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Once you reach the middle rounds of drafts, everyone wants to draft high-upside players that can provide a great return on value. You can afford to take some risks on a variety of different players, including forgotten veterans, players returning from injuries, or even skilled players with potential playing time concerns.
It's essential to have at least a handful of these players at each position heading into your fantasy football drafts, no matter the format. Here are more mid-round quarterbacks for you to consider drafting this season.
Our editors have hand-picked these specific NFL players for your draft prep enjoyment. Normally only available to Premium subscribers, the outlooks below are meant to give you a taste of the in-depth analysis you receive with our industry-leading 2022 Draft Kit. Be sure to subscribe today and start reading all 300+ of our 2022 player outlooks, along with many other premium articles and tools available exclusively in our 2022 Draft Kit.
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Kyler Murray, Cardinals, Fantasy Football Outlook
Arizona Cardinals' fourth-year quarterback Kyler Murray enters 2022 with one of the league's best passing and rushing ability combinations. This gives him a ceiling of the overall QB1 for fantasy.
However, unlocking his potential is highly dependent on three factors: rushing production holding steady throughout the season, touchdown efficiency continuing to improve, and passing production treading water during wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins' six-game suspension.
Murray has tended to scale back his rushing as the season wears on, which has helped his durability but hurt his fantasy managers. His touchdown rate in his first three years in the league has improved each season but has never been a strong point, finishing 27th, 19th, and 12th over his first three years.
The addition of his former college teammate, wide receiver Marquise Brown, should help address the early-season absence of Hopkins while also unlocking the potential of the passing game upon his return. The opportunity is there for Murray to be an elite fantasy producer, and it is well worth taking the chance at his ADP hovering just inside the top-60 as the QB5.
Aaron Rodgers, Packers, Fantasy Football Outlook
For the second season in a row, Rodgers was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player. He has an ungodly 85-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio over the two-year span and has showed no signs of slowing down as he approaches age 40.
Rodgers was in the news last year just as much for his vaccine views, love life and contract soap opera than he was for his stellar play. The good news is he remains one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL and in fantasy football. The bad news, and it is BAD, is that Rodgers will be without his favorite go-to guy, Davante Adams, for the first time in eight years.
Even worse, the Packers did a poor job of replacing Adams since signing injury-prone Sammy Watkins and drafting Christian Watson in the second round was an underwhelming way of improving their depleted receiver corps. Rodgers' numbers have nowhere to go but down anyway after his past two superb seasons, and it is hard to fathom him being able to give fantasy managers any more than 4,200 passing yards and 30-32 touchdown tosses unless there is a drastic upgrade to his receiver core before the season's start.
Do not hold your breath on that given Green Bay's history of adding impact players through the draft and not via free agency. Rodgers is still a QB1 but will not be as dominant as he was during his MVP years.
Kirk Cousins, Vikings, Fantasy Football Outlook
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is the epitome of consistency, spending his career below the elite tier of fantasy quarterbacks. Over the past four seasons, he has finished as the QB13, QB18, QB9, and QB 11, respectively. In 2021, the veteran passed for 4,221 yards and 33 touchdowns, similar to his 2020 numbers of 4,265 yards and 35 touchdowns.
The question is not what Cousins offers, but is what he provides worth drafting as a starting fantasy quarterback? The Vikings' personnel is nearly identical to last year, with Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, and Dalvin Cook leading the charge, plus a healthy Irv Smith Jr. returning from injury.
The 33-year-old passed for two or more touchdowns 11 times last season, but never more than three, and passed for 200+ yards 13 times, but never more than 351, further illustrating the high-floor, low-ceiling combination he provides.
While Cousins is always available later in drafts and the end-of-season finishes are okay, his inability to deliver week-winning performances will limit your team's opportunity to compete. Cousins, currently ranked 15th in Rotoballer's rankings, is best suited to be a steamer or your second quarterback in a two-quarterback or Superflex league.
Joe Burrow, Bengals, Fantasy Football Outlook
Joe Burrow was phenomenal in his second year coming off a torn ACL he suffered as a rookie. He completed 70.4% of his passes for 4,611 yards, 34 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions and led the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl. He even added 118 yards and two more scores on the ground.
Those numbers were good for QB10 on the season. While there's certainly room for improvement, Burrow and the Bengals won't have it easy in 2022. They have the third-toughest schedule this season, with their opponents having a combined win percentage of 0.536 (154-133-2) in 2021. However, the Bengals focused their attention this offseason on the offensive line to keep Burrow upright after allowing the third-most sacks (55) last season. They brought in RT La'el Collins, C Ted Karras, and G Alex Cappa, which immediately upgrades three of the spots on the offensive line.
Pair these three with LT Jonah Williams and G Jackson Carman, and you're looking at a very formidable unit that should allow fewer sacks and give Burrow more time in a clean pocket. That's a dangerous formula for defenses trying to stop this high-powered offense that features Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
With nearly the entire offense intact, despite switching out C.J. Uzomah for Hayden Hurst, Burrow should once again thrive in 2022 despite the tough schedule. Because he doesn't have much rushing upside, Burrow should be considered a low-end QB1 with top-10 upside this season.
Jalen Hurts, Eagles, Fantasy Football Outlook
Jalen Hurts has been fantasy football gold his first two seasons in the NFL. As a rookie, he finished as QB7 on a per-game basis, averaging 23.7 fantasy points per game (PPG) in four starts. In 2021, he finished as QB6, averaging 21.4 PPG. But last year was a tale of two seasons for Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles. Between Weeks 1 and 7, they passed nearly 60% of the time.
From Week 8 on, however, they passed just 41.5%. A complete 180 in terms of a game plan, which actually suppressed Hurts' fantasy value. In his first seven games, he averaged 25 PPG, while in his last eight games he averaged just 18.3 PPG. 18.3 PPG was still good for QB10 on a per-game basis during that stretch, but his upside was capped. Even still, it's clear to see that his rushing ability gives him an extremely safe floor at the quarterback position.
In fact, he's scored fewer than 16 fantasy points in a game in just three of his 19 career starts because he's averaged 55.6 rushing yards and 0.7 rushing touchdowns per game. Now let's project forward to 2022. Shane Steichen will be taking over offensive playcalling duties from Nick Sirianni. In 2020, he was the offensive coordinator calling plays for the Los Angeles Chargers, who led the league in plays per game (70.4). Even if it's a 50/50 run/pass split, that would mean Hurts still airs it out 35 times per game.
When he did that in 2021, he was an elite fantasy QB1. What else happened this offseason? Oh, you know, the Eagles just went out and traded for Hurts' best friend, who also just so happens to be one of the best receivers in the NFL in A.J. Brown. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert form one of the best pass-catching trios in the league that should enable Jalen Hurts to take his game to the next level in Year Three. At worst, he's a low-end QB1. At best, he's the overall QB1 in fantasy football.
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