2026 auction market research

The QB pool is deep. The price curve is not.

In a clean preseason sample of completed auction rooms, the first few quarterbacks commanded real money. Much of the next tier did not.

What we reviewed

RIVAUX reviewed 22 distinct, completed 10-team, $200 auction mock drafts captured between July 11 and August 28, 2026. That is 3,300 recorded player sales. Repeat snapshots of the same room and incomplete or unreconciled sessions were excluded.

This is a preseason market sample, not a promise about any one league. Mock rooms do not contain your keepers, your friends, or your exact scoring. They are useful for seeing the broad market shape you may need to correct for later.

The top paid tier is clear

QuarterbackAverage saleMedian saleObserved range
Josh Allen$32.73$33$23–$51
Lamar Jackson$18.18$18$8–$26
Drake Maye$9.77$9$3–$19
Joe Burrow$9.14$9$3–$15
Jayden Daniels$7.18$8$2–$11
Jalen Hurts$4.45$5$1–$8

The point is not that a player “should” cost the average above. The point is the slope: after the very top, the sample repeatedly compressed prices. That is what a deep market often looks like before your league’s own rules and behavior intervene.

What that means on draft night

Why this is a starting point, not a cap sheet

The market sample says what a collection of public rooms did before your draft. It cannot know whether seven quarterbacks are already kept in your league, whether a manager is desperate for one, or whether half the room has already spent its money. Those are the corrections that move a broad value into a league-specific price.

Method note. These figures are descriptive. They summarize completed captured mock-auction sales—not expert rankings, a projection of future fantasy points, or a recommendation to bid any amount.

See the league-specific version of this problem.

In one keeper-heavy superflex room, the same kind of depth met a very different supply-and-demand setup. The result was a dramatic QB price cliff.