Fantasy Index

Factoid

What the heck?

Drake Maye's horrible, rotten no good start

Drake Maye has fallen, and it’s starting to look like that he might not get up. “He looks like a quarterback whose confidence is shot,” says Patriots beat writer Chad Graff (of The Athletic).

Hard to believe this is the same guy who was the runner-up in the MVP voting last year, with 31 touchdowns versus only 8 interceptions. Maye averaged 262 passing yards that season.

But Maye hasn’t been the same of late. It’s a slump, it can be argued, that began in last season’s playoffs. Maye in his last seven games has averaged 202 passing yards, with 7 TDs, 10 interceptions, 30 sacks and 9 fumbles. He’s finished with a passer rating under 80 in five straight games.

DRAKE MAYE: LAST SEVEN GAMES
OppResultComAttPctYdsTDIntRateSk
LACW, 16-3172958.62681186.65
Hou.W, 28-16162759.317931100.75
at Den.W, 10-7102147.6860058.85
v. Sea.L, 13-29274362.82952279.16
at Sea.L, 10-13233369.71781354.93
Pitt.W, 20-3142263.62080175.63
at Jac.L, 6-35142556.01990248.63

Lots of good and great defenses on that list, of course. And the second half of last year’s AFC Championship game was played in a snowstorm. But he’s underperformed, particularly in the last two weeks. Steelers and Jaguars have credible defenses, but he should have been better in those games. He had a Dave Kreig soap football fumble at Jacksonville, eventually getting pulled for Tommy DeVito.

I am holding out hope that Maye will come around. I don’t think he’ll get back to being what he was last year, but perhaps top-10 numbers are around the corner. The Patriots are at Buffalo this week, but then the schedule gets a lot more favorable, with the Raiders, Jets, Bears, Dolphins, Packers, Lions and Chargers.

But with the kind of mental beating Maye has taken over the last month, it’s hard to see him getting right and really slicing up defenses.

In the 32-team era, 24 times a quarterback has finished with top-10 numbers, then come back the next year and finished with bottom-10 numbers. That’s ignoring guys with major injuries – I’m looking only at guys who started at least half of each season, and I’m looking at per-game production (reducing the impact of injuries).

There’s been one of these guys in each of the last four years – Stafford, Burrow, Stroud, Darnold. Maye (who was No. 5 in per-game production last year) is looking like one of those guys.

QUARTERBACKS FALLING FROM TOP 10 TO BOTTOM 10
YearPlayerStPassTDPIntRunTDRPtsRk
2002Drew Bledsoe, Buff.162721.50.944.2.1320.87
2003Drew Bledsoe, Buff.16179.69.751.8.1312.629
2003Jeff Garcia, S.F.132081.381.0024.5.5421.82
2004Jeff Garcia, Cle.101731.00.9016.9.2015.525
2003Steve McNair, Ten.142301.71.509.9.2921.33
2004Steve McNair, Ten.81681.001.1316.0.1315.027
2006Marc Bulger, St.L.162691.50.502.8.0019.87
2007Marc Bulger, St.L.12199.921.251.1.0013.724
2006Vince Young, Ten.13159.85.9240.6.5418.89
2007Vince Young, Ten.15170.601.1326.3.2014.722
2007Derek Anderson, Clev.152401.871.204.7.2021.37
2008Derek Anderson, Clev.91741.00.786.1.0013.729
2008Matt Cassel, N.E.152361.33.7317.1.1319.910
2009Matt Cassel, K.C.151951.071.0712.6.0015.425
2009Brett Favre, Min.162632.06.44.4.0021.48
2010Brett Favre, Min.13193.851.46.6.0013.130
2010Kyle Orton, Den.132811.54.697.5.0021.08
2011Kyle Orton, Den.82201.131.131.6.0015.727
2013Andy Dalton, Cin.162682.061.2511.4.1323.64
2014Andy Dalton, Cin.162121.191.0610.6.2518.423
2014Jay Cutler, Chi.152541.871.2012.7.1322.87
2015Jay Cutler, Chi.152441.40.7313.4.0719.725
2014Matt Ryan, Atl.162931.75.889.1.0022.78
2015Matt Ryan, Atl.162871.311.003.9.0020.123
2014Peyton Manning, Den.162952.44.94-1.5.0024.63
2015Peyton Manning, Den.92501.001.89-.7.0016.429
2015Eli Manning, NYG162772.19.883.8.0023.08
2016Eli Manning, NYG162521.631.00-.6.0019.023
2016Derek Carr, Oak.152621.87.404.7.0021.710
2017Derek Carr, Oak.152331.47.874.4.0018.220
2017Alex Smith, K.C.152691.73.3323.7.0723.23
2018Alex Smith, Was.102181.00.5016.8.1017.229
2017Matthew Stafford, Det.162781.81.636.1.0022.08
2018Matthew Stafford, Det.162361.31.694.4.0017.528
2018Mitchell Trubisky, Chi.142301.71.8630.1.2123.210
2019Mitchell Trubisky, Chi.152091.13.6712.9.1317.229
2019Daniel Jones, NYG122512.001.0022.8.1724.28
2020Daniel Jones, NYG14210.79.7130.2.0717.230
2019Matthew Stafford, Det.83122.38.638.3.0025.94
2020Matthew Stafford, Det.162551.63.637.0.0020.223
2021Matthew Stafford, LAR172872.411.002.5.0024.39
2022Matthew Stafford, LAR92321.11.891.0.1116.826
2022Joe Burrow, Cin.162802.19.7516.1.3126.64
2023Joe Burrow, Cin.102311.50.608.8.0018.420
2023C.J. Stroud, Hou.152741.53.3311.1.2022.37
2024C.J. Stroud, Hou.172191.18.7113.7.0017.027
2024Sam Darnold, Min.172542.06.7112.5.0622.58
2025Sam Darnold, Sea.172381.47.825.6.0018.621

—Ian Allan

Older
Newer

Fantasy Index