Fantasy Football: Top 3 sleeper quarterbacks

Yahoo Fantasy analyst Matt Harmon explains which sleeper quarterbacks fantasy managers should target late in their 2022 fantasy drafts.

Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: I'm Matt Harmon from Yahoo Fantasy. And I'm here with three sleeper quarterbacks for this upcoming season. My first guy here is Trey Lance from the San Francisco 49ers.

Look, this one's pretty simple. Obviously, the 49ers have told us they're moving on from Jimmy Garoppolo. We knew this was coming.

They traded all those draft picks for Trey Lance. They were going to make him the guy sooner than later. He is the guy for this coming season and beyond.

And there's just so much fantasy appeal with a guy like Trey Lance, who has the rushing ability. We saw that in his two starts last year. He was a guy who was running around, getting those extra points on the ground.

That just, from a fantasy perspective, boosts your ceiling and especially your floor for a guy like this. I'm totally comfortable rolling into the season with Trey Lance as my quarterback one, not just because of that rushing ability, but also because this 49ers offense is loaded.

They have Deebo Samuel back under contract. He's locked in. We know he's one of the most unique players in the entire NFL.

George Kittle is a standout at the tight end position. But my guy Brandon Aiyuk I think is ready to take a step in his third NFL season and truly cement himself as one of the top 24 receivers in the NFL right now. The guy can win deep.

And I think that is a better fit with Trey Lance than it was with Jimmy Garoppolo. I think Trey Lance has a top five overall ceiling from a fantasy football perspective because of that passing ability and the ability to win downfield. But I also think he's got a great floor too. So their safety and upside with Trey Lance, a guy that I totally think is going to smash his ADP this off season.

The second guy here is Trevor Lawrence, the first overall pick from last year. Look, the Jaguars were running an unserious operation last year. You could totally forgive Trevor Lawrence's mediocre, actually pretty bad output in that total clown show under Urban Meyer.

With Doug Pederson as the head coach now, this is going to be a legitimate NFL offense. And if you look back at the years that Doug Pederson was the head coach playcaller for the Philadelphia Eagles, they were regularly among the most pass heavy teams in the NFL. They ran a lot of plays.

They played pretty fast. That's a type of ecosystem we want in our fantasy quarterback. And obviously, there were some guys added to the pass catching corps for Jacksonville. They desperately needed that.

Even if there's no star among this pass catching crew, it's going to be average NFL level. That's enough for Trevor Lawrence, who also has some sneaky rushing ability. He had an 18% share of the Jaguars rush attempts last year. That ability to win on the ground and I think just playing in a real NFL offense makes him a potential top 12 quarterback this year that you can get in the late rounds.

Last guy here, and this is the one I'm least confident in. But I do think there's a path for Daniel Jones of the New York Giants to be a fantasy sleeper quarterback. If you're playing in super flex leagues or a two quarterback format, I don't hate going after Daniel Jones on the cheap as a potential option at your second quarterback spot.

Now, look, the danger here is that he could get benched. They didn't renew his fifth year option. They have Tyrod Taylor in there, who's a competent NFL backup like high end backup, low end starter level, has familiarity with this new coaching staff as well in Brian Daboll.

But there's a chance that Daniel Jones and all of these giant players are going from like the outhouse to the penthouse in terms of play calling and offensive design. Jason Garrett, Joe Judge, those guys ran slow, run heavy, old school offenses. That ain't cutting it in today's NFL.

Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka, who comes over as the offensive coordinator from the Chiefs coaching staff, those guys run fast paced offenses. They run pretty high play rates. And they also throw the ball at a decent amount. Is Jones good enough to function in that offense?

We'll see. That remains to be determined. But he does have rushing equity. We know he can run. He's an explosive guy when he actually takes off on the move.

And some of these pass catchers, Wan'Dale Robinson, Kadarius Toney, if they take another step forward as players in their first and second year, then we're really talking here. This offense might actually be better than we expect. So Daniel Jones, I'm not totally confident in him that he's going to start all season long. But the weeks he's out there, I do think he's going to have some fantasy appeal.

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