Dynasty Fantasy Football QB Trade Targets and Avoids: 4 Quarterbacks to Buy or Sell (2025)

May 24, 2025

John's dynasty fantasy football trade advice for quarterbacks to target and avoid. His top buys and sells for 2025: Brock Purdy, Anthony Richardson, J.J. McCarthy, and Patrick Mahomes.

Quarterbacks happen to (usually) be the longest-lasting players in dynasty fantasy football, so there are multiple windows in which it makes sense to trade some away and buy others. The position, like others, is sensitive to injury luck to players around it and other factors, like coaching.

As such, there are QBs you should dump as soon as you can and others you should be looking to buy. Whether a quarterback is hyped, yet will fail to ever achieve what people think he can, or if he had a poor season due to everyone around him getting hurt, there are undervaluations and overvaluations every season.

Let's break down four quarterbacks who are overpriced or underpriced and whether you should sell or buy them.

Buy: Brock Purdy, QB, San Francisco 49ers

Purdy likely just capped his worst season as a pro for the next five years. The 49ers were plagued by injuries and ailments last season. Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk held out for a new contract and missed a lot of training camp, so he was rusty to start the season. Then, he tore his ACL and MCL in Week 7. Rookie WR Ricky Pearsall missed six games due to a gunshot wound in the offseason.

WR Deebo Samuel Sr. caught pneumonia and never returned to his old self for the rest of the 2024 season. And star running back Christian McCaffrey barely played at all due to bilateral Achilles tendinitis and a PCL injury. The offensive line also collapsed when left tackle Trent Williams started battling injuries, and he ultimately missed time.

Brock Purdy’s 2024 Rushing Highlights! #49ers #BrockPurdy pic.twitter.com/V7pgPSBbek

— Chris (@NinerChriss) February 26, 2025

Yet, Purdy still had a solid season, absolutely carrying his offense for most of the year. The gimmicky Samuel plays weren't working, Aiyuk didn't have a strong connection with Purdy when he played, and Pearsall's development was stunted, yet Purdy made it work. He finished as the QB14 on the season despite missing two games. Had he played in those, he likely would have finished top-10.

Despite having turned 25 years old in December, he's ranked as just the QB15 in FantasyPros' Dynasty QB rankings. This doesn't make much sense. It's not his fault he had a "down" season last year. With a bit better injury luck and some reinforcements on the offensive line, he should have a much better season in 2025.

And even if the offensive line continues to struggle, Purdy is one of the best sack-avoiding quarterbacks in the NFL. He's more capable of dealing with pressure than most signal-callers, so he has some insulation against poor play in the trenches. And he rushed for 323 yards and five touchdowns in 2024, so his rushing upside isn't negligible.

Sell: Anthony Richardson, QB, Indianapolis Colts

Richardson will have another chance to start in 2025. At least that's the word on the street because the QB market is terrible right now in the eyes of many executives. After last year's huge crop of good signal-callers in the 2024 NFL Draft, there isn't much passer talent to go around.

Story summarizing Colts GM Chris Ballard's comments on Anthony Richardson and the "open" QB competition.

My 2 cents: I'll be surprised if AR isn't the opening day starter because

1. The QB market is awful

2. The Colts still clearly want AR to work out:https://t.co/HlR8zXDj5Z

— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) February 26, 2025

Who knows how long the Colts will have to wait to get a good quarterback? Richardson isn't it. He didn't make strides in his accuracy, which was the main problem with his game. He can make wild plays that almost no other QB can make, but the problem is that he routinely misses on slam-dunk plays.

His accuracy on horizontal-breaking routes is seriously damning. The short-yardage throws that are automatic for every other starting QB are not for A-Rich, meaning the offense that head coach Shane Steichen wants to implement simply cannot work.

Charted off-target % before this week. Interested in Anthony Richardson after today (check out Flacco horizontal throws) pic.twitter.com/gUCTbuHbsi

— Football Insights 📊 (@fball_insights) October 21, 2024

He's a massive outlier in this respect. In today's NFL, horizontal-breaking routes are very important for finding gaps in zone defenses, and with the preference for two-high safety formations, it's not possible to build an offense around mainly vertical shots.

The team did add tight end Tyler Warren. But that doesn't make much of a difference. Warren isn't some elite burner with the speed to take the top off defenses. Richardson would need someone like the younger version of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill to give him hope.

Buy: J.J. McCarthy, QB, Minnesota Vikings

Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell, wide receivers Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, the excellent offensive line, and tight end T.J. Hockenson have combined forces to somehow make QBs Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall viable fantasy options for the short times they played as signal-caller for this team.

And they somehow tricked everyone into thinking QB Sam Darnold was good again, at least until the Detroit Lions figured out that they could just blitz him repeatedly and he would crumble like a house of cards. Now, a CFP national champion quarterback and early pick in a stacked QB class is set to take the reins.

JJ McCarthy’s best run of the season 🔥 Can’t wait to watch him again as a returning starter! pic.twitter.com/rJ6ko6mLqs

— JD 〽️ (@MGoJDBlue) March 24, 2023

He has excellent rushing upside, which is one of the most underrated aspects of his game right now. He's easily better than Darnold, and though he's inexperienced -- and missed his entire rookie season due to a knee injury -- he'll probably be a top-10 QB in fantasy football in 2025.

The team he's on and the offense he's in are perfect for quarterback production. It's difficult to find anything better. Even if he's just a mediocre passer in Year 1, the wheels he has are seriously impressive, and we should see some solid rushing output from him moving forward.

According to the Vikings, his knee is fully healthy and has recovered. So that shouldn't be an issue. McCarthy is a screaming buy right now.

Sell: Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs

We now have plenty of evidence of what Mahomes looks like in an offense without tight end Travis Kelce playing at the elite level he used to. The offense as a whole, even at the start of the season, was simply much less productive than in the early years of his tenure. Elite TEs elevate quarterbacks much more than people realize, and with Kelce's inevitable age-related decline, Mahomes' stats have dipped and not yet recovered.

The wide receiver situation isn't great, and though K.C. has invested heavily in it in the last two seasons with WRs Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy being chosen early in its draft classes, it might not be enough. Rice had a serious injury last season and faces a looming suspension, and Worthy didn't do anything in the Super Bowl until it was garbage time.

With the game officially out of reach, and before the garbage time stat-padding, Patrick Mahomes had a passer rating of 7.2 pic.twitter.com/xmFFFiOJiN

— it's Jasmin🏈 (@itsJasmin49) February 14, 2025

Things would have certainly looked different if Kelce were still playing at an elite level, like he was in 2022. That season, even after the departure of one of the best WRs in the NFL, Tyreek Hill, Mahomes threw for 5,250 yards, 41 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. The impact an elite Kelce had on Mahomes' stats can't be denied.

It's unlikely they'll ever recover, unless the team somehow lucks into one of the best TEs to play the game down the road. That's not something you should count on. Something slightly better than his stats from the last two seasons is the ceiling we should come to expect in the most likely scenario.

And with that in mind, he's not worth his price tag right now. You can sell someone else the hope that he'll return to his prolific ways.

More Fantasy Football Analysis