DraftKings Best Ball: Favorite Late-Round QB Sleepers for 2026

Question: You know what's the only thing cooler than getting great QB value with an early round pick?

Answer: Getting great QB Value with a late-round pick!

Presenting: My favorite late-round QBs (outside the top 12) in the DraftKings best ball streets.

Reminder: You can check out all of Ian's rankings and content with a premium RotoWire subscription. Use code "Ian35" for 35% off.

Jared Goff, Lions

• ADP: QB13 (pick 104.2)

The man has largely done nothing except smash preseason ADP in recent years.

• 2022: QB27 ADP, QB13 finish in fantasy points per game
• 2023: QB18 ADP, QB15 finish
• 2024: QB19 ADP, QB7 finish
• 2025: QB18 ADP, QB12 finish

Jared Goff has ripped off three consecutive seasons with at least 4,500 passing yards. The rest of the NFL has *six* combined. He leads the NFL in passing touchdowns since 2022. Still only 31 years young, DraftKings has Goff's passing yards over/under (4,099.5) 100 yards higher than any other QB, and his passing touchdown over/under (29.5) ranks third. RotoWire Projections have him inside the position's top-4 in both.

The only real question is whether new playcaller Drew Petzing could mess things up. After all, the Cardinals ranked only 24th, 12th and 23rd in scoring during his three seasons in charge — should we really expect fireworks in Detroit?

Answer: Probably. Smarter real-life football minds than myself actually like the pairing quite a bit. This is still an offense LOADED with playmakers.

Lions rank in Supporting Cast Rating

• 2022: 9th
• 2023: 2nd
• 2024: 2nd
• 2025: 7th

Additionally, there's not much reason to expect an overly run-heavy approach in 2026  considering: 1) Petzing's Cardinals led the league in pass attempts in 2025, and 2) The team's decision to trade David Montgomery this offseason.

Goff's utter lack of a rushing floor will continue to make him cheap in drafts and cause fantasy nerds to claim he has "no upside." Well, Goff has eight top-5 finishes the last two seasons, which literally only trails Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Joe Burrow. That's it. That's the entire  list. I'd say the man is pretty capable of putting up big point totals!

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Kyler Murray, Vikings

• ADP: QB18 (pick 118.6)

Kyler Murray hasn't exactly played to the best of his abilities in recent years. His highs in 2020 and 2021 were quite awesome and helped him secure that initial $230.5 million bag from the Cardinals, but unfortunately, things simply haven't been as good in recent years.

We can see this quite clearly with adjusted net yards per attempt, which factors in touchdowns, interceptions and sacks into the traditional pass yards-per-attempt equation.

So yeah, REALLY not great in 2025 — BUT it's also not like we've been looking at an overly stable situation here both in terms of Kyler's offensive environment as well as his own health.

• Murray suffered a torn ACL on Dec. 12, 2022
• HC Kliff Kingsbury was fired following the 2022 season
• The Cardinals hired HC Jonathan Gannon and OC Drew Petzing prior to the 2023 season
• Murray suffered a foot injury in early 2025 that landed him on the sideline for what wound up being the entire season

Of course, the latter injury was viewed as a "soft benching" with Jacoby Brissett generally doing a good job of leading this passing offense. This is the toughest obstacle for Kyler truthers to get around: Our most recent sample size of the 2025 season was ROUGH any way you cut it.

That said: There's still reason for optimism thanks to three key factors.

1. Some advanced stats still painted Murray in a positive light in 2025. Specifically, EPA per dropback (+0.06, 15th) and PFF passing grade (69.5, tied 22nd). The former mark was better than guys like Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert, while the latter cleared the likes of Lamar Jackson, Daniel Jones and Baker Mayfield.

2. This remains one of the position's most dangerous rushers. Last season, Murray actually averaged his most rushing yards per game (34.6) since his ACL injury. The film reflects the reality that this is still a dangerous man in the open field. Overall, Murray's average of 8.5 yards per scramble was good for the position's eighth-best mark last season and ranked ahead of guys like Patrick Mahomes and Jaxson Dart. 

3. Kyler didn't get a ton of help from his friends last season. Specifically, the alleged generational WR Marvin Harrison Jr., who had some rough (and I mean ROUGH) moments early in 2025. Overall, this Cardinals offense simply wasn't very QB-friendly. It finished 28th in my "Supporting Cast Rating," which is the average of every team's rank in PFF rushing, receiving, run-blocking and pass-blocking grades (everything except passing).

Good news: Minnesota finished 13th in Supporting Cast Rating last year! You could even argue they're higher when considering the schematic impact that renowned QB whisperer Kevin O'Connell has had on his passing games over the years. The potential for Kyler to improve his passing thanks to this new-and-improved offensive environment and keep on keeping on as a rusher paints the picture of an exciting late-round fantasy QB option in 2026.

Check out our Fantasy Football ADP Report for a comprehensive tool with live-updated ADP data for multiple league formats and sites.

Malik Willis, Dolphins

• ADP: QB21 (pick 133.7)

Yes, we are dealing with a small sample size with Malik Willis. Originally drafted by the Titans in the third round in 2022, Willis has just six career starts and 155 career pass attempts to his name.

Also yes, Willis was absolute nails with his opportunities in Green Bay. Obviously, Matt LaFleur and the offense's plethora of playmakers deserve a lot of credit, but either way: We're looking at a guy who has literally functioned as the NFL's most-efficient passer during the last two seasons. Overall, Willis leads all QBs in yards per attempt, adjusted yards per attempt, yards per completion, completion rate, passer rating and explosive pass play rate since 2024.

And yet, it's his performance in two additional stats — EPA per dropback and completion percentage over expected — that are most impressive. That's him all the way up in the top-right-hand corner in the chart below. Not too shabby!

Even more impressive was the manner in which he picked up yards in 2025. His 2024 film was definitely a bit gadgety (7.5 average target depth) and featured the Packers HEAVILY lean on their run game, but we saw a legit increase in aDOT in 2025 (9.7 yards!), which reflected the reality that he was hardly being schemed to success. There are downfield DIMES all over the film.

And hey, all that is cool before even considering the massive plus that Willis brings to the run game thanks to his explosive rushing ability.

• While he didn't run at the combine, Willis reportedly ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash at Liberty's Pro Day
• Willis has averaged the position's fourth-most yards per scramble (8.9) the last two seasons
• Nobody has averaged more yards per rush (10.6) on read options

This latter tool is particularly important when projecting Willis' fantasy impact in Miami. Since 2016, there have been 28 QBs with 100-plus rush attempts in a season, and 26 (93%) finished as a top-12 fantasy QB in fantasy points per game.

There's also at least some optimism that Bobby Slowik can rekindle some of his 2023 magic; he has spent the better part of the last 15 years working with Kyle Shanahan and Mike McDaniel after all. That said: Willis certainly doesn't check every box we look for. The Dolphins' cheap/bad WR and TE rooms give them a good case as having the league's worst group of pass-catchers, and Vegas fully expects this offense to be one of the lowest-scoring groups in the league (29th).

And yet, the re-draft price is so cheap. There should be a weekly borderline QB1 floor here if the history of high-volume dual-threat QBs holds true.

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