If your team — real-life or fantasy — started Matthew Stafford or Drake Maye at quarterback, the 2025 season was pure football bliss.Stafford and Maye finished 1-2 in MVP voting (Stafford received 24 first-place votes while Maye had 23), and Stafford’s Rams and Maye’s Patriots staged deep playoff runs.Those successes absolutely translated to fantasy football. Maye finished second among quarterbacks in fantasy scoring with 352 points, and Stafford finished third with 350.4. Selecting Maye or Stafford did not require a major investment, either. In FantasyPros’ composite of average draft position (ADP) rankings, Maye’s ADP was QB16 and 125th overall, and Stafford’s was QB23 and 160th overall.Managers who spent a mid- or late-round pick on either star passer (and drafted a solid or strong roster overall) turned their teams into immediate championship contenders. Having one of these players on a roster could help a manager weather an injury to a starting quarterback, bring in a trade haul from another team or, if drafted as the team’s top quarterback, reward use of earlier picks on running backs, wide receivers, tight end and overall depth.In ESPN’s leagues, Maye was the most commonly rostered quarterback among championship winners and eighth among all positions (18 percent), while Stafford (15.7 percent) was behind only Maye and Josh Allen.Maye and Stafford were not the only quarterbacks to provide massive returns on investment in 2025. Four of the five quarterbacks to finish in the top five in fantasy scoring were drafted in the rounds typically reserved for backup options: Maye, Stafford, Trevor Lawrence (QB20) and Caleb Williams (QB15). Dak Prescott finished sixth in fantasy scoring and had an average draft position of QB11.Conversely, Lamar Jackson (drafted as QB2) and Joe Burrow (QB5) were frequently drafted in early rounds, but Jackson finished 20th in fantasy points, and Burrow finished 29th. Both players dealt with injuries, but when they played, Jackson averaged 16.5 points per game and Burrow 16.8.Does that mean all fantasy teams should wait 10 rounds before selecting a quarterback? Let’s dig in deeper to see if last year’s result was a one-year aberration or a legitimate, league-winning strategy.What the historical numbers sayLooking across the past 10 years, last year’s quarterback performances were in a league of their own. The 2025 season was the only year in the past decade in which four players with an average draft position out of the top 10 quarterbacks ultimately finished in the top five in PPR scoring (2019 and 2018 both had three). It was also the first season since 2020 that a signal-caller drafted outside of the top-10 quarterbacks finished in the top three — and both Maye and Stafford accomplished the feat.Another unique aspect of 2025 was how few quarterbacks drafted as one of the top 10 quarterbacks finished in the top 10. Three players — Allen, Bo Nix and Jalen Hurts — checked that box, and Nix was the only one who exceeded his ADP relative to quarterbacks (he was drafted as QB8 and finished as QB7). The only other season over the past 10 years to rival 2025 in this category was 2022, which had four such players.However, if you’re looking to draft a QB2 who can have QB1 value, there’s still some hope.I also tracked players who finished in the top 10 but were typically drafted outside of the top 10 quarterbacks and added a requirement that the QB had to be drafted at least five spots lower than he finished in the quarterback rankings.By this comparison, 2025 was more normal. In each of the past four seasons, five players met these criteria, ascending from QB11 or lower and jumping at least five spots to finish in the top 10 (and in only three of the past 10 years was this untrue). A few quarterbacks finished at least 20 places above their ADP: Sam Darnold in 2024, Jordan Love in 2023 and Geno Smith in 2022.