The importance of quarterbacks in fantasy football has waxed and waned over the years, but the elite ones still serve as game-changers. It's a passing era, as evidenced by the 980-395 collective passing/rushing splits over the past two Super Bowls. So, with the smoke cleared from the Chiefs' second title in four years, we decided to compile a way-too-early top 10 ranking of the 2023 fantasy QBs.
It may seem "way too early," with the 2023 NFL season set to kick off roughly 200 days from this article's publication, but it's never too early to get a head-start on fantasy planning for the following season. The research we conduct and mental notes we leave ourselves now could pay off handsomely in the long run, as fantasy draft season tends to be a whirlwind.
The 2022 season could be a distant memory for us in seven months, whereas it's currently fresh in our minds. So, let's use that freshness to our advantage and determine which order we would select the top crop of QBs if our 2023 fantasy football leagues drafted today.
2023 FANTASY RANKINGS: RBs | WRs | TEs
Early 2023 Fantasy QB Rankings
| Rank | Player | Team |
| 1 | Patrick Mahomes | KC |
| 2 | Josh Allen | BUF |
| 3 | Jalen Hurts | PHI |
| 4 | Joe Burrow | CIN |
| 5 | Lamar Jackson | BAL |
| 6 | Justin Fields | CHI |
| 7 | Justin Herbert | LAC |
| 8 | Dak Prescott | DAL |
| 9 | Kirk Cousins | MIN |
| 10 | Trevor Lawrence | JAX |
Likely no surprise to anyone, our top four QBs for 2023 consist of the same top four who led all QBs in fantasy scoring in 2022. You would have probably only needed one chance to name the four: 2022 MVP and Super Bowl 57 MVP Patrick Mahomes, NFC champion and MVP runner-up Jalen Hurts, Bills superstar and 2022 preseason MVP favorite Josh Allen (who finished third in MVP voting), and 2021 AFC champ Joe Burrow (fourth in MVP voting). Our entire fantasy team had Mahomes and Allen atop the rankings, and each analyst had Hurts and Burrow either third or fourth.
That's where things get interesting. My colleagues selected Justin Herbert fifth, while I had the 2020 Rookie of the Year seventh. It's not that I doubt the QB's skills — he's great. I just can't get past the fact that (a) he just finished 11th in QB fantasy points, (b) extremely injury-prone players Keenan Allen and Mike Williams are his top two wideouts, and (c) Austin Ekeler remains the MVP of the Chargers offense. For these reasons, I chose Lamar Jackson and Justin Fields ahead of Herbs.
L-Jax and Fields are prototypical mobile QBs, possibly the best two not named Michael Vick to ever do it. We expect Jackson to get paid and the Baltimore brass to get him some pass-catching help to complement stud tight end Mark Andrews and wideout Rashod Bateman, the latter of whom missed most of the 2022 season with a foot injury.
As for Fields, the future of the Bears organization around him is uncertain, but he could put up top-six fantasy numbers with Adam Sandler's Mean Machine around him. The soon-to-be third-year QB has modeled his running game after Jackson, and the result was an NFL-leading 7.1 yards per carry and eight ground TDs.
The remaining top 10 was easy except for the tough omission of Tua Tagovailoa, whom my colleagues included in the tail end of their rankings. A healthy Tua with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle is undoubtedly dominant, but multiple concussions this season will have me staying away from him in drafts. I'd rather have Dak Prescott, Kirk Cousins, and Trevor Lawrence.
Dak missed five games after breaking bones in his hand in the 2022 NFL season opener, but he was incendiary in the second half of the season. Cousins had arguably his best season as a pro, leading the NFL with eight game-winning comeback drives with the help of Offensive Player of the Year Justin Jefferson. T-Law might be the NFL's next superstar in the making, having led the Jags from worst to first in the AFC South in just one season under Doug Pederson.