Best Fantasy Football Quarterback/Pass Catcher Combos: Patrick Mahomes, A.J. Brown, Ja'Marr Chase and More

Yesterday, I looked at the numbers behind the fantasy football draft strategy of matching your quarterback with his WR1 or tight end. Among the top 10 quarterbacks in fantasy football over the last five seasons, about five of them had a top 10 fantasy receiver, seven had a top 20 receiver and four of them had a top 10 tight end.

With that information, the next step is identifying who those passer/pass catcher combos will be. I’m not sure this is necessarily a high-level strategy, but there’s nothing wrong with pairing your QB and his top pass catcher if they are both good fantasy players.

I went through the top ranked fantasy quarterbacks to try to determine which QB/WR and QB/TE were most likely to excel together. I’m using the guidelines above of five top-10 QB/WR combos, four top-10 QB/TE combos and two additional groups in which the receiver will be in the top 20 rather than top 10.

The listed ranking with each player is from our PPR fantasy rankings here at FantasySP.

QB/WR

Top 10 WR

Possible Duos

• Jalen Hurts QB3/A.J. Brown WR6
• C.J. Stroud QB5/Nico Collins WR14 or Stefon Diggs WR19
• Joe Burrow QB7/Ja'Marr Chase WR4
• Dak Prescott QB8/CeeDee Lamb WR1
• Kyler Murray QB10/Marvin Harrison Jr. WR9
• Brock Purdy QB11/Deebo Samuel Sr. WR13 or Brandon Aiyuk WR20
• Tua Tagovailoa QB12/ Tyreek Hill WR2
• Jared Goff QB13/Amon-Ra St. Brown WR5

This is the best of the best among receivers. A few guys seem like top-10 locks who just need their QB to be a top guy to meet this status. Brown and Chase have high-level fantasy quarterbacks, and Lamb, Hill and St. Brown are top talents with quarterbacks on the cusp of being weekly fantasy starters.

Murray and Harrison are a fun pick, but they are the most unlikely to both reach the needed level to end up here at the end of the year. It’s hard to know who the top receiver will be for either Stroud or Purdy, and we probably won’t know until a few weeks into the season. Aiyuk might be traded, and Diggs is a star joining a new situation, so we don’t know how he will fit in, especially since his performance declined at the end of last season.

Most Likely Combos

An average of five duos finished together in the top 10. I'll go with:

• Hurts/Brown
• Prescott/Lamb
• Tagovailoa/Hill
• Goff/St. Brown
• Burrow/Chase

Stroud might not have a receiver hit the top 10 because there are more mouths to feed; it’s not a bad thing for the young quarterback. Same thing for the San Francisco guys, and the Arizona duo is both new and closest to being ranked outside the top 10 at both positions.

Top 20 WR

Possible Duos

• Lamar Jackson QB4/Zay Flowers WR26
• Anthony Richardson QB6/Michael Pittman Jr. WR17
• Jordan Love QB9/Jayden Reed WR35
• Caleb Williams QB15/D.J. Moore WR21
• Jayden Daniels QB14/Terry McLaurin WR33

This group includes the receivers who are unlikely to reach the top 10 but who could conceivably be top-20 receivers. Their quarterbacks must have top-10 ability as well.

There might be more potential here than actual ability, with two rookies and another guy (Richardson) who missed most of his first year. Love might not have a receiver ready to hit the top 20, though with so many young guys there’s a chance someone will break out.

Most Likely Combos

I need to choose two more groups other than the five in the top 10 to end up here. It could be one of the duos in the top 10 group, but let’s choose from the top 20 list instead:

• Jackson/Flowers
• Daniels/McLaurin

Flowers was WR30 last season, and I’m playing a dangerous game by assuming he’ll improve in his second year. There aren’t many receivers fighting for targets in Baltimore, though, and Flowers is positioned to make a jump if his quarterback stays healthy.

I’ve been big on Daniels in the preseason and see him as a top 10 quarterback because of his running ability. McLaurin finished as WR31 with Sam Howell throwing him the ball, and while Howell had a few good games, he was a below-average quarterback.

Daniels may not step in as a Brady-level thrower, but he finished with 57 touchdowns and just seven interceptions over his last two college seasons. McLaurin will be the unquestioned top option in Washington; he’s topped 900 yards in every season and 1,000 yards in all but one.

Stroud and one of his receivers or Purdy and one of his receivers are more likely to finish in this area, but I wanted to take a few outside-the-box guesses because things don’t go according to plan very often. I wouldn't be surprised if one of these duos made this list at the end of the year.

QB/TE

Possible Duos

• Josh Allen QB1/Dalton Kincaid TE5
• Patrick Mahomes QB2/Travis Kelce TE1
• Jackson QB4/Mark Andrews TE3
• Murray QB10/Trey McBride TE4
• Purdy QB11/George Kittle TE6
• Goff QB13/Sam LaPorta TE2

I’m looking for both a quarterback and tight end who will each finish in the top 10 at their position. The most obvious pair is Mahomes and Kelce; they’ve been the quintessential connection for the past five years, and there’s no reason to expect something different. Mahomes maybe could have been mentioned in the top-20 wide receiver section with one of his receivers (Rashee Rice ranked 36th, Marquise Brown 37th and Xavier Worthy 38th), but this feels a lot safer.

Prescott/Jake Ferguson and Trevor Lawrence/Evan Engram are two other possibilities here, as both tight ends were top-10 performers last season.

Most Likely Combos

We’re looking for four groups here based on recent history:

• Mahomes/Kelce
• Allen/Kincaid
• Purdy/Kittle
• Goff/LaPorta

The Jackson/Andrews combo is very tempting, but there’s a little injury concern with both guys, so I’ll leave them off. The Arizona duo just has less history together.