DAVID'S DAILY DIGEST: 023-26

David's Daily Digest

August 29th 2026

Saturday Night Edition

Saturday Night Fantasy

Sports Page

The Draft Notebook: Quarterbacks

The 2026 NFL season is inching ever so close, a little less than 2 weeks before it all kickoffs on Wednesday September 8th. With the 2026 Kickoff moving closer and closer, the draft season continues to heat up more and more.

While everything starts to get exciting, for a successful draft, I get calm. The calm before the storm, where I unleash all of my fantasy football prowess and dominate. With the holiday weekend approaching and three more home leagues to draft, it's time to open the notebook and breakdown strategy.

In the opening rounds as most of us will do, we look for the best available, highest floors, with tremendous upside is what we should be targeting. When I am building my roster, I am prone to look for my quarterback and tight ends in the later rounds, but this is not written in stone. As I watch my draft progress, I am targeting top tier players to start and adapting to the flow. If some top tier talent, like tight end Trey McBride (ADP 18) falling to the 4th round, or quarterback Joe Burrow (ADP 53.0) sliding into the 8th round, I am not hesitating to take either or both. 

But if my draft follows suit, these are a handful of quarterbacks I am comfortable snagging in the later portion of the draft, after the 7th round. The first candidate is the Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (ADP 91). Herbert was QB11 last season, posting 7 games with at least 18.8 fantasy points. With a new OC in Mike McDaniels, he's certainly capable of improving this season.

The next candidate on my watch list is the Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (ADP 79). Going around the 7th round, Nix is right there on the border of where I might take him. I prefer him in the 8th, but will reach in the late 7th. Nix (QB10 in 2025) is coming off a 3,911 yards passing, 25 passing touchdowns with 5 rushing touchdowns last season. If the ankle is good to go, I am good to draft Nix in the 8th.

What I definitely consider a bargain and great value this season is the Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (ADP 132). Goff finished last season as QB12, but with the weapons he has at his disposal, he clearly has a path to a Top-10 finish. Last season had some dips, but in 11 of his starts in 2025 Goff posted at least 15.2 fantasy points, including 4 games with 24.8 or more. He's a back end QB1 in 12 team formats that you can wait on.

One more notable that's not getting much ink these days is the Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (ADP 98). Mahomes was the QB4 in 2025 (points per game) and while his numbers seemed down, he still performed as a Top-5 fantasy quarterback. He's coming off the boards in the 9th round and offers plenty of upside, especially with the return of Rashee Rice.

That's My Take

~David G. Ortega