Fantasy Scramble 2026: Quarterbacks
Three Quarterbacks The Egg Can’t Stop Drafting
By: Steven Eggert · 20hr
I’m writing the fantasy scramble series to best help fantasy managers navigate the 2026 NFL season from draft day to postseason. Here are three quarterbacks I’ve left mock drafts with the most shares of, with reasons to be optimistic in 2026.
Patrick Mahomes
Former OC’s return, revamped run game will bring young GOAT back to fantasy stardom.
Mahomes is FantasyPros’ QB14 heading into the 2026 season, and that feels too low. Some other sites rank him even lower. That’s especially surprising considering he finished as a top-six fantasy quarterback in seven of his first eight games last season in six-point passing-TD formats.
Much of that start was attributed to his rushing, but that tells only part of the story. In his five highest-scoring games in that format, Mahomes didn’t exceed 32 rushing yards in any game and scored just one rushing touchdown.
The Chiefs’ season cratered starting in Week 9. They lost five of their next six games, Mahomes threw five touchdowns against eight interceptions and, in mid-December, tore his ACL and LCL. Four of those five touchdowns came in one game.
Now Eric Bieniemy is back as offensive coordinator after Matt Nagy’s departure. Bieniemy helped orchestrate one of the NFL’s most potent offenses during his first tenure from 2018-22. The Chiefs averaged 30.1 points per game under Bieniemy compared with 21.9 under Nagy, while also gaining more yards and converting at higher rates on third and fourth downs.
Mahomes had Tyreek Hill for most of Bieniemy’s tenure, an important caveat. But the Chiefs led the NFL in scoring at 29.2 points per game in 2022 without Hill. Mahomes led the league with 5,250 passing yards and 41 touchdowns that season and eventually won the Super Bowl.
Travis Kelce isn’t who he was five years ago, and Hill is unlikely to return. But Ken Walker is arguably the most significant positional upgrade of the Mahomes era, especially in the context of replacing the inefficient Kareem Hunt-Isiah Pacheco duo the last few seasons. With a legitimate rushing threat, Walker’s addition could be every bit a passing upgrade as it is to the run game.
The offensive line remains the biggest question mark, but if Mahomes is healthy, his pass catchers avoid major injuries and drama, and Walker’s impact is as significant as anticipated, there’s little reason to believe QB14 represents Mahomes’ true fantasy floor.
https://x.com/Ihartitz/status/2087627118423449825?s=20
Trevor Lawrence
Performance will match pedigree in year 2 under Coen with deep weapons arsenal.
It was a tale of two seasons for the up-and-down, former No. 1 pick. While starting 4-3 showed the Jaguars had promise, Liam Coen and Trevor Lawrence were trying, and failing at times, to mesh. Through seven games, according to Sports Illustrated, Lawrence was 23rd in QBR, 25th in Expected Points Added per drop back, 28th in success rate, and 29th in big-time throw rate.
Through Week 10, Lawrence’s bad-throw percentage was at 20%. According to League Station, that would’ve placed him between Cam Ward (22nd) and Caleb Williams (23rd) among 23 quarterbacks with more than 350 pass attempts in 2025. He also had subpar offensive line play and a league-high 21 drops by his receivers.
Lawrence improved dramatically on that metric in the second half. So much so, in fact, that he finished the season at 14.4%, ranking sixth out of 23 quarterbacks. His connections with Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter are still developing. But the Week Ten Jakobi Meyers acquisition and Brenton Strange’s return by Week 12 made up for the underwhelming 2025 of both first-rounders. The real star of the second half, though, was Parker Washington.
From Week Nine on, Washington was second with 2.69 yards per route run and second with a 90.8 Pro Football Focus receiving grade (only to Puka Nakua). Washington’s passer rating when targeted over that span was 124.3, while Thomas Jr.’s PRWT for the season was 83—61st out of 81 qualified receivers per PFF.
If Thomas Jr. and Hunter develop as needed, Washington continues to ascend and the versatile Meyers continues becoming a security blanket, Lawrence is well-equipped to be a top five fantasy quarterback at season’s end.
https://x.com/AlfredoABrown/status/2092785540152041673?s=20
Tyler Shough
Rookie flashes, Moore’s system and favorable 2026 schedule could reward patient drafters.
The Saints caught some flak for drafting a then-25-year-old quarterback in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Once Shough developed and became more comfortable in Kellen Moore’s system, it wasn’t hard to see why.
After taking over the starting job in Week 9, Shough helped the 1-8 Saints finish the season 6-11. The Saints went 5-4 in his nine starts, including wins in four of their final five games. He completed 67.6% of his passes at a 7.3 yards-per-attempt clip. He’s very good at layering the football, which can be difficult for young quarterbacks to develop early on, but he turns 27 in September. He has above-average size, mobility, and the capability to make all the necessary throws.
But the most exciting things about Shough are twofold. First, he has one of the easiest schedules for quarterbacks in 2026. Second is the upward-trending supporting cast.
The offensive line was ranked 16th by PFF heading into 2026, highlighted by bookend tackles Kelvin Banks Jr. and Taliese Fuaga. The Saints sought to improve the run game and added a proven starter in Travis Etienne Jr. They also added a slew of complementary pass catchers around Chris Olave and Juwan Johnson.
A huge area of development heading into this season will be avoiding sacks. His 25% PFF pressure-to-sack rate ranked 27th out of 43 qualified quarterbacks. If he improves under pressure, gets even more comfortable in Moore’s system and has a healthy supporting cast, Shough can capably pick up where he left off in 2025.
Comments:
Log in or sign up to read and post comments.