Fantasy Football 2015 Quarterback Rankings: Deeper Than Ever

The 2015 Quarterback rankings look a little different this season than in years past, but your Fantasy Football league won’t suddenly see more quarterbacks taken in the early rounds. For the most part, it’s business as usual, just with some names swapped out for others.

Last summer, just before the 2014 NFL season started, I made a bold prediction on FantasySports.About.com that Andrew Luck would bump out Peyton Manning among the top three Fantasy Football quarterbacks in 2014. It came true! … Let’s not bring up the other 15-plus predictions I made that didn’t come true!

Interestingly, both Manning and Drew Brees come into the 2015 Fantasy season a full tier down from Luck and Aaron Rodgers. Brees and Manning were the top two Fantasy scorers among quarterbacks back in 2013, but their fates for 2015 have changed a bit.

One trend has definitely continued, as we’ve seen passing games continue to climb over the past few seasons. From 2011 to 2013, there was an average of 12 Fantasy quarterbacks to score 300 or more Fantasy points. But in 2014, we saw 17 quarterbacks score that many Fantasy points, further diluting the power of the best of the bunch. If you can wait until the latter rounds to get a QB that’s going to score 325-plus Fantasy points, then why bother grabbing one in the fifth or sixth rounds?

Fantasy Football 2015 Quarterback Rankings

These rankings are for standard Fantasy Football leagues that score four points for passing touchdowns and deduct one point for an interception.

1. Andrew Luck, Indianapolis: He lost Reggie Wayne, who was past his prime, but he added Andre Johnson, rookie speedster Phillip Dorsett, and a solid pass-catching tailback in veteran Frank Gore.

2. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay: In his past three full NFL seasons, Rodgers has averaged 41 passing touchdowns.

3. Peyton Manning, Denver: He loses an over-the-hill Wes Welker, but he also loses red-zone threat TE Julius Thomas. He slowed down late last season, but he’s still a 300/3-TD game kinda guy.

4. Drew Brees, New Orleans: While both Luck and Manning lost key cogs, neither of them lost anyone the caliber of TE Jimmy Graham. (Kenny Stills is in Miami now, too.) But at least Brees gets back a healthy Brandin Cooks.

5. Russell Wilson, Seattle: Pete Carroll allowed Wilson to run when he needed to last season, and the former N.C. State QB took off for a career-high 849 rushing yards and six touchdowns. Those numbers should come back a bit, but his passing touchdowns should climb also, with Jimmy Graham owning the end zone.

6. Cam Newton, Carolina: Newton has proven to be a quality Fantasy starter now, entering his fifth season, and he has the added bonus of being able to run for 5-10 touchdowns a season. Plus, he gets a super sophomore in Kelvin Benjamin, a stellar tight end in Greg Olsen, and an intriguing freshman WR in Devin Funchess.

7. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh: Some think Big Ben should be ranked higher – but he had 12 touchdown passes in just two games last year, though. Some think Big Ben should be ranked lower – but he has the best wide receiver in the game in Antonio Brown and one of the best pass-catching RBs in Le’Veon Bell.

8. Tom Brady, New England: He’s officially suspended for four games, but he is appealing it. Is there any doubt Brady and head coach Bill Belichick will be ready to destroy defenses again with a huge chip on their shoulder, much like 2007? His Fantasy PPG might rank in the top three by season’s end.

9. Tony Romo, Dallas: He averaged close to two passing touchdowns in the first eight games, and then blew up with 19 touchdown passes (co-leader of the NFL) from Weeks 10-17, which included a bye week! The departure of DeMarco Murray means the Cowboys might have to pass more again (he threw 100 fewer passes in 2014 compared to 2013 – and 200 fewer passes than in 2012).

10. Matt Ryan, Atlanta: His snake-bitten offensive line should be healthy again to start the season, and new offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan should continue the Falcons’ passing ways.

11. Ryan Tannehill, Miami: There’s so much Fantasy love for Tannehill right now, it’s going to be tough to get him at a good value. He lost disgruntled Mike Wallace, but his receiving corps is loaded to the gills, with sophomore Jarvis Landry and rookie DeVante Parker likely starting, and Kenny Stills and Greg Jennings waiting in the wings. Tannehill also gets Jordan Cameron at tight end in place off Charles Clay.

