Ian Hartitz breaks down the top QB free agents and what their 2025 outlook for fantasy football will look like pending landing spot:

Free agency is almost here. Jobs will change, dollars will fly, and we will enjoy it—because what else is a football diehard supposed to do in March?

Today, we're answering the five biggest questions facing the free agent QB class:

  • Who is the crown jewel?
  • Is there a dual-threat project worth pursuing?
  • What veteran still has some juice?
  • Who is the wild card of the group?
  • What QB might wind up being a good reclamation project?

As always: It's a great day to be great.

The Top Free Agent QBs for Fantasy Football in 2025

The Crown Jewel: Sam Darnold

  • 2024 passing stats: 4,319 yards, 35 TD, 12 INT
  • 2024 rushing stats: 67 carries, 212 yards, 1 TD
  • Fantasy points per game: 18.1 (QB9)

Yes, the Vikings' season didn't exactly end the way they hoped after suffering back-to-back blowout losses to the Lions and Rams.

Also yes, Darnold helped engineer one of the league's most efficient passing attacks during the first 17 weeks of the season.

 

While one good season out of seven hardly guarantees Darnold will continue to play at a high level in 2025 and beyond, his big arm certainly looks capable of unlocking a vertical passing game when paired with the right play-caller and receivers.

Only 28 in June, it'd make sense if Darnold fetches something in the ballpark of guys like Derek Carr ($37.5 million per year), Baker Mayfield ($33.3M), and Geno Smith ($25M), even if life without Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings' stud playmakers is far from guaranteed to continue returning these suddenly great results.

Ideal landing spot: Vikings

This could have been the Rams before Matthew Stafford decided to re-sign with Sean McVay and company. Now, it's tough to find another home that presents anything close to the same upside that we just saw in Minnesota. I'd go with the Raiders if forced to pick another team thanks to the presence of Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers; just realize that no QB-needy team combines the star power of Justin Jefferson with the schematic mastery of KOC.

The Dual-Threat Project: Justin Fields

  • 2024 passing stats: 1,106 yards, 5 TD, 1 INT
  • 2024 rushing stats: 62 carries, 289 yards, 5 TD
  • Fantasy points per game: 18.9 (QB8)

Here's the thing with Fields: The man knows how to score fantasy points.

Fields fantasy points per game:

  • 2021: 11.7 (QB30)
  • 2022: 19.7 (QB5)
  • 2023: 17.7 (QB11)
  • 2024: 18.9 (QB8)

Of course, his rushing ability is a big reason for this. Fields joins Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels as the only QBs in NFL history to average at least 50 rush yards per game; the 25-year-old talent is a legit threat to take it the distance anytime he takes off.

Now, consistent passing excellence hasn't exactly been on the table here, although it's worth wondering if a better scheme and supporting cast could bring out another level. After all, Fields has all the arm talent in the world, are we positive this dude can't figure it out?

Ideal landing spot: Raiders

Fields would immediately work with the best one-two punch of his career in Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers. Additionally, OC Chip Kelly is plenty familiar with getting the most out of dual-threat QBs and could simplify the passing game enough to help Fields become more decisive from the pocket. Sign me up!

The Moon Ball Specialist: Russell Wilson

  • 2024 passing stats: 2,482 yards, 16 TD, 5 INT
  • 2024 rushing stats: 43 carries, 155 yards, 2 TD
  • Fantasy points per game: 15.7 (QB15)

It's not like Russ got back to partying like it's 2015 again with the Steelers, but it was at least a step back in the right direction.

 

However, the one thing that hasn't gone out of style just yet? Wilson's patented moon ball!

Overall, nobody had a higher passer rating (126.3) or averaged more yards per attempt (16.1) on passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield in 2024 (including playoffs).

37 next November, it's far more likely than not that Wilson has already played his best football. Still, it'd be difficult to name more than 20-25 better players at the position; at a minimum, the artist known as DangeRuss should be able to land a job as a bridge QB somewhere.

Ideal landing spot: Browns

We've seen Jameis Winston and Joe Flacco flourish in Kevin Stefanski's play-action heavy, vertical passing game. Russ could be the next veteran to find some success in Cleveland, even if this match would inevitably feature stiff competition with whoever the Browns wind up selecting at No. 2 overall.

The Wild Card: Jameis Winston

  • 2024 passing stats: 2,121 yards, 13 TD, 12 INT
  • 2024 rushing stats: 25 carries, 83 yards, 1 TD (and it was awesome)
  • Fantasy points per game: 17.4 (QB13)

It's been five long, cold years since Winston started more than seven games in a season. While the results have certainly been up and down for the fearless gunslinger, the fact that he's indeed produced plenty of the former variable is more than a lot of signal-callers can say.

Consider: Winston averaged 291.1 passing yards per game in his seven starts last season–that was better than the NFL's leading passer Joe Burrow (289.3)! Leading the league in turnover-worthy play rate (5.2%) was far from ideal, but big-time performances against the Ravens (334-3-0) and Broncos (497-4-3) reflected the reality that there remains a ceiling worth chasing here.

Of course, for all of Winston's faults, he has consistently proven capable of enabling high-end WRs. Just look at Jerry Jeudy's performance last season.

