2026 Fantasy Football Sleepers: 5 Underrated Quarterbacks to Target

Quarterback draft strategy is a rich subject that's always fun to dive into. There are so many ways to get it right every single year. You can pay the premium and take one of the elite guys (Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Drake Maye) in the early rounds because ending up with the QB1 gives you massive leverage in your league. However, it can come back to bite you if you miss the mark. A fourth-round pick on Jackson or a fifth-round pick on Jayden Daniels last year was a very expensive miss that not only put you behind at QB, but it also cost you the opportunity of getting a strong contributor at RB or WR. 

You can also play the waiting game at quarterback and opt to load up on skill guys until the time comes to fill the QB spot in your lineup. The ADP makes this easy to pull off but you're also playing a dangerous game if you wait that long and don't get it right. Trust me, I've had teams where I thought Mitchell Trubisky was going to be a great value pick. 

QB Fantasy Football Sleepers

Last year was another great example of late-round quarterbacks both giving and taking away. Justin Fields was QB14 on Underdog with an ADP of 109. Drake Maye was QB15 with an ADP of 111. Make the right choice and your team probably ended up in pretty good shape. End up on the Fields side of the ledger and that spot was sunk in best ball or dropped in redraft pretty quickly.

This article will cover the five underrated quarterbacks relative to the ADPs on ESPN and Yahoo. Let's see which quarterbacks will be worth the wait in 2026. 

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Jared Goff, Lions - ESPN ADP: QB16, Yahoo ADP: QB17

What Jared Goff lacks in rushing upside, he more than makes up for with passing production. Goff is the only quarterback to throw for at least 4,500 yards and 30 touchdowns in each of the last three seasons, per StatHead.

He's clearly still playing at a high level and has the type of skill set that will age well. There are some helpful contextual factors that really help Goff's projection this season as well. He not only has a top-5 receiver in Amon-Ra St. Brown, but he's also got an ascending Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta returning. Toss in the fact that Jahmyr Gibbs gives defensive coordinators nightmares and Goff finds himself in a cushy setup.

Speaking of cushy setups, the schedule gods have also looked favorably upon the Lions this year. The Lions play a third-place schedule and draw the AFC East as the cross-conference slate, along with the Titans. They won't have to play a cold weather game until Week 17 against the Bears.

The oddsmakers give the Lions the highest average implied total as well. I absolutely buy this. Not only are they loaded on offense and have a favorable schedule, but their defense is shaky enough to where we can expect the Lions to be in plenty of shootouts that'll keep Goff busy. 

Goff might feel like a boring pick, but the year-over-year consistency coupled with really promising signals for Detroit's offensive environment make him a strong selection this year, especially relative to ADP.

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Sam Darnold, Seahawks - ESPN ADP: QB22, Yahoo ADP: QB20

Sam Darnold has come a long way in a short amount of time, going from a journeyman bust to Super Bowl champion in the span of two years. He's been a useful fantasy quarterback each of those seasons, finishing QB8 in 2024 and QB13 in fantasy points per game last year. I'm not sure what more Darnold needs to do to earn the trust of fantasy managers, but apparently there are still a few boxes to check.

Just looking at the broader QB context, Darnold goes behind the likes of Tyler Shough and Daniel Jones on ESPN. Darnold has established himself as one of the better deep ball passers in the league since 2024 and has a strong supporting cast around him to keep those numbers up. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is at the peak of his powers, and downfield specialist Rashid Shaheed will be in a better position to be a contributor after coming over at the trade deadline last year.

Additionally, AJ Barner is a breakout candidate who can be a weapon in the red zone. That's three players who can help fuel Darnold's touchdown rate. 

Darnold is also capable of giving you spike weeks. He had seven regular-season games with at least 20 fantasy points, including two that exceeded 30 points. Admittedly, the floor can be a little concerning. He had an equal number of starts with 15 or fewer fantasy points. Those types of weeks can really sting in redraft where you're locked into his production. 

Darnold is likely a better best ball pick than a redraft pick due to that wide range of outcomes, but he's still a nice value in your home leagues now. If Darnold is your QB2, you can feel confident in playing the matchups and getting some useful weeks out of the Seattle signal-caller. 

Playing devil's advocate, one detail that could vindicate the market's tepid view of Darnold is the loss of Klint Kubiak as the offensive coordinator. Brian Fleury is a question; guys from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree aren't guaranteed to be smashing successes. If Fleury proves to be a significant downgrade from Kubiak, those Darnold spike weeks could come crashing back to earth. 

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Jordan Love, Packers - ESPN ADP: QB20, Yahoo ADP: QB22

Jordan Love flashed the tantalizing upside that rewarded Green Bay's patient plan for him in 2023 when he threw for 4,159 yards and 32 touchdowns. He has been something of a frustrating fantasy asset the following two seasons, throwing for fewer than 3,400 yards in each of those seasons with 25 or fewer touchdowns. He missed two games in each of those seasons to bring down the counting stats, but even extrapolated numbers would have fallen short of that 2023 output.

