.The 2023 fantasy football season is already here which means it's time to start preparing your fantasy football draft strategies. The best way to formulate your draft strategy is take a look at the current fantasy football ADP's and see where players are coming off the board. Once you have a feel for ADP you can create your player tiers, check out the fantasy football player rankings and fantasy football player projections and maybe even pop into a few fantasy football mock drafts to see how your draft strategy is working. Part of your draft strategy will focus on how you want to attack each position. When it comes to the QB position there are different schools of thought. Some will want to attack the position early, going for Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts. Others, may look to wait on the position, take a shot on a mid-round and late-round QB option with hopes that they exceed expectations and have a breakout season to help support their early round players. Last season, fantasy managers that took shots on Geno Smith, Tua Tagovailoa, Daniel Jones and Justin Fields in the later rounds were rewarded. This season, there are more names we can look at in the later rounds that could be a contributing player to a successful fantasy football roster. Let's dive in!

 

Late-Round Fantasy Football QB's 

For the sake of this article I'll be featuring QB's whose current ADP's fall outside the Top 12 at the position. This article is also being written based on single QB league formats.

Daniel Jones, QB New York Giants

The man is the cover of the article so it only makes sense we kick off here. He's also currently QB13 to come off the board so just outside your “QB1” range though I know there are some leagues where he is being drafted ahead of other QB's with ADP's lower than his. That said, the detractors for Jones like to point out the fact that last season he only threw for just 3,205 yards with 15 touchdowns. But, there is still plenty to glean from that information, the first being, he set a career high in completion percentage at 67.2%. He also threw a career-low five interceptions. Jones also ran for a career best 708 yards and seven touchdowns. Since being drafted in 2019 Jones had gone through three head coaches and three offensive coordinators. Brian Daboll's hiring and success coaching a Buffalo Bills offense with Josh Allen developing into one of the best QB's in football under his leadership should also give fantast managers some encouragement that the development we saw from Daniel Jones last season could be a sign of things to come as Jones now enters year two with the same offensive system. The Giants last season also were depleted at the receiver position, resulting in Darius Slayton, Richie James and Isaiah Hodgins being the team's leading receivers. This offseason the Giants made the move to acquire Darren Waller and they used a third-round pick on Jalin Hyatt. The hope, is that with better health, Jones will have more weapons at his disposal. I'm also not sure the rushing upside isn't real. We know that Jones is a mobile QB but he was never asked to run, do I think that he runs for 700-yards again? No, but I think 500-yards is well within reason and obviously 700-yards is in the range of outcomes. Again, Josh Allen under Brian Daboll, averaged 581 yards per season on the ground and it took a few years before he became the passer he is today.  No, I'm not saying Daniel Jones is going to be Josh Allen, but how many times have we seen good coaches unlock the talent in players and it was pretty clear that Daniel Jones was not being put in positions to succeed with Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge as the head coach of the Giants. 

Anthony Richardson, QB Indianapolis Colts

Rookie QB's are always a wild card. We have to expect some level of struggle given the learning curve of the league but with Richardson, the rushing upside is too great to ignore. Using Daniel Jones's 2022 season as the perfect example of how a QB can have mediocre at best passing numbers but still put up a QB1 season thanks to his mobility and that's what I think we could get from Richardson this season. Last season, Justin Fields finished as the QB6, averaging 20.5 fantasy points per game. He threw for just 2,242 yards with 17 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while rushing for 1,143 yards and eight scores. Now, is Richardson going to run for 1,143 yards? Likely? Probably not, but he does profile as a QB with elite rushing potential. Using the Fields comparison again, as a rookie, we saw Fields finish his season with four top 10 fantasy weeks over his final five starts. Again, I'm just throwing out the potential here where Richardson doesn't have to throw the ball well to be a QB1 in fantasy.  That said, let's look at the Colts offense shall we? He has a true WR1 in Michael Pittman and an elite running back in Jonathan Taylor as well which defenses will have to worry about, especially in the RPO. The Colts also have decent options outside of Pittman in Alec Pierce and rookie Josh Downs as well. If the Colts offensive line can bounce back from their troubles they had last year then Richardson could be in an even better spot. Most projections have him settling in with a range of 600 yards rushing on the ground. Richardson is currently coming off the board as QB14 in most standard league formats. If he hits that mark with moderate passing stats and some rushing touchdowns he is hard not to like. Before I go, how about another comparison, in 2021 this QB finished as the QB9 overall. He completed just 61.3% of his passes for 3,144 yards with 16 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He also ran for 784 yards and 10 touchdowns. That guy was Jalen Hurts. 

Russell Wilson, QB Denver Broncos

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. We got all hyped last season for Russell Wilson following his trade to Denver but it was impossible to know that Nathaniel Hackett had absolutely no business ever coaching an NFL team and it set the tone for the Broncos offense and season. Wilson completed just 60.5% of his passes for 3,524 yards with 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. The team's offensive line was abysmal, as Wilson was sacked a league high 55 times which led to him being banged up and forced to miss a few games. 2023 is a reset year in Denver. The team went out and paid the price to bring Sean Payton out of retirement and hopefully breathe some new life into this Broncos team. Both starting WR's Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton are healthy and ready to go after an offseason of trade rumors and starting running back Javonte Williams has been saying he will be ready to go for training camp. The team will hope for improved offensive line play and with an actual NFL head coach, we should be willing to give Russell Wilson a shot at redemption this season.

Kenny Pickett, QB Pittsburgh Steelers

Was Pickett's rookie season all that impressive? No, not really, he had some glimpses and dealt with a concussion but ultimately he finished with 2,404 yards, seven touchdowns and nine interceptions while completing 63% of his passes. He also added 237 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. So, why are we looking at Pickett? Well, let me tell you, first, I think the QB position, unlike any other, takes the biggest adjustment period from the college to the pro game. Sure, there are some rookie QB's who find success but most do not. I like that the Steelers system largely stays the same so Pickett will be able to continue to develop under the same offense. I also find his rushing upside to be a bit appealing. Again, I'm not expecting Pickett to rush for 500-60 yards but I think 400 yards could be doable. I also think it's interesting that Diontae Johnson and George Pickens are coming off the board as WR34 and WR35 and Pat Freiermuth is coming off the board as TE9 but Pickett is coming off the board as QB22. Something here is wrong. If Pickett is going to support a top 10 fantasy TE and two top 35 WR's then he has to finish higher than QB22 OR these pass catchers are coming off the board too high. I like taking a dart throw on Pickett and seeing if the 2022 first round pick can take a step forward in his sophomore season.

Brock Purdy, QB San Francisco 49ers

The elbow surgery is the reason for the ADP right now in my opinion but as reports start to come out that Purdy is looking healthier I would expect to see his ADP on the rise. There have been plenty of reports from those that cover the 49ers that Purdy is the guy the team wants as the starting QB over Trey Lance and last year we saw Purdy finish the year with five straight weeks of near QB1 performances. The 49ers offense is chalk full of talent with Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle all returning. If Purdy is good to go, he should easily exceed his ADP and be a viable streaming candidate and maybe even finish as a back-end QB1.