Week 7 Fantasy Football Mailbag: Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels and More

With six weeks of the fantasy football season in the rearview mirror, I polled our Fantasy Life Community Discord for their most pressing questions. Here are some of the highlights as well as how they might impact you and your rosters in the coming weeks and months.

How do we feel about Drake Maye being the genuine goat?

First off, I love this question.

In his second season, Drake Maye has taken the step that we all expected him to take. Through six games, he has 10 passing TDs compared to just two interceptions. He also has a pair of rushing TDs.

For comparison, in 13 games last season, he threw just 15 TDs and 10 INTs, so he's well on his way to setting excellent career marks in 2025.

Despite a less-than-ideal receiving corps, headlined by an aging Stefon Diggs, Kayshon Boutte, and Demario Douglas, Maye has led the Patriots to a 4-2 record, which ties them with the Bills for the best record in the AFC East.

Through six games, the Patriots are 11th in scoring (25 points per game) and 7th in defensive scoring (20 points per game). That type of complementary football, coupled with strong coaching (Mike Vrabel), will keep this team competitive week in and week out.

As our Discord member so eloquently stated, Maye is the genuine goat, or he's at least well on his way to establishing himself as one of the premier fantasy assets in the league. Personally, I feel pretty great about it. I'd like to think that this team can only get better at the receiver position moving forward, so Maye should only continue to improve.

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Is Jayden Daniels a top 3-5 QB rest-of-season?

Whenever I get questions like this that could go either way, I look for guidance and insight from people who are smarter than me. In this case, I went to our Rest of Season Guillotine League Rankings that our own Matthew Freedman does each week.

If you are drafting a team this week, we have Jayden Daniels ranked as the QB5.

That seems to track with what we've seen on the field. Despite missing two games, Daniels is posting strong numbers. He's topped 20 fantasy points in each of his four games and has seven passing TDs to go along with just one INT.

Fantasy managers would certainly like to see more rushing production, but his weekly average of 44 rushing yards per week is doing enough to keep his floor high. He hasn't scored on the ground yet, but those opportunities will come.

For context, we have Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Jalen Hurts ranked ahead of Daniels. Perhaps even more intriguing, we have the previously-mentioned Maye as the QB6. We're definitely starting to see the next wave of QBs establish themselves as premier fantasy assets this season.

How should people value George Pickens for the rest of the season? What’s his trade value?

Using the aforementioned rest-of-season rankings, Freedman has George Pickens ranked as the WR14 if you were drafting a team this week.

That seems more than fair for a player who has stepped up in a big way since CeeDee Lamb went down with an ankle injury. It sounds like the star wideout could return in Week 7, but it remains to be seen if that happens.

Focusing on Pickens, he's already set a career-high in TDs with six through just six games. Along with Jake Ferguson, he's become the focal point of a high-octane passing offense with one of the league's worst defenses on the other side of the ball. Dak Prescott is having another top-notch season, and Pickens is a big beneficiary.

Regarding the second part of the question and the type of trade value that Pickens could carry, I would be holding him. I can somewhat understand the desire to cash out on his strong start to the season. Lamb's return does loom large for Pickens managers, but this offense (and total lack of defense) is more than capable of supporting two top-end fantasy assets.

Freedman has Lamb ranked as his WR7 the rest of the way, so he's certainly bullish on him returning to form once he's back. Pickens has more than earned his share of the opportunities in Dallas, and fantasy managers should sit back and enjoy the ride.

How concerned should we be about Courtland Sutton's feast vs. famine weeks?

I didn't realize just how volatile Courtland Sutton has been this season until this question came across our Discord server. Here's Sutton's game logs for this season:

• Week 1 - 18.1 PPR
• Week 2 - 1.6 PPR
• Week 3 - 23.8 PPR
• Week 4 - 19.1 PPR
• Week 5 - 17.9 PPR
• Week 6 - 2.7 PPR

From a broader perspective, Denver's offense has struggled at times. They rank 20th in scoring (21.7 PPG) but boast the second-best defense in the league. Sutton remains the focal point of the passing attack, but his performances in Weeks 2 & 6 may have lost you your matchup.

If you were drafting a team this week, we do have Sutton ranked as the WR15, so there's clear optimism for him to have more top-end performances than not, but it's worth recognizing that the risk for clunkers is there.

Personally, when I have a player with this type of range of outcomes, it helps dictate the remaining roster moves I make. To insulate from volatility, I'll try to deploy players with a higher floor that I am more certain about. However, if I'm a massive underdog in a matchup that I need to win, I'm fine rolling out high-ceiling/low-floor players like Sutton.

It's all about roster construction and risk tolerance. There are many ways to build a strong, successful lineup, but you may have to make some tough decisions along the way. Sutton remains someone I am confident in moving forward.

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