Fantasy football deep QB sleepers for 2025

The 2025 NFL preseason is wrapping up and that means fantasy football draft season is underway. We finally made it people.

The key to assembling a roster that could carry you to your league’s championship game in January is hitting on the sleeper picks that you make in August and there’s no better feeling than one of your later selections paying immediate dividends. That especially rings true for quarterback. Considering that the average fantasy football league consists of 10-12 teams, one should be able to find both their starter and potentially a good backup option within the top 20 or so QB’s. In deeper leagues, however, you might find yourself scrambling for options as the draft rolls on.

Below, I’ll give you three deep sleeper quarterbacks for you to consider ahead of your respective drafts. For this exercise, I’ll define a deep sleeper as someone currently falling No. 25 or below in ADP (average draft position) according to FantasyPros. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Judging by early ADP, it appears that fantasy managers are writing Smith off. Well, he doesn’t write back remember? The 34-year-old veteran delivered another solid campaign for the Seattle Seahawks in 2024, throwing for just over 4,300 yards with 21 touchdowns while completing a career-high 70.4% of his throws. He wasn’t without flaw, however, as he had 15 interceptions, nine fumbles, and took a staggering 50 sacks last season. Still, the former Comeback Player of the Year managed to produce 281.1 fantasy points, good for 13th among quarterbacks.

Smith is now in Las Vegas, where he has been reunited with the coach that helped resurrect his career in Pete Carroll. He’ll have weapons like Brock Bowers, Jakobi Meyers, and rookie first-rounder Ashton Jeanty to work with and the offense itself could be fun to watch with Chip Kelly coming over from Ohio State as offensive coordinator. If you need a serviceable backup QB or even a starter in certain situation, then look no further than the veteran running the show for the Silver and Black this season.

Moving the aforementioned Smith out via trade this offseason, Seattle promptly replaced him with another QB experiencing a career resurgence in Darnold. The former No. 3 overall pick finally had a breakout season while leading the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 mark, putting up career highs in completion percentage (66.2%), yards (4,319), touchdowns (35), and fantasy points (319.8). Those fantasy points were good for ninth in the league, a boon for managers after he entered 2024 with an ADP of 31 for QB’s.

Darnold will now command a Seahawks offense featuring the likes of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and Kenneth Walker, albeit the latter two both coming off seasons where they missed time due to ankle injuries. He’ll be reunited with new Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who was the passing coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers during their run to Super Bowl 58 in 2023. That season, the Niners led the league in EPA per play, EPA per pass, and success rate with Brock Purdy running the show while Darnold served as a backup.

If the veteran can gain a quick command of Kubiak’s offense, he’ll be a shoo-in to outperform his ADP once again.

Ok, wait, wait, wait. Just hear me out here. Yes, the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback situation is a tire fire, a direct result of the albatross that is Deshaun Watson’s $230 million guaranteed contract and his subsequent Achilles tear. Barring Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, or Shedeur Sanders absolutely lighting it up down the stretch of training camp, the 40-year-old Flacco will be the Week 1 starter for the team.

The Super Bowl 47 MVP has shown that he still has some gas left in the tank over the past few seasons, famously winning Comeback Player of the Year off the strength of five strong starts with the Browns in 2023. Stepping in for Anthony Richardson with the Indianapolis Colts last year, he produced 1,761 passing yards and 12 touchdowns in eight games, good for 15.6 fantasy points per contest.

For prospective fantasy managers in deeper leagues this season, he may not be the worst option to have on your roster in a bind. His ceiling may be low, but he’s more than capable of delivering a solid enough performance to get you through the week.