It's so much easier to do Fantasy Football rankings before Week 1, when all we have are educated guesses about how the upcoming season is going to go. Of course, the downside there is, Week 1 rankings might be the easiest to get wrong,
There's so much we still don't know, and it's important
Did you think Patrick Mahomes had an underwhelming Week 1? Would you be surprised to learn he still ended up as QB6 with his 226 yards and two touchdowns? Would you be even more surprised to learn that Mac Jones, Jordan Love, and Anthony Richardson were three of the five quarterbacks who finished ahead of him?
Week 1 wasn't a great week for the QB position, especially for some of the high-end guys like Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Jalen Hurts, all of whom finished outside of the top 18 at the position.
I'm very confident those guys will bounce back, of course. In fact, I didn't really move any of them down in my rankings for Week 2. I need a lot more than one lousy week for guys with their track records before I start asking questions. But there are plenty of other questions worth asking about the QB position heading into Week 2. Here are three of them:
Is Anthony Richardson just a QB1 already?
I thought the Colts might try to hide Anthony Richardson a bit in his first game, but they did no such thing. Richardson dropped back to pass a whopping 45 times in Week 1, and while his intended air yards per attempt were low at 5.8, it still suggests a level of trust in their rookie that raises the ceiling of this offense for everyone involved, but especially Richardson. Unsurprisingly, Richardson ran the ball 10 times Sunday, including three times from inside the 10-yard line, and that establishes a nice floor for him – I'd guess his 40 yards Sunday will be on the low side of the norm moving forward. I don't expect to see 37 passes from Richardson every week, but it's noteworthy that Justin Fields didn't attempt that many passes in the game until his 12th start. The Colts aren't coaching scared, and it's enough to trust Richardson every week as a starter if you have to.
Does Brock Purdy deserve more love as a Fantasy QB?
In his first game back from elbow surgery, Purdy threw the ball 29 times, including 21 times in the first half. The 49ers didn't suddenly morph into the Chiefs or anything, but in the first half of a game they led pretty much from the start, they had 23 pass plays called to just 16 run plays. Purdy is probably still going to finish in the bottom half of the NFL in pass attempts, but the 49ers coaching staff clearly trusts him and the passing game they've got around him, and it could lead to more solid performances. Purdy's job is straightforward at times – throw it to one of the four elite playmakers running free across the middle of the field on seemingly every play and let them rip off chunks of yards after the catch – but you don't get extra points for degree of difficulty in Fantasy. He might be a better streaming option than he gets credit for.
How did Justin Herbert look in the new Chargers offense?
I'll admit, this was kind of a disappointing showing for Herbert. The Chargers ran 76 plays, as the fast-paced part of the Kellen Moore offense we expected was there – though it was also at least partially a product of how quickly Miami was moving the ball down the field on the other side. That was the good part of the game, and I don't even hold the unbalanced run-pass split (40 runs to 33 passes) against the Chargers, given how effective they were on the ground (5.8 yards per carry). The concern with Herbert is that his average throw only traveled 7.2 yards down the field. That was an improvement over last year's 6.4-yard mark, but was still only 14th among Week 1 QBs. Austin Ekeler's role in the passing game will always drag Herbert's AY/ATT down, but this wasn't necessarily the transformative change we hoped for. I still think Herbert will be an elite Fantasy QB, but the Chargers offense didn't look wholly different in their first game.
One thing I will say, is, the absence of Austin Ekeler in Week 2 might not be the worst thing for Herbert's Fantasy value, even if it might not be good for the Chargers' offense. Targets to running backs -- even to very good pass-catching running backs like Ekeler -- tend to be relatively low efficiency passes for quarterbacks, and trading some of those for targets to the likes of Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, or Quentin Johnston might not be a bad thing for Herbert, especially if the Chargers have to adopt a more pass-heavy approach overall.
Do you play in a deeper full-point PPR league? Over at Sportsline, Jacob Gibbs has you covered with full-point PPR position-by-position rankings for Week 1.
Here are my full QB rankings for Week 2:
Week 1 QB Rankings
- Patrick Mahomes @JAX
- Josh Allen vs. LV
- Lamar Jackson @CIN
- Justin Fields @TB
- Joe Burrow vs. BAL
- Trevor Lawrence vs. KC
- Justin Herbert @TEN
- Tua Tagovailoa @NE
- Geno Smith @DET
- Anthony Richardson @HOU
- Dak Prescott vs. NYJ
- Deshaun Watson @PIT
- Daniel Jones @ARI
- Jared Goff vs. SEA
- Russell Wilson vs. WAS
- Matthew Stafford vs. SF
- Derek Carr @CAR
- Sam Howell @DEN
- Brock Purdy @LAR
- Ryan Tannehill vs. LAC
- Jordan Love @ATL
- Kenny Pickett vs. CLE
- Mac Jones vs. MIA
- Jimmy Garoppolo @BUF
- Baker Mayfield vs. CHI
- C.J. Stroud vs. IND
- Zach Wilson @DAL
- Bryce Young vs. NO
- Desmond RIdder vs. GB
- Joshua Dobbs vs. NYG