Fantasy football: Best value and sleeper quarterbacks for 2017

Draftable in the 10th round: Cam Newton

Good things: Newton can run the football as well as anyone, which means he’ll score some extra points every week on the ground that other quarterbacks don’t give. His receiving corps is healthy and he has rookie running back/pass catcher Christian McCaffrey.

Bad news: Newton struggled last year, throwing 14 interceptions and completing less than 53% of his passes, and he’s still not completely healthy as the new season looms.

If he’s healthy, expect Newton to be better than last year, and certainly draftable if he drops to the 10th.

Draftable in the 12th round: Kirk Cousins, Andrew Luck, Jameis Winston, Derek Carr

Here’s where your value is. One of these guys will drop to the 12th and produce almost as much as, if not more than, the guys who go in the seventh through 11th rounds.

Cousins has been a solid starter for two seasons and there’s little reason to doubt that he’ll be good for a third. He finished in the top ten in completion percentage, yards and attempts a season ago and Jordan Reed is healthy. Not a super-high upside guy, probably, but you can feel good about starting him every week, which is fantastic value for where he might be available.

Luck drops because of his injury flags. He’s missed time due to injury before and now he’s dealing with a shoulder injury that the Indianapolis Colts have mostly kept under wraps. He might not be ready for week one and who knows if he’ll be 100% when he does return? That said, he’s a high-ceiling passer with plenty of options in his offense, so he’ll likely put up QB1 numbers when he returns, so long as he is actually healthy when he does.

Jameis Winston throws a lot of interceptions—18 in 2016—but he throws a lot of touchdowns, too. Add DeSean Jackson and rookie tight end O.J. Howard to an offense that already features Mike Evans and a couple of backs who can catch, and you’ve got an offense that can propel Winston to fantasy stardom if he can hit them with the ball.

Derek Carr begins 2017 with one of the league’s best wide receiver tandems in Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree, and is ready to take the final step to becoming a top-ten fantasy quarterback. His floor and his ceiling are both high. Only Tom Brady, Dak Prescott and Sam Bradford had lower interception rates among passers with at least 400 attempts last season. If he can improve his middling completion percentage, Carr will be startable every week.