12. Eli Manning, N.Y. Giants: The younger Manning brother threw for 30 touchdowns last season, but he really picked up his Fantasy game in the second half of the season. After the Giants’ Week 8 bye, he finished just behind Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers in Fantasy points from Weeks 9-17. He gets Victor Cruz (knee) back, but he should still be a bit limited. Meanwhile, Odell Beckham Jr. will have a full training camp to prepare for his super sophomore season.

13. Matthew Stafford, Detroit: Stafford was a huge disappointment last season, not throwing any touchdown passes in four different games, and only throwing for three or more TDs just once.

14. Philip Rivers, San Diego: Rivers has 63 touchdown passes in his past two seasons, but he threw 18 picks in 2014, and the Chargers drafted RB Melvin Gordon.

15. Jay Cutler, Chicago: The Bears swapped out Brandon Marshall with rookie Kevin White, but it’s still the inconsistent Cutler throwing the ball.

16. Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota: Adrian Peterson is back (possibly), and the Vikings picked up Mike Wallace from the Dolphins. From Weeks 12-17, Bridgewater threw for 10 touchdowns and six interceptions, averaging 240 passing yards per game.

17. Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco: Kaepernick had a shaky 2014, but he worked on his mechanics with Kurt Warner this offseason, so we’ll see which Kaepernick we get in 2015.

18. Sam Bradford, Philadelphia: Bradford has missed most of the past two seasons with ACL injuries, but if he can stay healthy in 2015, he could be handed the keys to Chip Kelly’s high-powered offense.

19. Joe Flacco, Baltimore: He threw for a career high 3,986 yards, but he lost Torrey Smith this offseason. But he gets new offensive coordinator Marc Trestman (and rookie speedster Breshad Perriman) to help him and his passing game in 2015.

20. Carson Palmer, Arizona: In the six games Palmer played last season, he threw two touchdown passes in five of them. He’s back from a torn ACL, and he his wide receiving corps has plenty of potential.

2015 Fantasy Mock Draft Results For Quarterbacks

I used this free Draft Wizard Mock Draft tool to see where the quarterbacks were getting drafted, so I thought that would be interesting to share with you as well. I set it for a 12-team league with standard non-PPR scoring, with 1-QB, 2-RB, 2-WR, 1-TE, 1-FLEX, 1-K and 1-DST in the starting lineups, using the Experts Consensus Rankings as the default for the computer teams. Also, I chose to pick sixth. Here’s where the quarterbacks were drafted in that 2015 Fantasy Football mock draft.

• 2.02 Andrew Luck, Indianapolis
• 2.11 Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay
• 3.07 Russell Wilson, Seattle
• 3.08 Peyton Manning, Denver
• 4.08 Drew Brees, New Orleans
• 5.12 Tom Brady, New England
• 6.02 Matt Ryan, Atlanta
• 6.12 Cam Newton, Carolina
• 7.03 Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh
• 7.04 Tony Romo, Dallas
• 7.09 Philip Rivers, San Diego
• 8.07 Ryan Tannehill, Miami
• 10.01 Eli Manning, N.Y. Giants
• 10.02 Matthew Stafford, Detroit
• 10.04 Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco
• 10.09 Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota
• 10.10 Carson Palmer, Arizona
• 10.12 Jay Cutler, Chicago
• 11.05 Sam Bradford, Philadelphia
• 12.05 Jameis Winston, Tampa Bay
• 12.06 Joe Flacco, Baltimore

I ended up waiting too long at quarterback, getting Tannehill as my starter in Round 8. In hindsight, I needed to go with Cam Newton in Round 6. As you can see, though, there are good quarterbacks to be taken after Round 5. There were 21 quarterbacks drafted in this mock draft.

Try out the free Draft Wizard mock draft tool and see what kind of team you can put together. Most importantly, for the sake of this article, follow along to see where the quarterbacks end up getting drafted. We’ll do this exercise for each of our position rankings.

2015 Fantasy QB Rankings

Below are our 2015 Fantasy Football Quarterback Rankings compared to the “Experts Consensus Rankings” from FantasyPros.com

While you don’t necessarily have to have one of the top five players in our Fantasy Football 2015 Quarterback rankings, you certainly don’t want to start the season without a top-15 quarterback.