Super Bowl Daily Fantasy Sports: Is Jalen Hurts or Patrick Mahomes the Better DFS Player?

Super Bowl week is an exciting time but also a bit of a letdown. We usually get more than 10 games on a football Sunday; now we're down to just one. No doubt, the Chiefs and the Eagles are great teams, but it's fair to say that many fans are worn out on both franchises, especially Kansas City.

That leaves less around the periphery as well. More betting happens during the Super Bowl than any other day, but a lot of that is on superfluous things (aka: BS) rather than real football. Are you going to be betting on how many times they show Taylor Swift?

It leaves a lot fewer fantasy football options as well. Most people are done with fantasy by now, with a few playoff contests still going. Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) is the best way to play at this point if you are looking for that last fix before the season ends; that's what we're here to look at today.

There are multiple players available at each skill position, but we only have two starting quarterbacks in action, leaving fantasy owners to ponder one very important decision: who is the better fantasy play, Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts?

Let's look at the two quarterbacks in action to see if we can get a feel for their fantasy value. We'll go through the defenses they are facing, their DFS value, and what we can expect to see in the biggest game of the season.

Stats are from NFL.com, fantasy scores and rankings are from FantasyPros, and defensive fantasy rankings are our own here at FantasySP.

Defenses

Philadelphia may have had the best defense in the league this season. They allowed the fewest yards per pass attempt, and it wasn't even close: their lead of 0.7 yard was about the same as the difference between second place and 24th place.

The Eagles have stars at every level of the defense, with a deep pass rush, impactful rookies in the secondary, and a star free agent linebacker in the middle. Philly wasn't quite as good against the run as the pass, but they weren't far off either, excelling in most areas.

That extended to opponent fantasy performance, where quarterbacks scored the fifth-least fantasy points against the Eagles. A big part of that was limiting touchdowns, as Philadelphia was tied for the sixth-least passing TDs allowed.

The Chiefs were more in the middle as a pass defense, ending up near average in most metrics, including yards per pass attempt and fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks. Kansas City has an above-average defense, but they aren't as dominant as last year, especially against the pass. They did excel more against the run, allowing the sixth-least yards per rush attempt.

Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles

Hurts missed two full games and most of a third, knocking him down the fantasy leaderboard a bit, but he still finished as QB8. He averaged over 22.5 fantasy points per game in the 14 full games he played, a number that would have ranked among the top five quarterbacks.

His passing is fine, but Hurts is a top-flight fantasy player because of his rushing. Hurts was a game manager this season, not because he can't be better but because his team was often dominating by running the ball. Hurts was under 3,000 passing yards, but he set his career highs in both completion percentage (68.7%) and yards per pass attempt (8.0).

He averaged 42 rushing yards and about one touchdown per game on the ground, a cool 10 fantasy points. That's the definition of a high floor. There aren't a lot of guys who are safer fantasy options than Hurts.

Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

Mahomes is the best real-life quarterback, but it doesn't necessarily translate to fantasy success in 2025. With so many guys creating value with their legs, there are more quarterbacks who put up feasible fantasy scores. That means less players can stand out.

A guy like Mahomes, who is a good scrambler but doesn't get many designed rush attempts (including QB sneaks near the end zone), loses out on potential fantasy points that over half the league seems to get now.

His throwing suffered this season: Mahomes was under 4,000 yards for the first time in his career as a starter and averaged a below-average 6.8 yards per attempt, also the lowest mark he's ever had. Don't get it wrong; Mahomes is still unassailable as a real QB. He's far from a must-have fantasy player, though, finishing as QB11 this season.

DFS Value

Hurts is clearly the better fantasy player, so it comes down to how much you're paying. Unless you get a huge discount, there's no reason to take Mahomes over Hurts in a fantasy contest. I've been seeing the two listed as close to the same salary, so Hurts is the clear choice.

Best Bet

It's Hurts, and it's not even close. Not every decision is easy when there are only two teams to choose from, but this is one without much stress.