Where does Drake Maye's sophomore season rank among the greatest second-year QB seasons in NFL history?

Raise your hand if you had MVP and Super Bowl winner Drake Maye on your NFL bingo card for this season entering the year.

That would have sounded crazy about five months ago, but now it's closer to becoming reality thanks to one of the greatest breakout seasons by a young quarterback in NFL history.

Of all the stats on Maye, this might be my favorite: He's the first qualified quarterback to post the NFL's best record (14-3), completion percentage (72.0%) and yards per attempt (8.9) in the same season since Tom Brady in 2007. Patriots fans, I hope you realize how lucky you are.

Drake Maye

NE • QB • #10

CMP%72.0

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The fact that Maye posted the highest completion rate in the league while also airing it out more than anyone else is obscene. He led the NFL in completion rate on throws 15-plus yards downfield this year after ranking last in 2024. He emerged as one of the league's best off-schedule passers -- skills that helped him continue a rich tradition of quarterback leaps fans adore and struggling franchises dream of.

If we were truly prisoners of the moment, we might call this one of the greatest quarterback seasons ever. You can find plenty of stats -- even ones like the above -- to back that up. But the more realistic conversation centers on the greatest sophomore seasons by a quarterback of all time. That's when the next superstar, like Maye, typically emerges and begins carving a path to football immortality.

Before I list my top 10 sophomore quarterback seasons ever, check out the list of candidates. They involve some combination of great individual and team success. A few of these seasons won't make the cut, but they show just how many impressive seasons were in consideration.

Candidates for greatest second-year QB season

The question is where Maye falls here -- and how much higher he can go. How do we even compare passing numbers in 2025 to those of the early 2000s or even the 1980s, when it was a completely different game?

One way to compare seasons across eras is to use Pro Football Reference's ANY/A+ stat. It's an efficiency rating (where 100 is average) similar to passer rating but era-adjusted, leveling the playing field between quarterbacks from the 1970s -- when compiling gaudy passing numbers was far more difficult -- and the 2020s, when the passing environment has never been more favorable.

Maye posted the sixth-highest ANY/A+ (131) by any qualified quarterback in his second season in NFL history, trailing only 1999 Kurt Warner (134), 2018 Patrick Mahomes (136), 2013 Nick Foles (143), 2023 Brock Purdy (146) and 1984 Dan Marino (195).

We know this season stacks up with the most efficient campaigns by a young quarterback ever. He's also on the doorstep of the Super Bowl. Let's dive in and see where I ranked him:

10. Johnny Unitas (1957)

I wasn't alive to see Johnny Unitas play, but I can tell you he led the NFL in passing yards, touchdown passes, yards per attempt and passer rating in 1957, ultimately finishing third in MVP voting behind runner-up Y.A. Tittle and Jim Brown, the only rookie to ever win the award. His Year 2 leap set the stage for the Colts' first championship in 1958 and Unitas' heroics in the "Greatest Game Ever Played."

9. Peyton Manning (1999)

Sticking with the Colts here. Peyton Manning must have had a few people worried in 1998 when he threw an NFL rookie-record 28 interceptions and the Colts went 3-13. What a difference a year makes. Manning finished as the MVP runner-up in 1999, and the Colts became the first team ever to go from a 13-loss season to a 13-win season. His superstar supporting cast got into the act. Edgerrin James led the league in rushing as a rookie (1,553 yards), and Marvin Harrison led the NFL in receiving (1,663). Too bad Manning went one-and-done in the playoffs for the first of several times.

8. Russell Wilson (2013)

It would be easy to assume the Seahawks only won a Super Bowl in 2013 because of the "Legion of Boom" or Marshawn Lynch. After all, they hardly needed Wilson to beat the Broncos' record-breaking offense 43-8 in the Super Bowl. Don't be mistaken, though -- Wilson did his part. He ranked seventh in EPA per dropback (0.17) in 2013 and fourth in yards per attempt (8.2). He led the NFL in explosive pass rate (19.1%) among quarterbacks with 12-plus starts, and he ran for more than 500 yards.

7. Joe Burrow (2021)

Joe Burrow was OK as a rookie in 2020 after his record-setting national title year at LSU in 2019, but it ended with a devastating knee injury after 10 starts. Burrow came back healthy and thrived after the Bengals drafted his college teammate Ja'Marr Chase in the first round. He was an efficiency king, much like Maye, becoming the youngest quarterback ever (25) to lead the NFL in both completion rate (70.4%) and yards per attempt (8.9) before Maye broke that mark in 2025.

