Final (Pre-Draft) QB Rankings & how they stack up -- QB1 & QB2 is the same everywhere, but just how good are these prospects? How close are they in Start-Up?

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I posted my TE Rankings in the same post/podcast, which can be found here: https://cjfreel.substack.com/p/162-final-pre-draft-qb-and-te-rankings I discuss these rankings in more detail on the Fantasy for Real podcast. // Final (Pre-Draft) QB Rankings 1 Fernando Mendoza, Indiana — 2 Ty Simpson, Alabama — 3 Garrett Nussmeier, LSU — Honorable Mentions: Taylen Green, Cole Payton, Cade Klubnik, Drew Allar, Carson Beck, Luke Altmyer, Sawyer Robertson // When it comes to my own Start-Up Rankings, Fernando Mendoza is a prospect that I rank in a tier with players like Dak Prescott, Jordan Love, Jared Goff, & Tyler Shough. This is likely a bit lower than the consensus due to some questions about rushing ability. Fernando Mendoza’ biggest advantages over Simpson are his physical size, full-season of higher level production, and lack of red flags. Mendoza does have two significant limitations, even if they aren't necessarily Red Flags: 1st, Mendoza is not necessarily a QB who is very likely to produce rushing output for Fantasy. And 2nd, while Mendoza has played a lot of Football and has a season at an Elite level, his high-tier performance comes in only one Season. Because this season came with a good team and offensive system around Mendoza, it does help to highlight the one area where Simpson does have an advantage: Ty Simpson does have one notable advantage over Mendoza — an offensive system involving more Full-Field Reads. This is likely what cause former QBs to be some of the analysts highest on Simpson, because while Simpson fails spectacularly in areas like experience, efficiency, or performance judged by statistics, he does play in a more difficult Offense that utilizes the Full-Field more often. However, that does not remove the Red Flag or most of the concerns with it, which are more tied to consistent execution. Simpson’s ability to execute has been so far behind Mendoza’s that — for myself as well as most analysts — there is really no debate between QB1 & 2. Not only does Simpson have mediocre numbers for his 2025 Season overall, but most of Simpson's good statistics can be isolated to a 6-Game stretch. In the other 9 Games combined including Game 1 against FSU & the final 8-Games of his Season, Simpson has poor numbers with under 60% Completion in what is ultimately the majority of his season. When it comes to my own Start-Up Rankings, it is harder to place Ty Simpson, but I would likely prefer several of the "short-term" starters like Kyler Murray, Daniel Jones, & Malik Willis over Ty Simpson. Garrett Nussmeier — if he were very successful this year — would be a poor Fantasy QB relatively based on his rushing projection. As a longshot without rushing ability, he will be very hard to make a Fantasy case for. He is a firm enough QB3 on my NFL Draft board that he is ranked above the Honorable Mentions as someone more likely to go on Day 2 maybe even Round 2. QBs Drafted outside the top ~50 to first 2 Rounds should be ranked more by situation & opportunity, making any ranking involving a QB projected 50+ difficult. // My RB Rankings are now available on the Substack & Podcast feed as well. https://open.spotify.com/show/215l6gMkT94gGvNY66IbPF https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-for-real/id1732922319 // Questions & Comments welcome as always. Only one more position group to do (WRs) next week, and we are now two weeks away from the NFL Draft. I will be posting TE & RB Rankings to the subreddit (most likely) as well. C.J. submitt…