Second-year Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was back on the practice field during the week readying for matchup with Josh Allen and the Bills.
Second-year Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was back on the practice field during the week readying for matchup with Josh Allen and the Bills.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Call it premature. Call it manifesting. Call it hyperbole. But this Foxborough football observer is calling it. The Patriots found The Guy at quarterback, post-Tom Brady, in Drake Maye. That’s their biggest victory of the 2025 season.
Maye is the heir/air apparent to Brady as a legitimate high-end NFL quarterback. The answer under center that keeps teams that can’t solve the equation up at night. I’ve seen enough.
Does that mean Maye is going to win six Super Bowls in New England? Let’s not be silly, but it does mean the Patriots have the most important piece of the foundation to rebuild back to relevance and playoff contention someday — maybe even this season, with a schedule softer than a chocolate bar in the sun. Thank your lucky stars for that after the last three hope-siphoning seasons.
We’ve gone down this road before. Mac Jones (remember him?) looked the part to some in 2021 while being cosseted by current Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. It turned out JAG Jones was merely a false start at the most influential position in North American team sports. It’s different this time, with a different No. 10.
Some teams wander through the quarterback wilderness for years after a franchise signal-caller signs off. Just look around the rest of the AFC East. The Dolphins are still looking for the next Dan Marino. The Jets appear cursed at QB after Joe Willie Namath. Sunday night’s opponent, the Bills, knows all about the long wait for another signal-caller savior.
The quarterback gap between Jim Kelly and NFL MVP Josh Allen felt about as long as the famed Cumberland Gap carving its way through the Appalachian Mountains.
Maye looks the part and flashes the play of a franchise QB just 16 starts into his career. He possesses the mindset and dual-threat physical skillset. After a rocky start in the opener against the Raiders, he has taken to the mad scientist mentoring of McDaniels, who has met Maye halfway, molding his system to the QB instead of rigidly trying to turn him into Brady Jr.
Entering Sunday, Maye led the NFL in completion percentage (74 percent) and ranked fifth in quarterback rating (109.4), right behind the amazing Allen, who is fourth at 109.7. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Maye leads the NFL with an 83.3 completion percentage and a 133.3 passer rating on third or fourth down. Call him Money Maye.
The 23-year-old is the first player under the age of 24 with at least two touchdown passes and a completion percentage of 75 percent or better in three consecutive games. If he turns that statistical trick again in Orchard Park, N.Y., against the Super Bowl-or-bust Bills, he equals Brady (during his pièce de résistance 2007 season) for the longest streak in NFL history.
That speaks more to how much the NFL has rigged the game for offense than about Maye already being Steve Young to Brady’s Joe Montana. But his future is LED headlight bright.
The challenge for Monsieur Maye to fulfill his immense potential is learning how to distill his enviable talent into winning football. One of those three games above was a self-immolation loss to Pittsburgh that featured five turnovers, two by Maye that cancelled out points. His 19 turnovers since he became a starter on Oct. 13, 2024, are the most in the NFL — one more than Joe Flacco, who was just benched in Cleveland.
Young Maye was asked after last Sunday’s uber-efficient thumping of the Panthers if that was the best version of himself, moving the ball around and managing the game.
“If it leads to wins, that’s what I’m trying to become, and the quarterback I’m trying to become,” he said.
He gets it. The most important QB stat is found in the standings.
That’s the measuring stick for the position with a couple of key caveats. First, Maye’s supporting cast isn’t sufficient enough to expect an inceptive sophomore to win with. Second, Brady was the Halley’s Comet of QBs. Even Hall of Fame-level Brady contemporaries Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees lifted the Lombardi Trophy just once.
With that said, Maye vs. Allen must become the next great NFL quarterback rivalry if New England is to reclaim AFC East primacy. That notion feels a bit premature for Sunday or this season, to be frank, but it shouldn’t be that far off. Allen (plus-40.3) and Maye (plus-34.8) rank first and second in dropback EPA (expected points added) this season.
Facing the Bills, who’ve won the AFC East every season since Brady departed the Patriots, on Sunday Night Football represents an important measuring stick.
“What coach [Mike] Vrabel says is that’s where we want to go,” said Maye. “Where we want to be at is where the Bills have been the past couple years — contenders, winning the division, and playing well at home. They’ve won, he said, 14 straight [regular-season games] at home. … So, we’ve got our hands full, but we’re excited.”
If any market understands that the path to the peak of the AFC East runs through the quarterback position, it’s ours. The Patriots captured 16 of 17 AFC East crowns from 2003-19 with Brady. The lone year they didn’t was 2008, when Brady tore his ACL 15 snaps into the season.
Relative to Allen, Maye’s development curve looks promising.
It was in Year 2 that Allen showed signs of being a special player. However, he was an intriguing sidecar to a dominant Buffalo defense that got the 10-6 Bills into the playoffs in 2019 — a four-game improvement over Allen’s rookie season. Those Bills ranked 24th in total offense. It wasn’t until his third year that Hailee Steinfeld’s husband took The Leap.
The ultimate true believers, Buffalo fans believed they had a special QB1 in Allen’s second season, then saw it confirmed in his third.
The Patriots have someone to build with in Maye. He’s the one, post-No. 12.
Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at christopher.gasper@globe.com. Follow him @cgasper and on Instagram @cgaspersports.