2025 Week 1 Fantasy Football Rankings: QB

Jayden Daniels begins his quest for MVP against the Giants, Kyler Murray searches for career momentum in New Orleans, and Jared Goff hunts for a shootout in Green Bay.

Other positions: Running Back | Receiver | Tight End/Kickers/Defense

Week 1 Quarterbacks

1 Josh Allen BUF vs. BAL 2 Lamar Jackson BAL at BUF 3 Jalen Hurts PHI vs. DAL 4 Jayden Daniels WAS vs. NYG 5 Joe Burrow CIN at CLE 6 Kyler Murray ARI at NO 7 Baker Mayfield TB at ATL 8 Patrick Mahomes KC at LAC 9 Bo Nix DEN vs. TEN 10 Jared Goff DET at GB 11 Trevor Lawrence JAC vs. CAR 12 Dak Prescott DAL at PHI 13 Jordan Love GB vs. DET 14 Brock Purdy SF at SEA 15 Caleb Williams CHI vs. MIN 16 Justin Fields NYJ vs. PIT 17 Justin Herbert LAC vs. KC 18 Drake Maye NE vs. LV 19 C.J. Stroud HOU at LAR 20 Michael Penix Jr. ATL vs. TB 21 Tua Tagovailoa MIA at IND 22 J.J. McCarthy MIN at CHI 23 Geno Smith LV at NE 24 Matthew Stafford LAR vs. HOU 25 Sam Darnold SEA vs. SF 26 Bryce Young CAR at JAC 27 Cam Ward TEN at DEN 28 Daniel Jones IND vs. MIA 29 Joe Flacco CLE vs. CIN 30 Aaron Rodgers PIT at NYJ 31 Russell Wilson NYG at WAS 32 Spencer Rattler NO vs. ARI

QB Notes: Fantasy football’s two best quarterbacks face off in Week 1. Josh Allen has finished as the QB1 overall three of the past four seasons. The fourth QB1 belt went to Lamar Jackson last year. The game total is north of 50, a strong number for teams as defensively-minded as Buffalo and Baltimore. Enjoy this gem of an opener, one that requires no overthink. … Fantasy managers have been hoping Jalen Hurts will pass more this year after averaging just 24 attempts last season. That number was 30 in 2021-23. He certainly has the right Week 1 matchup in a Cowboys defense that surrendered the most quarterback fantasy points before trading Micah Parsons. Best of luck to Big D. … Jayden Daniels was so preternaturally ready for NFL football as a rookie that it feels sacrilegious to even consider the concept of a sophomore slump. Just know that, were one to happen, it would probably feature something like this undermanned supporting cast and an offensive coordinator in Kliff Kingsbury who isn’t exactly known for punching back when the league makes adjustments.

Joe Burrow’s 2024 career year had as much to do with the Bengals’ nonexistent defense as his elite passing, but both those pillars remain in place for 2025. Surprisingly, so does his elite receiver duo. The Bengals have also tacked on an extra pass catcher in Noah Fant. With shootouts likely to remain the norm in Cincinnati, Burrow should be able to run back something similar to last year’s QB2 finish. … The case for Kyler Murray to finally stop being the most annoying player in fantasy is 2025 continuity between his health, supporting cast and coaching staff. He’s finally in a position to build on something, He probably won’t, but he remains a clear-cut QB1 with a mouthwatering Week 1 matchup. … Baker Mayfield and his Bucs offense keep getting slapped with the “regression” tag. It’s true that Mayfield probably won’t post a ludicrous 7.2 touchdown percentage again. It’s just that, if he’s coming to come back a little closer to the pack, it probably won’t be as a modest road favorite for a domed matchup with Atlanta’s shaky defense.

I devote too much mindspace to the idea of a Patrick Mahomes “comeback.” Even after the past two seasons, the man is still averaging the most passing yards per game in NFL history. He’s been running abnormally cold in the red zone. With this supporting cast finally beginning to improve and deepen, I will continue to insist “this is the year.” … Bo Nix as a top-10 fantasy quarterback feels like a bit of a stretch until you remember he’s already done it. Who knows where this journey will end, but it begins with a massive home spread against a team that just had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. … How many more “surprising” career years does Jared Goff have in him? Beyond last season’s 37-touchdown outburst were home/road splits nowhere near as pronounced as they had been in years prior. Week 1 is a rare outdoors start in Green Bay, but one accompanied by one of the week’s higher game totals. With his deepest supporting cast yet, Goff will remain something of a fantasy lifehack even with Ben Johnson gone for Chicago.

Trevor Lawrence sees what you’ve done for Baker Mayfield and wants that for himself. Lawrence, who quietly has two 4,000-yard seasons on his résumé, now has Liam Coen and Travis Hunter in his arsenal. He has a soft Week 1 home matchup in the Panthers. He has no more excuses. … One of my favorite 2025 bounce-back candidates is Dak Prescott. So naturally he must begin the season on the road against last year’s most fearsome pass defense, Philadelphia. Not great. It could also be the last time you see Prescott on the QB1/2 borderline instead of firmly in the top 10. This team is going to threaten for the league lead in pass attempts, and Prescott has the best receiver duo of his career. … We are expecting 2025 Konami Code goodness from Justin Fields. But against his former employer the Steelers? For all the team’s issues, the Steelers’ pass defense has yet to collapse. This forecasts as a floor rather than ceiling week for this season’s most out of place QB1. … Week 1 is a “if not now, then when?” matchup for Jordan Love. If he’s not allowed to open it up at home against the track-meet Lions, then last year’s balanced attack is probably here to stay.

Still trying to sort out his supporting cast, Brock Purdy has a tough Week 1 road matchup in a Seahawks defense that was beginning to look like a bully down the stretch last season. … No one got a bigger offseason environment upgrade than Caleb Williams. The Vikings’ imposing defense began to fall apart down the stretch last season, but this will be a telling test for the 2024 No. 1 overall pick as he seeks a mulligan on his disastrous rookie year. … Drake Maye’s 2025 fortunes come down to three hypebeasts: TreVeyon Henderson, Kyle Williams, and … himself. We also lack certainly on the true vision for this offense. Mike Vrabel’s Titans success came with simplistic, meat-and-potatoes attacks. OC Josh McDaniels is a bells and whistles guy. There is mammoth upside here. The same is true of the downside. … Michael Penix Jr.’s reward for an all-business summer is likely shootout conditions for Sunday’s domed showdown with the Bucs. I’ve already said this a few times in this column, but this is another instance where we could learn a lot in a hurry. … C.J. Stroud has an OC upgrade and deepened supporting cast. Sometimes with young players, it’s like a bad year never happened. That’s a plausible, if not probable, outcome for Stroud’s disappointing 2024.

Don’t forget, for the latest on everything NFL, check out Rotoworld’s Player News, or follow @Rotoworld_FB or @RotoPat on Twitter/Bluesky.

Click here to read article