His "arrival" came in Weeks 16 and 17, when he combined for nearly 1,000 passing yards and eight touchdown passes in wins over the Ravens and Chiefs. He followed up a 14-point comeback win and game-winning drive vs. Patrick Mahomes and company in Week 17 with an 18-point comeback vs. the Chiefs in the AFC title game. He was a play away from winning the Super Bowl that year, too, but Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp had other ideas. Stafford hit the triple crown winner with a game-winning touchdown in the final two minutes, while Aaron Donald and Von Miller sealed the deal on defense. Still, it was a historic year and the birth of Burrow's NFL superstardom, plenty good enough to make this list.

6. Drake Maye (2025)

Maye is following in Burrow's footsteps with an ultra-efficient second season while leading a team on a Cinderella run with the Super Bowl in his sights. Maye already ranks ahead of Burrow on this list because he's done it with a worse supporting cast. Burrow threw to Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Maye is throwing to Stefon Diggs and Kayshon Boutte. This is the floor, and with a Super Bowl win, he could jump as high as second or third on the list.

5. Patrick Mahomes (2018)

You know this list is full of impressive breakouts when Patrick Mahomes ranks fifth. He started just one game as a rookie in 2017, backing up Alex Smith, before producing a record-setting year in 2018. He became the third quarterback ever to throw 50 touchdown passes in a season (2007 Tom Brady, 2013 Peyton Manning). He probably would have won a Super Bowl, too, if it weren't for that Tom Brady guy. A coin flip and an offside (Dee Ford) in the 2018 AFC title game changed the course of NFL history and are also reasons Mahomes isn't higher here.

4. Lamar Jackson (2019)

Lamar Jackson took over for Joe Flacco and started the final seven games of his rookie year in 2018. The electric audition proved good enough to win Jackson the job going forward, but he was still a bit of a question mark after an ugly playoff performance vs. the Chargers, when he went 3-of-9 passing for 25 yards in the first three quarters of that loss. He completely turned the page in 2019 by leading the league in touchdown passes (36) while rushing for a QB-record 1,206 yards in just 15 starts. He won unanimous MVP in one of the best seasons in NFL history. He would rank higher on this list, but he went one-and-done in the playoffs.

3. Tom Brady (2001)

We're really splitting hairs between the top three names on this list. Tom Brady, the 199th overall pick of the 2000 NFL Draft, completed one pass his entire rookie season but then rose to the occasion after Mo Lewis' hit on Drew Bledsoe, and the rest is history. Brady won 14 of 17 starts in 2001, had five game-winning drives, and led the Patriots to their first Super Bowl title and one of the biggest championship upsets ever vs. Kurt Warner and the Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf" offense. Brady remains the last quarterback to win a Super Bowl in the season of his playoff debut. I think we can all safely say we're jealous of Patriots fans for having two quarterbacks on this list.

2. Dan Marino (1984)

Dan Marino may not have won a Super Bowl in his second season, but his stats were so astronomical he tops Brady on this list. He produced the first 5,000-yard passing season in 1984. The NFL's next one wouldn't come for another 24 years (Drew Brees in 2008). He threw 48 touchdown passes in '84, a record that stood for two decades until Peyton Manning threw 49 in 2004. The best part, though, was that the previous record was 36 touchdown passes by George Blanda (1961) and Y.A. Tittle (1963).

Marino shattered the best quarterback season of all time and put up numbers nobody else would sniff for decades. He became the youngest quarterback (23) to win MVP and also the youngest to start a Super Bowl, a record he still holds today. The Dolphins lost that Super Bowl to the 49ers, but it doesn't diminish Marino's 1984 season as an all-time great.

1. Kurt Warner (1999)

Kurt Warner's second season was so amazing a movie was made about it: "American Underdog." He stocked grocery shelves after going undrafted in 1994, played for the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League in 1995 and the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe in 1997, then made the 1998 Rams as a third-stringer.

His big break came in 1999 when Trent Green's preseason injury opened the door for one of the best stories in NFL history. The "Greatest Show on Turf" was born, with Warner, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce putting up video game numbers. The 1999 Rams became the first team to win a Super Bowl after going worst-to-first in their division after a 4-12 season in 1998. Even the Super Bowl ending -- short by one yard -- felt straight out of a Hollywood script. Warner won NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP that year, a feat that wouldn't be repeated until Patrick Mahomes did it 23 years later.

Warner tops an incredible list of breakout seasons by young quarterbacks. Maye isn't far off the type of turnaround Warner and the Rams pulled off, either. The Patriots can join the Rams as the only team to win a Super Bowl coming off a season with four or fewer wins. What a story that would be, and it would be par for the course in one of the craziest seasons in NFL history.