Drake Maye hopes to get his season on track in Jacksonville, Patrick Mahomes is thinking maybe he’s back against the Dolphins, and Bryce Young pushes for top-12 status following his hot start.
Other positions: Running Back | Receiver | Tight End/Kickers/Defense
Updated 9/25 at 6:30 PM ET. Added Sam Darnold.
Week 3 Quarterbacks
| 1 | Josh Allen | BUF | vs. LAC |
| 2 | Lamar Jackson | BAL | at DAL |
| 3 | Jalen Hurts | PHI | at CHI |
| 4 | Patrick Mahomes | KC | at MIA |
| 5 | Brock Purdy | SF | vs. ARI |
| 6 | Dak Prescott | DAL | vs. BAL |
| 7 | Joe Burrow | CIN | at PIT |
| 8 | Trevor Lawrence | JAC | vs. NE |
| 9 | Jared Goff | DET | vs. NYJ |
| 10 | Matthew Stafford | LAR | at DEN |
| 11 | Justin Herbert | LAC | at BUF |
| 12 | Kyler Murray | MIN | at TB |
| 13 | Jordan Love | GB | vs. ATL |
| 14 | Drake Maye | NE | at JAC |
| 15 | Bryce Young | CAR | at CLE |
| 16 | Tyler Shough | NO | vs. LV |
| 17 | Bo Nix | DEN | vs. LAR |
| 18 | Baker Mayfield | TB | vs. MIN |
| 19 | C.J. Stroud | HOU | at IND |
| 20 | Malik Willis | MIA | vs. KC |
| 21 | Sam Darnold | SEA | at WAS |
| 22 | Jacoby Brissett | ARI | at SF |
| 23 | Geno Smith | NYJ | at DET |
| 24 | Michael Penix Jr. | ATL | at GB |
| 25 | Kirk Cousins | LV | at NO |
| 26 | Daniel Jones | IND | vs. HOU |
| 27 | Marcus Mariota | WAS | vs. SEA |
| 28 | Aaron Rodgers | PIT | vs. CIN |
| 29 | Deshaun Watson | CLE | vs. CAR |
| 30 | Cam Ward | TEN | at NYG |
| 31 | Jameis Winston | NYG | vs. TEN |
| 32 | Case Keenum | CHI | vs. PHI |
QB Notes: Patrick Mahomes is back where he belongs in the top five. Will he stay there? That’s a question for another week, as the Dolphins’ defense is off-the-charts bad. Mahomes’ skill corps remains the envy of precisely nobody, but the pairing of new RB Kenneth Walker III with reunited OC Eric Bieniemy has put Mahomes’ “weapons” in much better position to succeed. … Continuing the theme from, well, his entire career, Brock Purdy just keeps putting up fantasy points regardless of the state of his supporting cast. Right now it is injured and limited, not that that’s anything new. The Cardinals are looking like one of the league’s worst pass defenses through the season’s first two weeks. … It took the better part of six quarters, but Matthew Stafford finally welcomed himself to the 2026 season midway through Monday evening’s Giants beatdown. He did so with Puka Nacua on the sideline. Stafford’s expected touchdown regression was nowhere in sight, as he found the end zone four times. The Broncos are a tough Week 3 road test, but nothing will be as tough for this team as its now-infamous Week 1 jaunt to Australia.
Joe Burrow has yet to spike a week, and @PIT does not seem like a particularly likely spot to do so. You keep running him out there in the top 12 because something is bound to happen when Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins is your receiver duo. … It’s too early for Chargers crisis mode. Then again, when aren’t the Chargers in crisis mode? Week 2 crisis was averted for fantasy managers when Ladd McConkey (ribs) avoided further injury in his decoy-style appearance against the Raiders. The Bolts look like a team going nowhere fast, but it’s difficult to envision touchdown road ‘dog Justin Herbert finishing too far outside the top 12 in this likely high-scoring contest. … Kyler Murray, take two. Murray was off to a poor Week 1 start before his concussion. The Bucs’ waterlogged defense offers an excellent opportunity for a debut do-over. Tampa just made Deshaun Watson appear competent in Week 2. … For whatever reason, C.J. Stroud leads the league in pass attempts. His 55 against the Bengals were tied for the 27th most this decade. It’s not a great formula, especially with Nico Collins (hamstring) banged up, but the Colts are a tissue-soft Week 3 matchup.
Jordan Love has been stunningly inaccurate. Now he’s missing short-area/YAC menace Jayden Reed (neck). That’s concerning for fantasy, especially since the Packers are healthy home favorites for a short-week date with the Falcons. This would typically be when coach Matt LaFleur establishes the ever-living hell out of the run. Thankfully for fantasy managers, that’s not really an option right now considering the state of the Pack’s backfield. On the QB1/2 borderline despite his scattershot play, this might finally be the week Love turns in an actually good performance. … I’ve rarely written about Bryce Young in this column because he has rarely found himself in the top 24. Well he’s currently in the top five. In fact, that might be underselling it a bit — only Josh Allen has more QB fantasy points. Heady stuff, especially since it’s come in two completely different game environments. One a doomed shootout loss to the Bears, the other a play-from-ahead beatdown of the pathetic Falcons. We’ve long talked of Young’s “incremental” progress, but perhaps he’s finally making a great leap. His rapidly improving receiver duo certainly helps in that regard. Although it’s a little too early to jam Young into the top 12, he has forced his way into the periphery.
Drake Maye is outside the top 24 quarterbacks through the season’s first two weeks, and there’s been nothing fluky about it. The Patriots are not putting him in position to make plays, and he is obliging. Two rough defensive matchups haven’t helped, but the Jags aren’t really a comfort in that department. Maye has the top-shelf play-making ability to break out of his funk at any given moment, but he’s not a particularly strong bet in the top 12 right now. … It’s time to talk to your children about Tyler Shough. Like Young, he’s currently a top-five fantasy quarterback on the strength of two big days in two wildly different game environments. He’s one of only two QBs with 90-plus attempts, and is leading the league in yardage. I’m skeptical he will stick in the top 12, but this continuation of last season’s fast finish does have Shough leaving behind the unsavory characters of the QB2/3 borderline. Perhaps our very tall superflex option is all grown up. … The Malik Willis experiment is off to a rough start in Miami. He is at least hunting big plays in the passing game. Fantasy managers could be on to something if he starts regularly supplementing those attempts with more frequent runs on the ground.
With the offseason to recover from his various ailments, I assumed Baker Mayfield would split the difference between his excellent 2024 and injury-marred 2025. Instead, he has remained extremely inaccurate while going down in a hail of turnovers. Not exactly the best mix going into a showdown with Brian Flores’ blitz-obsessed defense. Mayfield is just the kind of madman who could end up cracking Flores’ code, but we wouldn’t count on that following Mayfield’s rough start. … The Seahawks put the jaws of life on Jacoby Brissett in Week 2. That’s the downside of having a pocket statue as your quarterback. Thankfully for QB2 seekers, there’s no one else really operating at Seattle’s defensive level right now. … Michael Penix Jr. is underwhelming as far as fantasy saviors go. That’s especially true since he begins his third NFL campaign nowhere near the top 12. But he’s at least an actual quarterback, one who should stabilize the value of his weapons even if we don’t expect him to produce many digital points of his own. … Marcus Mariota is a decent-enough runner with decent-enough weapons. He’ll be a viable QB2/superflex option when the matchup is right. “Vs. SEA” is not the right matchup.
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