Drake Maye's Turnover Problem Meets a Steelers Defense That Feasts
Maye threw three picks in Week 1 and now faces a Pittsburgh unit that gave up just 118 passing yards and grabbed two INTs in its opener.
31-TD ceiling and rushing floor outweigh a rough matchup.
- Maye: 31 TD, 8 INT in 2025, 354 PPR pts (our WR rank #3 QB)
- Maye threw 3 INTs in Week 1 loss at Seattle
- Steelers D allowed 118 pass yds, 2 INTs, 4 sacks in Week 1
- Metcalf: 4-of-10 for 40 yards in Steelers opener
- Michael Pittman ruled OUT for Week 2
Drake Maye finished 2025 as a legitimate MVP candidate — 4,394 passing yards, 31 touchdowns, eight interceptions and 354 PPR points across 17 games, good for our No. 3 fantasy QB in the actual 2025 results. But the version showing up to Week 2 looks shakier. Maye threw two picks in February's Super Bowl loss, then coughed up three more in New England's Week 1 defeat at Seattle, including a back-breaker in the final seconds.
Now the schedule hands him the worst possible reset. Sunday's opponent, the Pittsburgh Steelers, opened the season by suffocating an offense: 118 passing yards allowed, two interceptions (one a T.J. Watt pick-six) and four sacks. If you're worried about Maye's mistakes compounding, this is the matchup that could do it.
The Revenge-Game Angle
There's history here. Back in Week 3 of 2025, Pittsburgh went into New England and won 21-14 by forcing five turnovers — Maye personally accounted for two of them. That loss, oddly, lit a fire: Maye went pick-free over his next four games and the Patriots ripped off a 10-game streak on the way to an AFC title. So the film cuts both ways. A young QB who bounced back hard once could do it again.
On the other sideline, Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh offense are winning ugly. Rodgers went 16-of-23 for 139 yards in that 2025 meeting, and the Steelers' Week 1 win over Atlanta leaned on defense while the skill players sputtered. Rodgers posted 227 PPR points last season (2025), ranking as our No. 19 QB in actual results — a low-end streamer, not a set-and-forget starter.
The Skill-Position Mess
DK Metcalf's opener was a dud: four catches on 10 targets for 40 yards, with drops and a couple of missed PI flags. He's coming off a 187-PPR-point 2025 (59-850-6, our WR25 in actual results), so the talent is real, but the target quality isn't there yet. Worse, Michael Pittman — who paired with Pat Freiermuth for eight catches and 104 yards in Week 1 — has been ruled OUT, thinning an already thin group.
Fantasy call: start Maye. The matchup is genuinely scary, but you don't bench a top-three QB with a 31-TD ceiling and a 450-yard rushing floor over one bad game — that rushing production is his safety net. Metcalf is a hold, not a panic drop; his volume (10 targets) says the connection is coming even if the box score doesn't. And with Pittman out, monitor rookie Germie Bernard and Roman Wilson as deep-league dart throws only.
