Welcome to Week 8 of the 2025 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. We split the conversation into separate features.
This week's roundtable features these four topics:
Let's roll...
Matt Waldman: Pick one topic and explain why the statement is true or false.
- Drake Maye is worth building around in dynasty formats in the same tier as Patrick Mahomes II and Baker Mayfield.
- Jacoby Brissett's past two games are generating whispers that Kyler Murray's quarterbacking doesn't match his talent.
- Jaxson Dart is a top fantasy starter this year, but the jury is out on him as a long-term NFL QB.
What's your choice?
Meng Song: I'll say the statement about Jaxson Dart is true, but isn't the jury out long-term for all young quarterbacks? So much of quarterback development is intangible, and much of it is also dependent on offensive line play and coaching.
Dart doesn't have the former, with the Giants' offensive line pretty league-average in pass block win rate. However, he does have the latter. Brian Daboll is credited with being a key to Josh Allen's development during his tenure in Buffalo. That's why it was so interesting that Dart consistently fell to the second round in superflex rookie drafts over the summer.
The fact that Dart has competent coaching combined with his ability and willingness to run (44.5 rushing yards and 0.8 rushing touchdowns per game through four starts!) lends confidence in his ability to be a top-12 fantasy quarterback going forward. Plus, he's been producing and winning without Malik Nabers.
The jury is out on Dart as a long-term NFL starter, but the excitement that the Giants may have found another franchise quarterback is warranted.
Mike Kashuba: Drake Maye is in the same tier as Patrick Mahomes II and Baker Mayfield...
Maye had the talent coming out of UNC, but his mechanics needed to be cleaned up, and his pass catchers left a lot of production on the field. Now, with almost 20 games under his belt, he's the real deal.
Maye is the QB4 with two different 30-year-olds as his leading targets. He doesn't have the same extensive track record as Mahomes or Mayfield, but he's almost 10 years younger and has proven to Patriots fans that he's a franchise quarterback for years to come.
If you can get 90-95 percent of the production with a much longer timeline, Maye has an argument to be above both.
Josh Fahlsing: The Jaxson Dart statement is true, but I have a lean. Dart was my favorite quarterback in this year's draft, and I still think he will be a long-term NFL quarterback.
However, a couple of factors leave me not quite ready to declare that yet. First, while he and Cam Skattebo have been a lot of fun, Dart has played in six professional football games, only four of those are starts.
Dart hasn't even attempted 120 passes, and he's got to settle on either the turtle neck or the chain because that's way too much neck drama going on when he wears both. Second, I don't know how this coaching staff got back on the plane in Denver, but I am not ruling out the possibility that the Giants leave them behind somewhere before the season ends.
I think a new regime would come in knowing it had to embrace Dart as the quarterback of the future, but we've seen these guys moved before when a new staff wants their own guy. Either way, a coaching shakeup could delay or stall his career.
Still, I think Dart's going to be fine, and I'm glad to have shares of him in the few places that I do. I don't like not being aligned with Matt, but I think I liked Dart a little more than he did coming out.
Matt put him on a scale with Jake Plummer and J.J. McCarthy on one end, and Drew Lock and Zach Wilson on the other. I scored him on par with Jaden Daniels, and just behind Drake Maye and Caleb Williams.
Jake Plummer carved himself out a really nice pro career. If Dart can do what Plummer did, I think the jury will return a positive verdict for Dart and, more importantly, I'll be mostly aligned with Matt on him, which will help me sleep better.