Welcome to Week 5 of the 2026 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: Explain your choice for the most surprising QB performance for the past month, and why you think the player is producing how he is.
- Bryce Young QB4
- Tyler Shough QB3
- Drake Maye QB22
- Justin Herbert QB24
Maurile Tremblay: My biggest surprise is Drake Maye. Last season he led the league in completion percentage, adjusted yards per attempt, and passer rating. He threw 31 touchdowns against 8 interceptions, finished second in Most Valuable Player voting, and took New England to the Super Bowl. So, in my drafts, he went as a top-three quarterback. Five weeks later, he is the 22nd-ranked quarterback, trailing numerous players who went undrafted.
What makes the slump so strange is that nothing structurally got worse. For the first time since high school, Maye is running the same offense two years in a row. Josh McDaniels and his staff stayed put. The coaches spent all summer saying his command of the scheme was well ahead of a year earlier. Production collapsed anyway.
Mike Vrabel's diagnosis is that Maye is pressing and trying to do too much. Maye has been bailing out of clean pockets early, likely conditioned by the pounding he took in the playoffs. The encouraging part is that this is a fixable problem. The Week 4 upset at Buffalo looked like the start of the fix, with three touchdown passes, a team-high in rushing yards, and an eight-play winning drive against heavy blitzing. He still had two turnovers, but it was an encouraging step.
Jeff Haseley: Nobody saw Bryce Young turning into a top four fantasy quarterback four weeks into the season, especially considering both starting tackles Ikem Ekwonu and Taylor Moton are out of the lineup. Yet here he is, leading the NFL with 317 passing yards per game and an impressive 9:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
The breakout comes down to three things:
- Brad Idzik taking over plays: Dave Canales handed play calling to his offensive coordinator so he could focus on head-coaching duties. Idzik immediately tailored the offense to Young's quick processing, getting him in a rhythm with moving pockets and deeper intermediate shots.
- Tetairoa McMillan as the alpha: McMillan gives Young the true WR1 he’s lacked in his career. We saw some semblance of this last season, but McMillan's development has really opened the offense for Young, winning at every level of the field.
- Jalen Coker's growth: With defenses leaning toward McMillan, Coker has stepped up as a dependable target to move the chains. He has become a secondary option for Young, which has unlocked a new level for him and the Panthers' league-leading passing offense.
Young posted good downfield passing metrics last season, but he has taken it to another level this year. He has an 85.2 PFF Passing Grade and an 88.6 Overall Grade, ranking 3rd among all qualified starters behind only Patrick Mahomes II and Josh Allen.
Young ranks among the NFL's elite in overall EPA per play (+0.187), proving his league-leading passing volume (317.0 yards per game) isn't just empty stat-padding, but game-elevating production on every dropback. System comfort, smart play-calling, and true receiving talent have turned Young from a question mark into a weekly fantasy starter.