The 2024 quarterback class will almost certainly be one of the greatest in recent history. Never before had we seen six quarterbacks go in the first round, let alone the top 12 picks. Amazingly, not one of them is trending toward bust territory. And to varying degrees, all of them are relevant in fantasy football. So, let’s rank them!
2025 Sophomore Quarterback Rankings
1) Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders
There aren’t enough superlatives to properly capture Jayden Daniels’ greatness. We can comfortably say he posted the greatest season by a rookie quarterback in NFL history. Daniels took a four-win Commanders team to the NFC Championship Game. Naturally, when a quarterback is that good as a rookie, he’s pretty good for fantasy.
Daniels was the best pick you could’ve made as a quarterback last season. He averaged 21.5 fantasy points per game, giving you Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts-type production at a replacement-level price.
Daniels threw for 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns while rushing for 891 yards and six more scores on the ground. We’ve seen 40+ touchdown seasons from the game’s truly elite QBs. Daniels just posted elite QB1 numbers with only 31 touchdowns. He is the clear top sophomore QB and well worth his early-round price tag in 2025 fantasy drafts.
2) Bo Nix, Denver Broncos
This is about where the consensus ends. You won’t find anyone to argue against Daniels as the best sophomore QB. But the QB2? There are three candidates for the position, but the edge goes to Bo Nix.
The last quarterback taken in the first round, Nix, was widely viewed as a major reach by the Broncos. The theory was that they needed a quarterback and took the best one remaining, regardless of whether he was good enough to warrant such a high selection. Nix wound up being the only other rookie quarterback to take his team to the postseason.
From a fantasy perspective, the most pressing part of Nix’s season was that he had training wheels on him for the first month. Nix wasn’t drafted as a fantasy starter and was on waiver wires for much of the first half, averaging 12.3 fantasy points per game over the first four weeks.
In Week 5, Nix started to take off. From that point forward, it didn’t take long for him to first earn a spot on fantasy rosters off the waiver wire, and then graduate to every-week no-brainer starter status.
Including Week 18 against the Chiefs’ backups, Nix averaged 21.5 ppg from that point forward. He was just as good as Jayden Daniels.
Going into year two, Nix is more experienced and comfortable in his offensive system. The Broncos will have a better running game featuring R.J. Harvey and added Pat Bryant as hopefully a solid WR3. Nix is a safe bet to again finish as a fantasy QB1.
3) Drake Maye, New England Patriots
Drake Maye was understandably overshadowed by Daniels, who had the best rookie season in NFL history, and Nix, who led the Commanders and Broncos to the playoffs. Of the top three rookies on this list, Maye was the only one not to start immediately.
This has created a value proposition for Maye heading into 2025 fantasy drafts, at least for now. There are a lot of quarterbacks with 20 ppg upside. As a result, Maye likely won’t be taken inside the top 12. But he can give us a QB1 season.
Maye’s 14.4 ppg average is fake. It includes the 2.1 points he scored when he made his NFL debut in Week 3 for only a handful of plays and points in Week 18 when he played just three snaps. If we remove those two games, Maye posted 16.8 ppg, which is much more respectable.
This year, the Patriots added reliable veteran WR Stefon Diggs, rookie third-rounder Kyle Williams, and a receiving back in TreVeyon Henderson. Maye is also another year older and has an experienced, competent head coach. Plus, Josh McDaniels is back as offensive coordinator.
Some of Drake Maye’s best throws vs quick pressure https://t.co/S8Rz30wHjZ pic.twitter.com/umltsvg5iv
— Taylor Kyles (@tkyles39) May 23, 2025
With his rushing ability raising his floor, Maye could be a surprise top-five fantasy quarterback if things break right this season. Fantasy managers should be very bullish on Maye as potentially being this year’s Jayden Daniels.
4) Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears
Most lists of this ilk will likely have Caleb Williams above Maye. After all, Williams was the No. 1 overall pick. He was featured on Hard Knocks. He was the one with all the hype. Unfortunately, Williams’ rookie season was a major disappointment.
Williams stepped into the greatest situation for a first-round rookie QB in NFL history and completely flopped. He was barely a QB2 in fantasy, averaging just 15.3 ppg. Williams’ rookie season earned him a D+ grade in PFSN’s QB+ metric.
