‘The Athletic’ dropped Mike Sando’s ‘Quarterback Tiers’ for 2026 this week, and the hierarchy backed by NFL executives and coaches booted Patriots quarterback Drake Maye squarely out of ‘Tier 1’ status among his peers.
That’s right, according to a panel of 50 voters, Maye wouldn’t board a plane first-class with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford, and Joe Burrow. Someday, maybe, but right now, his points have only gotten him into business class, waiting at the gate among a hefty crowd.
‘Tier 2’ quarterbacks include 13 of the league’s starters and lump together a group of a passers who can be brilliant, but have shown “a hole or two in his game.” Annoyingly for Maye fans, this puts him in the same tier as Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, who has never won a playoff game, as well as Trevor Lawrence, who’s only managed one playoff win, three years ago, in the Wild Card round.
But to be frank, it suits Maye to sit outside these Top-5 rankings, and the opinions around the league reflect that. It’s not disrespectful to argue that Maye isn’t in the same echelon as Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen: one guy is chasing Tom Brady in Super Bowls and the other passes every eye test with flying colors as elite. Stafford is reigning MVP and Burrow’s sheer stats when healthy – and that’s a big when, but he’s at the mercy of the decision making of the Bengals – are difficult to argue against.
After that, the guys considered have accomplished feats that Maye hasn’t yet: Lamar Jackson is a two-time league MVP, and Sam Darnold and Jalen Hurts have won Super Bowls, (‘Tier 3’ QB Aaron Rodgers also has, but he’s well past his prime). Jared Goff and Brock Purdy were never runners-up for MVP, but they also made it to the big game and lost, if we’re counting who’s been close to actually winning something, without winning it.
Where Maye ranks should be squarely in line with Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, because both young players are victims of small sample size, leaving the door open for doubt about whether they’re the guy who leads a program through a nearly-unstoppable season, or watches his season implode around him. The Commanders won just five games last season as injuries derailed Daniels. In 2024, Daniels had strung together what was arguably the greatest rookie quarterback performance of this century, leading the team to 12 wins and to the conference championship.
Maye got 12 starts in his rookie season and technically only won one game in which he participated in full – he left the victory over the Jets in the hands of Jacoby Brissett after leaving in the second quarter with a head injury, and was replaced by Joe Milton III in the team’s final win over Buffalo that year. He more than made up for it in his sophomore campaign, but again, all voters have to go off of are these two seasons.
In addition to Maye’s success in leading the team to the Super Bowl last year, his individual stats skyrocketed: in the regular season, his completion percentage jumped from 66% to 72%, his average throw was just under 9 yards, and he actually decreased his interceptions while playing more games.
And yet, Maye’s total win percentage as a starter, including those games where he was replaced and postseason victories, is 58.6%. Jayden Daniels, as a starter, has an almost identical win percentage as a of 58.3%.
So, this is where the 2026 gets really interesting. These two guys were picks 2 and 3 in the 2024 draft. They’ve both had one unbelievable season and one absolute stinker, albeit for different reasons. Daniels was fantastic out of the gate, but is built like a track star and got hurt all the time one year, while Maye was unable to pilot a plane made out of cardboard and duct tape in his rookie season, but looked like an entirely different player in his second year.
The Patriots’ front office mightily rewarded Maye’s efforts last year by upgrading his wide receiver room with not one, but two shiny new toys in Romeo Doubs and A.J. Brown. They beefed up the offensive line with Alijah Vera-Tucker. Now, he’s moving into his second year in the same offensive system, under the coordinator who authored some of Brady’s finest blueprints.
“I think Coach [Josh] McDaniels is one of the best to learn it from because he’s the one that was teaching it out there and calling it,” Maye said after a team walkthrough Wednesday, when asked about Brady’s play tempo.
So, here’s the deal, Patriots fans: it’s okay to exclude Maye from the elite of the elite based on his lopsided sample size. But New England has done a whole lot to position him to make another leap this year – the leap to becoming undeniable.
