Preseason in the NFL means two things: fans arguing about depth charts, and fans deciding whose name goes on their next jersey. Walk into any fan store this month and it's the same handful of names on repeat. This year, the race for the top spot on that list has an actual new leader.
According to Rotowire, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is projected to be the top selling NFL jersey heading into 2026, on the back of a jump in search interest after he carried New England to Super Bowl LX. Buffalo's Josh Allen is the one who actually topped the NFLPA's official year end sales list for a second straight year, riding his first career MVP award. Different measures, different winners. That's the gap between a locked in sales record and a projection built on where the buzz is heading next.
Fantasy managers already know most of these names. Whoever's deep into the fantasy football rankings right now is basically previewing the jersey charts too. The same production that wins fantasy leagues tends to sell shirts.
Maye's case is straightforward. New England went 14-3, lost the Super Bowl to Seattle 29-13, and Maye still finished runner up in MVP voting. He's pulling in roughly 18,000 jersey related searches a month heading into the season, well clear of anyone else in the league. Allen sits second at around 10,000, still selling off the strength of last year's MVP run.
Philadelphia takes over from there. Saquon Barkley, who ran for 2,005 yards and won Offensive Player of the Year on his way to a Super Bowl, is projected as the top selling non-quarterback jersey in football. Jalen Hurts isn't far behind him, which tracks for a team that just won it all in a city that treats merchandise like a competitive sport. Lamar Jackson rounds out the top five. Two time MVP. Not even 30 yet.
Cooper DeJean is the other Eagle on this list, and his jersey is selling for the same reason everyone remembers his name: the pick six he ran back in Super Bowl LIX. That's the pattern across most of this projection. A big moment sticks, and the merchandise follows for years afterward.
Then there are the jerseys nobody would have predicted from box scores alone. Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart sits just outside the top ten, pulling around 13,000 monthly searches on the back of a solid rookie season (2,272 yards, 15 touchdowns across 12 starts) and the arrival of new head coach John Harbaugh, one of the more decorated names to ever stand on an NFL sideline (chaseyoursport has ranked the greatest ever, if you want the full list). Shedeur Sanders is still one of the most searched names in the league, and that's almost entirely down to falling to the fifth round of last year's draft, not his 7 touchdown, 10 interception rookie stat line.
Fernando Mendoza is the outlier. The Raiders' number one overall pick is the only true rookie to crack the projected top 25, which says everything about how fast merchandise moves before a player has taken a single professional snap.
By team, Philadelphia leads with three: Barkley, Hurts and cornerback Cooper DeJean. New York and Green Bay each have two, Dart and running back Cam Skattebo for the Giants, Micah Parsons and Jordan Love for the Packers.
This is a projection, not a final tally. It's built on historical sales data and current search trends, not actual receipts, and search volume can spike overnight and fade just as fast once the season starts. Sanders is the clearest example: draft drama moved more jerseys than his rookie tape did. Mendoza is the one to watch the other way. If he plays like a number one pick, this list looks conservative by October. If he doesn't, it looks generous. Either way, following the jersey money is a decent shortcut to who the league already expects to matter this year.