While Williams struggled to get anything going, he did show flashes of greatness, enough to suggest that abysmal coaching played a larger role than any talent concerns in his issues.
Do not rewatch week 12 if you don’t want to buy in on Caleb Williams while his stock’s depressed pic.twitter.com/2MjDAeRmxy
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) May 22, 2025
Week 12 was one of Williams’ best performances. He threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns, posting 26.9 fantasy points. Williams also excelled in Week 6, throwing for four scores against the Jaguars across the pond.
The bad weeks were bad, but quarterbacks don’t post five games of 20+ fantasy points if they don’t have talent.
This year, they revamped their coaching staff by bringing in Ben Johnson. They added two more offensive weapons in Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland. Williams is once again poised to succeed. It will be on him if he takes a significant step forward this season.
5) JJ McCarthy, Minnesota Vikings
There’s nothing to evaluate when it comes to JJ McCarthy. He missed his entire rookie season with a torn meniscus.
While McCarthy was on the shelf, Sam Darnold thrived in Kevin O’Connell’s QB-friendly system, throwing for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns. With 18.8 ppg, Darnold was one of the best values in fantasy, going from QB2 afterthought to viable mid-QB1.
McCarthy is a black box. He’s an unknown. That’s why he can’t go above any of the guys earlier on this list. If you want to put Michael Penix Jr. over McCarthy, you won’t get any objection from me. This is more of a belief in a system that has coaxed competent QB play out of Josh Dobbs and Nick Mullens.
6) Michael Penix Jr., Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons were criticized for drafting Penix at No. 8 overall after signing Kirk Cousins to go all in on winning now. A year later, it’s safe to say they made the right call.
Getting another impact player to help Cousins might have been beneficial if Cousins could perform like the guy we saw in Minnesota. Instead, we got whatever Cousins put on the field last year. It wasn’t pretty.
Despite the exorbitant contract given to Cousins, the Falcons had to turn to Penix to salvage their season.
Penix took over in Week 16 and didn’t do much, throwing for 202 scoreless yards with one interception. He mildly improved the following week, throwing his first touchdown, but still posting just 12.2 fantasy points. In Week 18, though, Penix showed us what he could do.
The rookie threw for 312 yards and two touchdowns, rushing for a third. He posted 26.0 fantasy points, showing great rapport with Drake London. Although it was his first win and the Falcons didn’t quite make the postseason, he established himself as the Falcons’ answer at QB.
The biggest knock on Penix is that he doesn’t run. That invariably lowers his fantasy upside and is the main reason for his falling behind McCarthy, despite the latter having not yet thrown an NFL pass.
7) Spencer Rattler, New Orleans Saints
Now we’re getting into Superflex-only territory. No one in a 1QB league will be drafting Spencer Rattler.
After Derek Carr went down, the Saints turned to Jake Haener, the primary backup. Quickly realizing he wasn’t the guy, they gave Rattler a chance. The two would swap roles twice later in the year before Rattler closed the season as the guy.
While Rattler is undoubtedly better than Haener, he wasn’t starter quality. Rattler didn’t throw for more than 243 yards in a game and never threw more than one touchdown. He was only rosterable in Superflex because every QB is quarterbacked in Super.
The Saints are spending a second-round pick on Tyler Shough and possibly being in the market for Kirk Cousins, so it isn’t peculiar. Rattler starts on purpose this season. But he’s at least close enough that injuries could propel him into action.
8) Joe Milton III, Dallas Cowboys
Opening the season as the Patriots’ QB3, Joe Milton III was never supposed to get into a game. But in a meaningless Week 18 game, rather than subject Drake Maye to unnecessary hits, the Patriots, knowing Maye was already their guy, quickly put in Milton to see what he could do.
Surprisingly, Milton was impressive, throwing for 241 yards and a touchdown, adding another score on the ground. It was enough that the Cowboys were willing to send the Patriots a fifth and seventh-round pick to acquire the sophomore QB. Currently slated to open the season as Dak Prescott’s backup, putting him one injury away from being on the fantasy radar.