Ideal landing spot: Jets

Maybe it's my inner-Columbus, Ohio soul speaking here, but pairing Jameis with Garret Wilson would be borderline erotic for fantasy football purposes. In this scenario, the J-e-t-s Jets Jets Jets would be willing to give Winston the sort of long leash that America needs.

Would this pairing make the Jets any less of a joke than they usually are? Probably not, but at least this time, that joke would be funny!

The Reclamation Project: Daniel Jones

  • 2024 passing stats: 2,070 yards, 8 TD, 7 INT
  • 2024 rushing stats: 67 carries, 265 yards, 2 TD
  • Fantasy points per game: 13.5 (QB26)

Year 1 with Brian Daboll produced Jones' best season and a playoff win. Year 2 was rough, but only consisted of six games inside of a rather lackluster offense.

The latter variable wasn't exactly fully solved in 2024, but let's face it: Jones' standing as one of the league's worst QBs made it a fairly easy decision to move on from the former sixth-overall pick.

 

That said, Jones wouldn't be the first talented QB failed by a less-than-stellar organization (at least in recent years). The man was picked sixth overall back in the day for a reason and theoretically has the ability to stress defenses both horizontally and vertically.

It's probably not realistic for Jones to get an immediate chance to start somewhere else, but perhaps a smart organization can rebuild the 27-year-old veteran enough to give him a shot at pulling off his own Tannehill/Darnold-esque comeback in a few years.

Ideal landing spot: Vikings

Every quarterback Kevin O'Connell touches seems to turn to gold. If Darnold is out of the picture, Jones could learn inside of easily the best offense of his career while providing injury protection to J.J. McCarthy.

More Free Agent Quarterbacks To Monitor

  • Aaron Rodgers: The man certainly didn't play at an MVP level in 2024, although his standing as the QB21 in EPA per dropback reflects the reality that we aren't exactly looking at one of the league's worst QBs. The Rams sure looked like a possible suitor to get the most out of the 41-year-old veteran, but obviously that ship has sailed. At this point, Las Vegas would probably be Rodgers' best bet; it's tough to see him overly thriving in somewhere like New York or Cleveland.
     
  • Zach Wilson: My comp for Wilson is if Patrick Mahomes was forced to play every game while blackout drunk. This is due to his big arm, escapability … and typically horrendous decision-making. That said: Wilson continues to boast the draft pedigree and physical tools that will inevitably keep teams calling back in hopes that they can fix the 25-year-old talent.
     
  • Trey Lance: In a similar bucket as Wilson, but with even less actual proven production. Still, Lance's dual-threat ability would raise the floor of any run game–it'd be fun to see him as a backup somewhere like Indy or Baltimore, where he'd have the opportunity to learn in a scheme that best fits his talents.
     
  • Jacoby Brissett: The 32-year-old journeyman did some good things in Cleveland and Washington during the 2022 and 2023 seasons before flaming out inside the Patriots' sad excuse for an offense last year. Providing some veteran leadership with a rookie QB somewhere like Tennessee or Las Vegas would make sense.
     
  • Marcus Mariota: Small-sample size be damned: Mariota easily put up the best numbers of his career across the board in Washington last season. His performance against the Panthers was legit good! No, this doesn't mean the former No. 2 overall pick has earned a newfound starting job elsewhere, but re-upping in Washington, or serving as a dual-threat backup somewhere like Baltimore or Arizona, could work.
     
  • Drew Lock: Was mostly terrible last season … but for 60 glorious minutes against the Colts, the Jeezy diehard put together one of the best performances of the season. Seriously, Lock's +1.18 EPA per play was good for the sixth-best single-game performance since 1999! I highly doubt that this singular game will be enough to earn Lock a starting job elsewhere, but there are certainly worse (and less entertaining) backups across the league.
     
  • Joe Flacco: He has cleared the 300-yard threshold in seven of his 12 spot-starts over the past two seasons. That's more than guys like Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love, Derek Carr, Lamar Jackson, and Jalen Hurts, among others. The 40-year-old veteran's big arm and fearless downfield mindset continue to make him one of the higher-ceiling backups out there.
     
  • Mac Jones: The former first-round pick only turns 27 in September and at least proved capable of enabling Brian Thomas to some big performances down the stretch of last season.
     
  • Jimmy Garoppolo: Randomly went for 334 yards and a pair of TDs in a meaningless Week 18 matchup vs. the Seahawks last season. The 33-year-old veteran is probably handsome enough to continue cashing backup paychecks for a few more years.
     
  • Mason Rudolph: You can view Rudolph as a viable vertically-minded backup if you squint hard enough. While last year's experiment in Tennessee didn't yield the same sky-high results we saw in 2023 with the Steelers (seriously!), the 29-year-old veteran is still probably a top 60 or so QB on the planet.
     
  • Cooper Rush: He was a muffed blocked punt away from leading the Cowboys on a five-game winning streak last season. His performances against the Panthers and Buccaneers were legitimately good, although his career average of 6.4 yards per attempt on a 60.7% completion rate reflects the reality that "game-manager" is the nicest way to describe the longtime Cowboys backup.
     
  • Tyler Huntley: The former Pro Bowler (lol) looked rather horrendous in three of his four extended appearances last season, but the artist known as Snoop still figures to earn a backup opportunity somewhere, because why not?