Is Drake Maye's rushing upside being overlooked?
Yahoo Fantasy analysts Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens break down the New England quarterback's early ADP and determine if his rushing game could mirror former Patriots QB Cam Newton with increased opportunity. Hear the full conversation on the 'Yahoo Fantasy Forecast' podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Extra consensus is QB 18, uh, on Drake May right now.
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We're slightly higher than that QB 16 here at Yahoo with a range of 13 to 18 uh on Drake May.
I gotta throw Drake May to you with this stat, Andy, because I think his ability as a rushing quarterback is Sort of going understated right now, like that potential upside there that that is is waiting to be mined there.
Drake May last year, 3.81 yards after contact per rush attempt was second most in the NFL behind Baker Mayfield.
But here's the crazy part about his rushing last season.
97% of his rushing yards came as a scrambler because they so rarely used him as a designed rusher.
I don't know what the rate, the split is gonna look like this year.
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I, I will, I will take the under on 97% of his rushing yards from being from scrambles because May has already talked about this and he's looked at some of those old Cam Newton, uh, 2020 Patriots games, you know, where Josh McDaniels kind of had Cam Newton, what was left of him cooking as a design rusher.
So I'm very excited about Drake May this year.
Where do you think he might end up slotting in drafts and, and is he somebody you're interested in targeting this year?
This, this is funny because you started exactly where I was going to start, which is with the idea that like, man, if Drake May was a proactive runner this year, it, it would make all the difference in terms of his fantasy appeal.
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And if we just get like, I don't know, if we get little nuggets about that, the the potential of that, hey, let's give Drake May 5, 67, you know, designed rush attempts per game.
That that would change the math, that would change a lot of things.
This is definitely a player who, if we're making it a recurring part of the offense.
He could easily rush for 750 yards, 800 yards.
I think he's a the the numbers look similar to Caleb Williams last year in terms of, uh, you know, just a total rushing output.
He's a better runner than than Caleb.
That would make Drake May really appealing, you know, if we could just get Drake May to like 3500 passing yards and he's a proactive rusher, now he's now he's got top 10 appeal.
I think there's a lot of new things in uh in New England as well, and it's hard not to like what they did for him in the offseason.
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- New York Times
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