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Drake Maye S Deep Ball Is Still Lethal And More Patriots Browns

Bonisiwe Shabane
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drake maye s deep ball is still lethal and more patriots browns

Mike Vrabel praises Stefon Diggs for his impact on the wide receiver room following his first touchdown of the season It wasn't smooth. They didn't seem totally comfortable. But, in the end, everything worked out. That's how it's gone for the Patriots in 2025. And that's how it went for them on Sunday.

Both in the game itself -- where they beat the Browns, 32-13 -- but also in the tunnel for pregame player introductions. The Patriots haven't started a game that way in years. They made it popular to emerge from the locker room as a team after being introduced in that fashion ahead of their first Super Bowl victory 24 years ago. Subscribe to NBC Sports Boston's podcast network to hear our Insiders bring you the latest insights on your favorite teams! After struggling mightily in the deep passing game over the last few seasons, the Patriots and quarterback Drake Maye rank third in the NFL in explosive pass percentage in 2025. Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images

FOXBORO, Mass. — During those backyard games that still stick out vividly for Drake Maye, he was rarely the quarterback. One drawback to being the youngest of four boys is that the older brothers got to pick the fun positions. So Maye was usually a wide receiver. “They wouldn’t let me play quarterback,” Maye said with a smile. So Maye didn’t get the rush of hitting a deep pass until later on.

As the spotlight on Maye grew and the recruiting stars came, attendance swelled at Myers Park High in Charlotte, N.C., when Maye played. And even as Maye has developed into a terrific NFL quarterback in his second season with the New England Patriots, he still thinks back to that feeling he first experienced on high school fields,... The way a stadium falls quiet for just a split second when the quarterback heaves the ball deep downfield. The nervous energy of waiting to see if it’ll be caught. The Patriots extended their winning streak to eight games in a 27-14 victory over the Jets on Thursday night, a workmanlike performance for New England on a short week. After facing three top-15 defenses in DVOA in his previous three games, QB Drake Maye got a slight reprieve this week against a Jets defense that entered the week 28th in DVOA.

New York was struggling defensively already before the trade deadline and then dealt top CB Sauce Gardner and star DT Quinnen Williams at the deadline. Although the level of competition must be noted, Maye was still superb, even while seeing a new blueprint that went against the Jets typical coverage tendencies. Based on my film charting, Maye had his best day since an outstanding performance vs. the Saints in Week 6, which makes sense since he faced the Browns, Falcons, and Bucs defenses over that span. With 11 plus plays to only 4.5 minuses, Maye's +6.5 net trails only his near-perfect outings against the Saints (+9) and Dolphins (+9) earlier this season. If my eye test doesn't do it for you, Maye's +0.30 expected points added per drop-back was his highest mark since the game in Tennessee, and his fifth-highest of the season – this was...

The most improved area of #Patriots QB Drake Maye’s game is his pocket movement. More under control with better ball security (two hands on the ball) to rip through, relocate & keep his eyes downfield. Seeing the drills from practice on the game film.pic.twitter.com/Bsgnecjsvw Maye's poise to extend plays with controlled pocket movement stood out on film, a clear area of improvement from his rookie season to his year-two leap. Instead of creating his own pressure by drifting in the pocket, Maye is now relocating to stay alive in the pocket while keeping his eyes downfield and keeping two hands on the football for... Effective pocket maneuvering allows Maye to remain a thrower for longer, which adds all sorts of yards to the Patriots offense on a weekly basis.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Drake Maye’s first memory of the deep ball wasn’t as a quarterback. It was as a receiver. He’s the youngest of four brothers and anyone who has older siblings knows how the hierarchy works. "They wouldn't let me play quarterback," he said. Finally, when they gave him the ball, Drake connected on his first-ever long ball with his brother Luke, the fastest sibling, at their house in Huntersville, North Carolina.

And so it began. By high school, Maye was the QB1 at Myers Park in Charlotte. His downfield throws would take the air out of the stadium. "I just remember throwing deep balls and the crowd would gasp," Maye said. "Just hearing that gasp was pretty cool. … Hearing the crowd get into it, I think you always get excited."

Cam Newton is a fan of Drake Maye, but he won’t admit he’s playing like a top quarterback. The former New England Patriots signal caller dismissed the idea that Maye is playing like a top five QB in the NFL when his “First Take” co-host Damien Woody said as much recently. And Newton, once again, refused to give Maye his flowers when Woody said he’s the best deep ball thrower in the NFL. “You’re a liar. You are a liar. You just said, you fixed your lips to say, you allowed this to come out of your mouth, you even thought this first to say, he’s the best deep ball thrower in the NFL,”...

“(Stephen A. Smith), you keep allowing people to come on this show and have diarrhea at the mouth by just saying certain things that are just not true. “You’re a liar. Am I fan of Drake Maye? Absolutely,” he continued. “But one thing that you have to understand and you know this more than anybody, Damien Woody, in order to be the best, you have to do what?

Beat the best. In this case, you did it once. But to beat the best, you have to do this twice.” Newton concluded his rant by saying he doesn’t believe the Patriots and Maye can dethrone Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East. FOXBORO — The Drake Maye experience is … chaotic. In spurts, New England’s second-year quarterback looks deserving of the third overall pick.

And in between those plays, he overextends to show why he’s earned that draft capital. The attributes are legitimate and, when it comes to fruition, Maye draws comparisons to Buffalo's Josh Allen. But there’s no replicating Allen, or Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson — Drake Maye must find his own way through the NFL after 15 starts. Maye’s latest cluttered performance was in a 21-14 Week 3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Gillette Stadium. He accounted for two of New England’s five turnovers against the Steelers. His interception, with 12 seconds left before halftime, took at least three points off the board for New England.

And his fourth-quarter fumble led to Pittsburgh’s game-winning touchdown. But New England’s offense was also 4-for-5 on fourth downs. The version of Drake Maye that takes the field changes each week and even every quarter. CLEVELAND, Ohio — In football, few plays generate more excitement than a perfectly thrown deep ball. That distinctive sound of thousands of fans simultaneously inhaling—a collective gasp of anticipation—signals something special is happening. For Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, that sound has been the soundtrack to some of his favorite football memories, and on Wednesday, he opened up about what makes the deep ball such a unique and...

The rookie signal-caller took us back to his earliest memories of throwing deep, revealing a journey that began long before NFL stadiums and professional defenses. “Probably in the backyards of my brothers before anything throwing a deep [ball],” Maye reflected, before adding that his role wasn’t always as the quarterback. “I was a receiver for the longest because I was the youngest. They wouldn’t let me play quarterback.”

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