Strategy
Is Drake Maye the Best Buy-Low QB in Dynasty?
Drake Maye finished QB2 in 2025 and just got A.J. Brown as a new weapon. Here's why his dynasty price still hasn't fully caught up to his talent.
By Kenny Flermoen · August 17, 2026
Close to it, even after a season good enough that "buy-low" almost feels like the wrong term. Drake Maye finished as the QB2 in fantasy points last year, helped New England to an 11-2 finish, and entered real MVP conversation down the stretch. His Dynasty Value Score still hasn't fully caught up to that leap, and this offseason's biggest move only strengthens the case that it should.
The quick answer
Maye scores a 6,053 Dynasty Value Score and projects for 322.9 half-PPR pointsin 2026, 19.0 per game. That's a real gap below his actual 2025 finish of 351.5 points, and a smaller gap than his talent level and situation probably justify. He's 24, in year three of a passing offense that's clearly built around him, and he just got a genuine star receiver added to his supporting cast.
The leap from year one to year two
Maye's rookie season was rough by the numbers — 177.1 half-PPR points, a 4-13 team, and a head coach fired after the year. Year two looked nothing like it. New England hired Mike Vrabel and brought back Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator, and the results were immediate: an 11-2 finish, a 10-game win streak, and Maye finishing as fantasy's QB2 with 4,394 passing yards and 31 touchdowns. His Next Gen Stats back up that it wasn't just a product of scheme or matchups — he ranked first among all quarterbacks in completion percentage over expectation, a real measure of accuracy and decision-making rather than system-driven volume.
The move that raises his ceiling further
New England traded a future first-round pick to Philadelphia for A.J. Brown this offseason, giving Maye a legitimate top-tier receiving target for the first time in his career. Early reports from camp have been positive on both sides — Brown has spoken about building real chemistry with Maye, and Maye himself has praised how quickly the connection has come together. New England also added receiver Romeo Doubs, giving Maye a deeper group of weapons than he has had at any point since entering the league.
That matters because most of Maye's 2025 breakout happened without a true alpha receiver on the roster. McDaniels has talked about spreading the ball around rather than building the offense entirely around one player, and Maye has echoed that same approach publicly — but adding a receiver of Brown's caliber gives the offense a higher ceiling regardless of how the target distribution shakes out.
Why the model still has him behind some less productive names
Maye's 6,053 DVS now sits behind Jared Goff at 6,650, Caleb Williams at 6,459, and C.J. Stroud at 6,447 — though still just ahead of Dak Prescott at 5,438. Part of that reflects a real, sensible caution — a single huge season, even one this convincing, is still just one data point for a quarterback with only two years in the league. The model rewards a track record, and Maye is still building his.
That's also exactly the argument for treating him as undervalued rather than fairly priced. Unlike some of the other names in that tier, Maye's breakout came without a true top receiver, his rushing production adds a real fantasy floor most of that group lacks, and he just got meaningfully better as a receiving corps heading into a season where continuity, not a fresh system, is finally on his side.
Where he stacks up against the field
Trevor Lawrence and Bo Nix round out the names closest to Maye's tier. None of them combine his rushing floor, his efficiency marks, and his age the way Maye does. If 2025 was closer to his real level than his rookie season was, this tier is where the biggest gap between price and talent in the whole quarterback board currently sits. Compare the rest of the position in our Top 20 QB Dynasty Value rankings, and the undervalued case one tier over in our Bo Nix write-up.
The bottom line
If you're holding Maye, last year's breakout plus this year's receiver upgrade both point toward a real chance to be a true dynasty QB1 rather than a solid QB2, and there's little reason to sell into that trajectory. If you're targeting him in a trade, his price still lags a season that would have most other young quarterbacks getting priced as a clear top-tier asset — that gap is the opportunity.
Model a trade for Maye on the Dynasty Trade Calculator — his score still has real room to climb if 2025 turns out to be the new normal rather than a peak.
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FAQ
- Was Drake Maye's 2025 breakout season sustainable, or a product of matchups?
- The underlying numbers support it being real. He ranked first among all quarterbacks in completion percentage over expectation, a measure of accuracy independent of scheme or matchup quality, and he did it without a true top-tier receiver on the roster.
- Does adding A.J. Brown change Drake Maye's dynasty outlook?
- Yes, in a positive direction. Brown gives Maye a legitimate alpha receiver for the first time in his career, and early camp reports on their chemistry have been positive from both players.
- Why is Drake Maye's Dynasty Value Score lower than his 2025 production would suggest?
- He's only played two NFL seasons, and one huge year is still a smaller sample than the multi-year track records some other quarterbacks in his tier have built. That's part of why his price hasn't fully caught up to his talent yet.