Dave Richard’s Quarterback Tiers provide the blueprint for how to draft QBs in 2026 Fantasy Football drafts

If you’ve played Fantasy Football for a while you’ve probably heard about how deep quarterback is from year to year. But by comparison, this year’s group is notably deeper than the past three seasons or so. And every other position you’ll pick is at least a little less deep, which is why we’ll see the best draft-day values come at quarterback. Again. Where does the depth come from? It’s a crossroads of great veteran players still going strong and a new breed of young quarterbacks with awesome potential. By my count there are sixteen quarterbacks I’d be okay starting in Week 1 in one-QB leagues this year and another five I’d love to have on my bench in hopes of a breakout season.

When a position is deep like this, you can either target the quarterbacks who you think will be the biggest stat differentiators, or wait for value and steal a QB in the middle-to-late rounds, or both. That’s going to be your goal: Get a great quarterback at a great value. And because so many quarterbacks have great potential to land north of 22 points per game in six-point formats, you can reasonably accomplish this goal. Some positional notes: Fourteen quarterbacks averaged at least 20 Fantasy points per game (six-point pass TDs) in 2025 and four others were above 19. Patrick Mahomes has the longest active streak of consecutive seasons with 20-plus Fantasy points per game with eight. Josh Allen has had at least 24 points per game in six straight years, Jalen Hurts has at least 21.8 points per game in five straight years.Between eight and 10 of the top 12 quarterbacks in each of 2021-25 were on playoff teams. Want a good Fantasy QB? Make sure he’s on a playoff contender. Between five and six of the top 12 quarterbacks in 2023-25 were also in the top 12 the previous year. So there is some turnover there — just like there’s turnover in who’s in the playoffs every year.  Tier 1 Rounds 3-5