FOXBORO — This is the quarterback cycle.
Step 1: praise and projection.
A young gun steps into the spotlight as a college prospect, then becomes the No. 1 overall pick, a top-10 pick or a surprise starter.
He gets buried in bouquets.
The talent, the moxie, the smile. Look at him. A leader of men. The face of a franchise before he’s even stepped into a regular-season huddle.
The kid’s got it all, they say. Media, mostly.
Step 2: patience.
Reality hits like an unblocked blitzer.
The season arrives, and the kid throws a bad pick or fails to complete a potential game-winning drive. Inevitable missteps over a quarterback’s career. A hopeful public extends him some grace.
It was just a rookie mistake. Or not his fault. Or certainly not as important as the other, smaller things he did well. And remember, he’s better than the last guy.
Step 3: pressure.
OK, honeymoon’s over.
The rookie label has been ripped off like a Band-Aid. The last guy is long forgotten. It’s on you now.
It’s time to see it. Prove it. Show us what we’ve expected, what we promised ourselves and believed.
This is where New England is — or will be soon — with Drake Maye.
Maye has logged just 13 NFL starts, but soon enough expectations will soar to a level associated with 13-year veterans because the cycle has been accelerated. Impatience is the rule, not the exception, in today’s NFL, thanks to Jayden Daniels, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and other recent rookie sensations.
Not to mention, after three years of grade-A dysfunction in Foxboro, and only one winning season since 2019, we are desperate for competitive football again. Because of Maye and Mike Vrabel, last Sunday felt like the first time we might get a glimpse of the Patriots as we once knew them. It wasn’t.
Maye responded poorly to literal pressure in a loss to Las Vegas, while his counterpart, Geno Smith, out-dueled him in a second-half comeback. Maye went 4-of-8 for 41 yards and an interception, took four sacks and threw with scattershot accuracy when he was hurried or hit.
Teammates suggested Maye took the loss hard, something evident to anyone who watched a confident kid stuff his hands in his pockets and look down while answering questions in his post-game press conference.
“He’s a guy that’s super hard on himself, you know. We’re pulling for him,” Stefon Diggs said after Sunday’s loss. “We’ve just got to continue that positive reinforcement, that positive encouragement. Quarterback is a very hard job.”
Maye looked and sounded more like himself in another press conference after Wednesday’s practice. Not the same, but better.
(Granted, there is never a fun time to take questions after a loss. But, hey, that’s part of the job.)
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye speaks during a news conference following a preseason NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)
“I think the guys are being great around me,” he said. “I think they’re pumping me up and staying positive in the huddles, (they’ve) got some juice. So that’s the biggest thing: be in the huddle, have some juice and not have all eyes on each other, waiting for somebody to say something. I feel I’ve got some juice in the huddle.”
Maye can lean some on his fellow quarterbacks, Joshua Dobbs and Tommy DeVito, because they, too, have experienced pressure as NFL starters. But that’s where the similarities more or less end. Dobbs and DeVito were celebrated in their time as spot starters because winning wasn’t expected of them. Their success came as a surprise.
Success is the only thing expected of Maye now. The outcomes of games — and by extension, the future of the franchise — rest entirely on his shoulders, as far as the public is concerned. And so it’s no coincidence that Vrabel, less than 24 hours after Sunday’s loss, dismissed such absolute notions and emphasized progress over perfection to his players — including Maye.
“We can’t think that every play is going to be perfect. It’s never going to be that way,” Vrabel said Monday morning. “When it isn’t perfect, we have some sort of reaction. We need to make sure that we have a great response, continue to stay positive and have positive plays, overcome whatever penalties and things that we have to fix. And we have to protect the ball. We have to make sure that we protect the football, and it takes everybody.”
Maye’s center, Garrett Bradbury, understands better than most. In Minnesota, he snapped to Kirk Cousins, who may not have been a franchise quarterback but arrived with championship expectations upon signing a fully guaranteed $84 million contract. Cousins still hasn’t come close to a title.
Asked about how Maye is processing the loss, Bradbury said Wednesday all high-level athletes chase perfectionism understanding they won’t attain it, and the surest way to continuing the chase through guaranteed failure is maintaining a simple focus.
“I’ve heard of paralysis by analysis, where you’re kind of overthinking things, and you’re trying to be so perfect and read everything instead of just being an athlete, a football player,” Bradbury said. “So just be like, ‘All right, these are the one or two things I need to think about. Let’s go play ball.’ ”
The Patriots, it seems, are simplifying around Maye. Perhaps it’s the playbook or his pre-snap responsibilities or any number of things. But Vrabel did confirm the staff is evaluating how much it’s put on the 23-year-old’s plate.
Regardless of whether Maye’s plate lightens or not, an improved run game is a must. Vrabel admitted the Pats gave up on their ground game in the opener, which put the game in Maye’s hands. He ultimately steered the offense into the ground, scoring just three points after halftime.
Ideally, the Patriots find a better offensive balance, and run all over a Dolphins team in disarray, right from the opening kick. But inevitably, sometime this season, and maybe as soon as Sunday, a game will drop into Maye’s hands again.
Pressure will return. All eyes inside and outside the huddle will be on him.
Because that’s the business.
And because playtime, now and forever, is over.