Should I start Joe Burrow or Drake Maye in Week 8?

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Joe Burrow, and the board ranks him 2nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Drake Maye, and the board ranks him 5th overall on the rest of his evidence.

The market-based projections

The market-based projection for Joe Burrow is 22.8 PPR points a game off 4 markets across 7 market sources. That is 80 percent of what a quarterback's projection needs, so it is a fragment of one rather than a projection.

Drake Maye's market-based projection is 18.5 PPR points a game, built from 5 markets across 11 market sources. That is the 2nd highest figure of the 175 players with a market-based projection.

Joe Burrow's projection is not complete, so the two figures are not set against each other here.

This season through Week 8

Through Week 8, Joe Burrow has been on the field for 99 percent of CIN snaps, dropped back 289 times and thrown 7.6 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 51 of 289 dropbacks and scrambled 9 times.

In Week 5 against MIA he completed 23 of 32 passes for 190 yards, threw 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 12 yards.

In Week 7 against BAL he completed 22 of 30 passes for 292 yards, threw 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 2 times for 12 yards.

In Week 8 against TEN he completed 38 of 48 passes for 462 yards, threw 5 touchdowns and 3 interceptions and ran 3 times for 10 yards.

Through Week 8, Drake Maye has been on the field for 97 percent of NE snaps, dropped back 275 times and thrown 8.9 air yards an attempt.

He has been sacked or hit on 39 of 275 dropbacks and scrambled 26 times.

In Week 6 against NYJ he completed 18 of 32 passes for 235 yards, threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 3 times for 25 yards.

In Week 7 against CHI he completed 24 of 30 passes for 321 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 1 interception and ran 4 times for 26 yards.

In Week 8 against MIA he completed 16 of 20 passes for 199 yards, threw 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions and ran 5 times for 7 yards.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Joe Burrow played 8 games and scored 139.5 PPR points, 17.4 a game, finishing QB29.

He threw for 1809 yards on 259 attempts with 17 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, and ran for 41 yards and 0 touchdowns.

That came to 32.4 attempts a game at 7.0 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 86 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Drake Maye played 17 games and scored 360.0 PPR points, 21.2 a game, finishing QB2.

He threw for 4394 yards on 492 attempts with 31 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, and ran for 450 yards and 4 touchdowns.

That came to 28.9 attempts a game at 8.9 yards an attempt.

He was on the field for 97 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Drake Maye was available for 9 games more.

Head to head

In 2025 Drake Maye scored 21.2 PPR points a game and Joe Burrow 17.4, 3.7 a game between them.

Joe Burrow finished QB29 that year and Drake Maye QB2.

Drake Maye had 233 more pass attempts than Joe Burrow, 492 to 259.

Drake Maye had 2585 more passing yards than Joe Burrow, 4394 to 1809.

This season Joe Burrow holds the bigger snap share, 99 percent against 97 percent.

Their target share this season is the same, 0 percent each.

Byes and availability

Joe Burrow is off in Week 6 and Drake Maye in Week 11, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

Joe Burrow has only a partial projection, so the market half of this page is whole for only one of them.