Week 1 of the 2025-26 NFL season is in the books, and boy was it entertaining! We witnessed some great QB play, from both the usual suspects and a few first-time breakout candidates, multiple 300+ passing yard games, plus a cinematic Game of the Year candidate between the Bills and Ravens that had everything you could’ve asked for and more. Veteran Aaron Rodgers tossed a league-leading four touchdown passes and completed 73.3% of his passes, good for the second-best passer rating in the league (136.7), just behind the one and only, Lamar Jackson. How about another “OG”, Joe Flacco, who ranks fifth in passing yards after attempting the second-most attempts in Week 1. Josh Allen led the Bills to a comeback victory, scoring 22 total points in the 4th quarter. He passed for a league-leading 394 yards, surpassing Las Vegas’ Geno Smith, who wrecked the Patriots’ secondary, passing for 362 yards. And last but not least, shoutout to the youngster, Michael Penix Jr., on placing top 10 in passing yards (298 — 4th) and QBR (83.7 — 7th) in what could be a breakout campaign.
Now, let’s dive into which QBs to stream in Week 2!
Geno Smith, Las Vegas Raiders
| Opponent | Matchup Rating | Yahoo! Roster Rate | Proj. Pts |
| vs. LAC | 4/5 | 21% | 16.03 |
As mentioned above, Geno Smith absolutely carved up the Patriots’ defense on Sunday. He ranked 2nd in yards (364), yards per attempt (10.6), and 10th in passer rating (102.8) while making the T-10th most passing attempts last week, all behind an awful O-Line. His connection to his two main weapons — Jakobi Meyers and Brock Bowers — was unbelievable, showering them with a combined 18 targets for 13 catches and an even 200 yards. Smith’s Week 1 performance was good enough to warrant a PFF grade of 83.8, 7th among all QBs. His passing grade, 80.1, was also ranked 7th. His 11 aDoT (average depth of target, via PFF), ranked second overall.
Smith faces a Chargers secondary that graded very well in Week 1, but similar to the Patriots he sliced and diced up, they lack quality strong and free safeties between Elijah Molden (54.7 PFF grade) and Alohi Gilman (62.6). He’ll provide a good floor production-wise with a decent chance for upside in the pass game for any fantasy manager streaming QBs this week. He’s also by far the likeliest Week 1 “boom” to sustain the volume he had in Week 1 compared to the likes of Daniel Jones or Aaron Rodgers, with all due respect (h/t Nathan Jahnke, PFF).
Michael Penix Jr., Atlanta Falcons
| Opponent | Matchup Rating | Yahoo! Roster Rate | Proj. Pts |
| @ MIN | 4/5 | 32% | 14.82 |
25-year-old Michael Penix Jr. was cool under pressure and controlled the passing game despite the Falcons losing this Sunday. He led the offensive unit to three consecutive scoring attempts to end the game — a field goal to essentially end the third quarter, a fourth quarter touchdown on a nifty 18-play drive capped off by a 4th and goal scramble (his second fourth down redzone conversion via scramble on the same drive) after Drake London dropped two (!!) passes in the endzone, and a 12-play drive with less than a minute left that ended with a missed game-tying field goal attempt at Tampa’s 26 yard line. He targeted London a whopping fifteen times this Sunday, good for second-most behind Kansas City’s Hollywood Brown (16). Not only was this game huge for Penix Jr. in general, but also for fantasy owners. The young left-handed signal caller is certainly on many radars now.
Not only does Penix have a decent matchup in Week 2, facing a Minnesota secondary that (on paper in my opinion) looks pretty iffy, he then faces the Panthers and Commanders — both favorable matchups to throw the ball. I like him a lot this year as a “depthy” streaming option, perhaps even a guy you stash to spot start here and there.
Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars
| Opponent | Matchup Rating | Yahoo! Roster Rate | Proj. Pts |
| @ CIN | 5/5 | 52% | 14.84 |
Trevor Lawrence, still getting equipped to HC Liam Coen’s new offense, had a solid showing in his 2025 debut. I loved his connection with Brenton Strange, which is certainly a development to watch for this year. As I stated last week, this is TLaw’s most talented group of skill players he’s ever played with in his pro career, and he’s learning under an offensive guru in Coen that will be able to maximize his ability. Look at what we saw him do in Tampa with Baker Mayfield.
QB List’s Raymi Chavez covered the game in our What We Saw series. I wholeheartedly agree with his take on Lawrence here: “The good clearly outweighed the bad in this game, and I am certainly mostly confident with how Lawrence played.” While Lawrence only attempted 31 passes, it’s important to note that they were ahead for a majority of the time, which allowed them to lean on Travis Etienne Jr. and the run game. TLaw faces a five-star matchup this weekend against a Cincy defense that allowed 40-year-old Joe Flacco to dice them up for nearly 300 passing yards. Not only do I think Lawrence is a good streaming add for this week, but he could be a valuable option long-term as well, assuming the offense clicks thanks to the play calling and weapons surrounding him.
That’s it for this week! If there are any questions, comments, concerns, or you want to see more (MLB, NFL, etc.), feel free to hit my official Pitcher List/QB List social media up @ggeiss_PL and I’d be happy to chat!
Feature image by Michael Packard (@CollectingPack on Twitter) / Photography by Fred Kfoury III / Icon Sportswire