Why Drake Maye S Numbers And The Patriots Turnaround Make Him An

Drake Maye continued his blistering start to the season on Sunday, completing 21 of 23 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns against the Titans. Johnnie Izquierdo / Getty Images Drake Maye did a good job in his postgame news conference Sunday evening after another win, praising his head coach and deflecting the celebration over a 5-2 start onto the man who has orchestrated... He talked eloquently about how the players show up for Mike Vrabel and about how much a win in Tennessee surely meant to the head coach. But when it was time for a question about Maye’s own performance, about how he’d taken down Tom Brady’s franchise record for completion percentage in a game, Maye didn’t quite know what to say. In his usual “aw, shucks” way, he tried to pivot to those around him.

“Those guys are making plays for me, those guys up front are blocking their butts off and in the passing game, they’re going to go make plays for me, and I think we’re just... The New England Patriots left Miami with an unusual win at Hard Rock Stadium in a hard-fought slugfest with the Dolphins. It gave Head Coach Mike Vrabel his first win with the team and showcased the talents of the team's second-year quarterback, Drake Maye. After a less-than-optimal Week 1 loss to the Raiders at Gillette Stadium, the team went into Miami seeking a seldom-seen win. Miami has never been an easy place for the Patriots to play, but Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had never been beaten at all by a Patriots team in his previous five years in the... That streak ended as the 2025 Patriots showed solid signs of coalescing into a possible contender.

Big plays were made by Antonio Gibson, Marte Mapu, Harold Landry III, and top free agent signee Milton Williams, among others. Yet, the star of the show was undoubtedly Maye. Quarterback Drake Maye had had a decent game in the Week 1 loss to the Raiders. Yet, he and Patriots Nation knew he had to do a lot better if the team was to avoid another loss to the Dolphins in Miami and an 0-2 record beginning to the Vrabel-era... Thankfully, Maye rose to the occasion with the finest game of his career. The Patriots' second-year quarterback recorded the second-highest Week 2 quarterback rating in the league at 137.3, further adding to the impressive start of his 2025 season.

Drake Maye talks with Jeff Darlington about his breakout season in New England and how Tom Brady's legacy has inspired him to succeed. (2:44) FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye has made plenty of highlight-reel plays this season to become the favorite to win the NFL's Most Valuable Player Award. But it's one of the simplest plays in the playbook that excites the second-year player more than any other: Maye ensures three players are behind him, approaches the line of scrimmage, sets under center Garrett Bradbury, calls for the snap and then backtracks a step before planting his left knee in the ground.

"Getting into victory formation ... That's what I'm proud of the most," he said. "There are probably some plays in there, some throws I made, but I think as a whole, it's just working hard to win in this league." Don’t tell New England linebacker Robert Spillane that the Patriots aren’t right where they’re supposed to be. “It’s a brand new team,” the defensive captain said, from a victorious locker room in Tampa. “I wasn’t here last year, so I had no expectations in terms of last year’s play for us this year.”

But, I said to Spillane, you’ve been around the block. “I’ve been around the block—and even when I was 2–15 with the Raiders, I thought we were going to go 17–0 that year,” he said. “So I have some level of delusion, player delusion, you might think. I have an overwhelming sense of confidence in myself and in my teammates. I always have. So I thought we’d be 10–0 right now.

We’re 8–2, but every week it’s a battle in the NFL, and we’re just going to continue to battle.” Turns out, his guess of 10–0 was much closer to the mark than most people would’ve predicted. FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — With 11 seconds remaining in the first quarter Sunday, Drake Maye ditched the initial play call and alerted to a second read. The New England Patriots quarterback faked a handoff to running back TreVeyon Henderson then dropped back, unspooling a deep pass down the right sideline as Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Yaya Diaby slammed Maye... Maye couldn’t see the ball’s destination in real time as he lay on the turf.

But he figured that if the ball reached receiver Kyle Williams, Williams would be well-positioned to take it home. And home did the rookie take Maye’s pass, canvassing 72 yards for a touchdown. The Patriots were 1,300 miles from their home stadium, and Maye was struggling through rain and Todd Bowles' blitzes. But Maye had shown enough electricity this season to elicit MVP chants even in the stadium of another quarterback who’d received his own MVP hype earlier this year. The chants weren’t limited to that one moment. Breaking down the Patriots’ key statistics six weeks into the season.

Having won three games in a row, the New England Patriots are current co-owners of the longest win streak in the NFL. Their recent success has catapulted them to the top of the AFC East for the first time in nearly four years, and also made them one of the hottest teams in all of football. Are they really, though? Momentum definitely is on their side, there is no denying that, but a deeper dive into the numbers shows that there are also several areas of concern still. That being said, as the following graphic illustrates, they are a fringe top-10 team at the moment. Considering the circumstances of a club under a new coaching staff, ranking in the vicinity of other playoff hopefuls at this point in time is nothing short of impressive.

Offensively, the Patriots are right up there with some of the better teams in the NFL, whereas their defense has been playing well enough to keep them in contention on a week-to-week basis. It was easy to write off the New England Patriots' 7-2 start. It came on the back of the league's easiest schedule. It featured losses to the woeful Las Vegas Raiders and an unsteady Pittsburgh Steelers, both at home. Only two of those victories came against opponents with winning records. One was against the Carolina Panthers, which are less an NFL franchise than a random event generator created to ruin weekends across the southern United States.

But the Patriots passed a major test when they beat the Buffalo Bills on the road in primetime back in Week 5. Then they took down another division leader and postseason staple Sunday. Behind the dynamic play of the team's young stars, New England left Florida with a 28-23 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was the kind of win that will resonate back in Foxborough for years to come. The headline, as it's been throughout 2025, was Drake Maye's ascension from "toolsy-but-flawed" quarterback to bonafide MVP candidate. His raw numbers were modest -- 16 of 31 for 270 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

He was buoyed by long runs after the catch. He gained only 14 rushing yards on six scrambles (and one weird goal line non-sneak that served only to eat up clock in the final two minutes of the first half). None of this screams "game changer." But Maye's play spoke volumes more than his box score. The Buccaneers continually brought pressure from the edge. Defensive tackle Vita Vea shoved center Garrett Bradberry around like an overgrown toddler manhandling a My Buddy doll (or Kid Sister, if you prefer the gender swapped version of heavily advertised late-1980s toys) to...

The second-year quarterback found ways to escape. Three different Tampa defenders have him dead to rights in the clip above. Maye can't step into his throw, and a lofted pass over the middle would spell doom. Fortunately, the former UNC star has "throw this football over them mountains" arm strength and, whoops, it's a first down on third-and-long.

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