So, why will this year be any different, especially when the Packers lost Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks this offseason? It requires a bit of a leap of faith but there might be some contextual things that end up working out in Love's favor.

For one, Green Bay may be forced to throw it more this year. They ranked bottom 3 in pass play rate in 2024 and bottom 5 in pass play rate last season. Unless you're running for a ton of touchdowns like Lamar Jackson or Jalen Hurts, a setup like that is going to really cap a quarterback's fantasy upside. A poor offensive line coupled with Josh Jacobs dealing with a groin injury (and suspension risk) is going to necessitate Love being a bigger driving force for this offense.

Furthermore, I think the personnel moves this offseason may have been addition by subtraction. Not to say that Doubs and Wicks are bad players, but their presence led Green Bay to overdoing it with the receiver rotation. Getting on the same page with upward of seven receivers and tight ends is a big ask for any quarterback. Having a more stratified setup with Christian Watson, Jayden Reed and Matthew Golden out wide is a good thing. So is getting a healthy Tucker Kraft back in the mix. 

I'm not sure Love is a league-winner, but it wouldn't surprise me if he significantly outperformed his ADP and finished in the top 15 at the position.

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Tyler Shough, Saints  - ESPN ADP: QB19, Yahoo ADP: QB28

From Week 12 onward, Tyler Shough was QB8 in fantasy on a per-game basis last season. That's exactly the type of thing that should get us excited about a player going into his second season — a strong finish. He completed 69.7 percent of his passes with a 7:4 TD:INT at 7.4 YPA in that span and added 175 yards and three scores on the ground. 

The rushing potential is the key detail that will make or break Shough's fantasy season. RotoWire's NFL projections have Shough as a solid passer with 3,651 yards and 22 touchdowns, and as a fringe top-10 QB in rushing production (343 yards, 3 TD). 

In fairness, the idea of Shough running a ton is a little scary considering the number of injuries he suffered in college. Injury risk is a little more palatable when he's your late-round QB2 in a managed league where you can drop him if need be.

Finally, there's a similarity between Shough and Goff in terms of positive contextual factors. The Saints have a favorable schedule as well. It's a fourth-place slate for a team that plays its home games in a dome, along with crossover games against the AFC North. By my count, the Saints will have one cold-weather game at most this year (at Cincinnati on Nov. 29). Toss in the fact that the defense looks suspect and this has the look of a very good offensive environment around Shough. 

Malik Willis, Dolphins - ESPN ADP: QB25, Yahoo ADP: QB25

Malik Willis is arguably the most interesting quarterback for fantasy this season. So many extreme outcomes are on the table; what if that 11-game sample in Green Bay is for real and he's a legit fantasy starter? Or what if the supporting cast is so bad by design that Willis basically gets to be the tank commander as Miami positions itself for the Arch Manning sweepstakes? I'd say Outcome B is a little more likely, but Outcome A is a more exciting profile than some of the other quarterbacks going ahead of him.

In Green Bay, Willis took care of the ball (6 TD, 0 INT) and was efficient with a 78.7 completion percentage. Now, 89 attempts is obviously not a huge sample, but it was enough to convince Miami to give him a lucrative contract. Maybe that says more about Miami's brass than anything. Oh well. Not our problem.

Willis checks in with the third-highest QB rushing yardage projection in our system, behind only Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson. If he can get most of the way to the projected 600-yard, five-touchdown outcome, our Willis investment is looking really good even if the passing numbers aren't moving the needle.

I'm open to Willis sticking as a decent passer, though. He showed real improvement in that facet during his time in Green Bay, and was always a very toolsy player in that regard. It was just a matter of him putting it all together. 

Now, will it be easy to put it all together with this group of pass-catchers? That's where I get the most concerned. Willis has starter-level talent. The Dolphins barely have any receivers or tight ends who qualify that same way. It looks like a bunch of cast-offs and late-round rookies who will be doing most of the heavy lifting. De'Von Achane is arguably the best pass-catcher on the team. It's bleak.

The odds are stacked against Willis being a smash. I can't completely write off the upside case, though. Fortunately, you can still get in on Willis' potential at a very low level of investment. Drafting him as QB25 will make it easy for you to drop him and move on if things are going as poorly as some expect. 

I'd rather go after a profile like Willis' than someone like C.J. Stroud, Cam Ward or Daniel Jones. Stroud is showing signs of decline already after a brutal end to last season. Ward has similarly bad team context compared to Willis but offers none of the rushing upside. Jones' mobility might be sapped coming off an Achilles tear, and who knows what version of Alec Pierce will show up this season? Willis is a "small miss, big hit" pick at his current ADP.

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