Fantasy Football Sleepers: 6 QBs to consider late in drafts

Cousins was the QB8 in fantasy points per game last season, and he’ll once again get to play indoors and surrounded by even bigger stars. Cousins is 36 years old, recovering from a torn Achilles and has a top-10 draft pick ostensibly behind him on the depth chart, but he’s expected to be Atlanta’s starter throughout 2024. The Falcons have a strong offensive line and the league’s easiest projected schedule by a significant margin. Cousins will also have Drake London, Kyle Pitts and Bijan Robinson as targets, so he should outperform his ADP.

Goff lacks the fantasy upside of other quarterbacks who run, but he’s a sneaky strong option if you can play him exclusively at home. Goff has averaged 277.2 passing yards (7.9 YPA) with 44 touchdowns over 17 games in Detroit over the last two seasons. The Lions play all but three games indoors this season, so Goff will be usable elsewhere too, but he’s a borderline top 10 fantasy QB at home — and the Lions get nine games in Detroit in 2024.

The Vikings project to be throwing frequently in a Kevin O’Connell offense, so Darnold is a deep fantasy sleeper with J.J. McCarthy out for the season. Darnold will make mistakes but he flashed when given an opportunity in Carolina in 2022, and he’s in a much better environment now. Justin Jefferson is the league’s best wide receiver, and Darnold will be playing indoors in an offense that helped Nick Mullens and Josh Dobbs produce multiple top-10 fantasy performances last season. Darnold is a sneaky target in Superflex leagues.

Justin Fields, Pittsburgh Steelers (Yahoo ADP: 126.2)

Russell Wilson remains the favorite to enter 2024 as Pittsburgh’s starter, but Fields would become a top-12 fantasy QB if he were to take over at any point in the season. Wilson might be completely washed, and he’s also an increased injury risk at this stage of his career. Fields has many limitations as an NFL QB, but he was a top-five fantasy quarterback during healthy starts over the last two seasons despite being in a horrible situation.

Fields has averaged the second-most rushing yards (55.5) among QBs in NFL history, so he’s likely to have bigger fantasy weeks than 20+ quarterbacks drafted ahead of him.

Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks (Yahoo ADP: 134)

Smith’s stats took a big step back last year, but he was quietly top 10 in success rate from a clean pocket and under pressure. He also led the league in Big Time Throw% on deep passes for the second straight year while recording the fourth-best pressure-to-sack ratio behind a horrific offensive line. The Seahawks produced the fewest plays in the league thanks to unsustainably poor success on third downs (on both sides of the ball) which should regress in 2024.

Seattle’s o-line should also improve this season, and new OC Ryan Grubb will use more motion and was extremely aggressive in college. Smith gets to throw to DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and a healthy Jaxon Smith-Njigba in Year 2 in a division featuring shootouts and is one season removed from leading the NFC in passing touchdowns. Considering he isn’t being drafted in 89% of Yahoo leagues, he’s a sleeper.

Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders (Yahoo ADP: 100.6)

Daniels may be less of a “sleeper” as the season approaches, but he remains plenty capable of smashing his current ADP. Last season in college he averaged the second-most fantasy points per game (40.2) since 2016 and the second-most fantasy points per dropback since 2014. Daniels averaged 60+ rushing yards and scored 34 rushing touchdowns during his college career, and Kliff Kingsbury helped Kyler Murray finish as a top-10 QB as a rookie. Kingsbury’s scheme ranked first in situation-neutral pace and no-huddle rate during his four seasons in Arizona, and Washington is first in pace through two preseason games. Kingsbury’s offense also produced runs against light boxes at a league-high rate while with the Cardinals.

Daniels is a truly elite runner who led all NCAA quarterbacks last year in missed tackles forced per attempt (0.72) while leading all Power Five QBs in rushing yards (1,250), YPC (10.4), scrambles (55) and PFF Rushing Grade (92.4 — the best ever). Running not only increases a fantasy quarterback’s upside but also his floor, and Daniels is likely to run as much as any QB in the league as a rookie.

Daniels is unquestionably an injury risk, but high-upside picks (assuming not Superflex) make a lot of sense with the quarterback position deeper than ever. Daniels is the No. 8 QB on my board.