunt in the uberly-competitive NFC West, and Purdy is coming off his most complete performance of the year. In Week 15 against the Titans, the former “Mr. Irrelevant” was sharp and in control, completing 23 of 30 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns. He protected the football, added a season-high 44 rushing yards on seven carries, and finished as the QB4 with 26.2 fantasy points.

That momentum sets up nicely heading into a Week 16 matchup with a Colts team that suddenly looks unsteady. On paper, Indianapolis has been respectable against quarterbacks, allowing the 11th-fewest fantasy points at the position. The problem is on the other side of the ball. Since Daniel Jones’ season-ending injury, the Colts’ offense has struggled to sustain drives, a trend that should tilt time of possession heavily in San Francisco’s favor and create plenty of opportunities for Purdy to pile up volume.

Call me crazy, but Purdy belongs in lineups over some of the bigger names this week including Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson, and even MVP candidate Matthew Stafford. The 49ers’ offense is as healthy as it’s been all season, and the supporting cast is on fire. Jauan Jennings has stepped into a true WR1 role with Brandon Aiyuk still sidelined, George Kittle remains one of the league’s most dangerous tight ends, and Christian McCaffrey continues to be a matchup nightmare as a runner and receiver.

With postseason stakes high and Indianapolis dealing with injuries of its own—most notably in the secondary after losing Sauce Gardner—San Francisco should lean into the passing game. The Colts are far more capable of slowing the run than the air attack, which sets up a target-heavy afternoon for Jennings, Kittle, and McCaffrey. If the script plays out as expected, Purdy should comfortably top 250 passing yards and has an excellent chance to throw multiple touchdowns for the second straight week.

Justin Herbert Poised For Bounce-Back Performance in Week 16

Herbert was on pace for a career year but since Week 10, the talented gunslinger has failed to eclipse 15 fantasy points. And while some of those matchups were difficult, he had absolutely no excuse for struggling against the vulnerable Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders. While one can blame the lack of production on the hand injury, the downturn began weeks before that. The Chargers’ offense has appeared completely out of rhythm and the offensive line has struggled to protect their signal caller.

Although Herbert has belonged on the bench in recent weeks, Week 16 presents the perfect bounce-back opportunity. The Cowboys have been a defensive sieve all season, allowing at least 24 points in every game they’ve played. Three of those contests have soared past the 40-point mark, and just last week they let J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings hang 34 points on them. Even more concerning for Dallas is how vulnerable they’ve been through the air, surrendering the most passing yards per game in the league and the most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks (23.9 per game).

The Chargers are close to locking up a playoff spot but still have incentive to push for seeding, even if catching Denver for the top seed in the AFC West remains a long shot. Dallas, meanwhile, is still mathematically alive and can’t afford to coast. All signs point to both teams leaning into their offenses, which sets the stage for one of the highest-scoring games (49.5 over/under) on the Week 16 slate.

The recent box scores haven’t been pretty, but benching Herbert now would be far uglier if he lights up the Cowboys secondary. This feels like the week the Chargers’ quarterback reminds everyone why he was a fantasy cornerstone earlier in the season. He just barely checks into Week 16 as a QB1 as our 12th-ranked quarterback. I would start him over the likes of CJ Stroud, Bo Nix, and Jaxson Dart.

Let’s take a look at where the rest of the NFL’s quarterbacks stack up in our Week 16 rankings.