Pats Pay Up For a New No. 2
With his rookie deal up, Doubs landed in New England on a four-year, $68 million deal ($39 million guaranteed) that ranks 28th among WRs in average annual value.
Doubs looked like New England’s top WR until the team acquired A.J. Brown for a first-round pick. Brown arrives with proven No. 1 WR production, including 1,000+ yards and 7+ scores in six of seven NFL seasons.
Our projections have Brown as the clear team leader in targets at 27%, ahead of Doubs (18.3%) and Hunter Henry (15%).
A QB Upgrade
Doubs lands in a rising Patriots offense after Drake Maye’s 2025 breakout. Maye ranked top-4 in:
- yards per game (258.4)
- TDs per game (1.82)
- completion rate (72.0%)
- yards per attempt (8.9)
- success rate (54.7%)
Those numbers came in well ahead of Jordan Love’s:
- 225.4 yards per game
- 1.53 TDs per game
- 66.3% completion rate
- 7.7 yards per attempt
- 50.2% success rate
Maye also beats Doubs’ old QB as an out-of-structure playmaker. Love completed just 33.3% of his throws outside the pocket last season at 4.5 yards per attempt, per SumerSports. Maye checked in at 51.6% and 8.0 YPA.
Overall, he’s an upgrade in both efficiency and playmaking.
Pats Should Throw a Bit More
OC Josh McDaniels returns after leading an offense that finished 26th in pass rate but fifth in pass rate over expected and 18th in neutral pass rate. A similar pattern showed in the red zone, with New England finishing 16th in RZ pass rate and sixth in RZ pass rate over expected.
Brown and Doubs give New England reason to throw more in Maye’s third season, but we still don’t expect a pass-heavy unit. Our projections have the Patriots at a 54.8% pass rate, up from 53.1% last year.
Doubs Delivers in the Red Zone
Brown limits Doubs’ target-volume upside, making TDs more important to his fantasy case.
Doubs could become one of Maye’s preferred scoring-area targets after accumulating 15 red zone scores over the past three seasons. That comes in ahead of Henry’s 12 RZ scores and Brown’s 10 over the same stretch.
Maye also showed the passing-TD potential last year with 31 scores. While the 6.3% TD rate was high, Maye’s talent and situation could prompt another strong finish.
Realistically, Doubs could push for weekly WR3 value.
The risk, of course, is that he doesn’t carry over his red-zone prowess and struggles to be more than fantasy bench fodder.