BOSTON — Devin McCourty chuckled for a moment before answering the question.
At TD Garden to present former teammate Vince Wilfork at The Tradition, McCourty was asked what about the 2025 Patriots team has surprised him.
It’s not the win total. Before the season, he said he looked at the schedule and saw opportunity.
“I think it’s happening a little ahead of schedule. I don’t think any of us thought coming in that they would be at the top of the AFC,” he said. “But I remember saying ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if they found a way to win 10 games when you looked at their schedule.’”
His surprise, looking back, is that they’re not 10-1, specifically that they lost to the Raiders.
Back when it happened in Week 1, nobody quite knew how the Raiders with their new coach and new quarterback would fare.
But now, over two months later and that loss stinks up an otherwise impressive slate.
“If you look at the season, the most shocking thing is that they lost to the Raiders,” McCourty said. “When you look at the team now and we all watched the Raiders last night against the Cowboys, I think when people look up, you go, ‘Wow, the Patriots only have two losses. What’s the two losses?’”
He explained that the Pittsburgh loss was more forgivable. But Vegas.
Vegas?
“Like, how did they lose to Vegas?” McCourty wondered aloud.
When it happened, McCourty said he had friends and former teammates texting him saying Josh McDaniels had put too much on Drake Maye’s plate, which was a common concern.
“I remember talking to one of my former teammates,” McCourty said. “He’s like ‘It’s just too much,’ and I was like, ‘Dude, it’s the first game of a new offensive coordinator, give it time.’”
McCourty’s instinct, of course, was right. The Patriots blew out the Panthers, 42-13 in Week 4 and haven’t lost against since. They’re 9-2 heading into Sunday’s game at Cincinnati. And Maye no longer looks overwhelmed.
“It’s been awesome to see. The way they’ve approached the season, the way they’ve gotten better week after week,” he said. “It’s just — and I hate comparing it because I hate when I was a player everyone would compare us to the early 2000s teams — but it’s just reminiscent of the same kind of the same kind of operation.
“We’re not paying attention to the result. We’re gonna keep getting better no matter who the opponent is,” McCourty continued. “I think that’s what they’ve done. Obviously, it starts with your front office, down to your head coach to the quarterback.”
Add McCourty to the huge and still growing list of Drake Maye admirers.
“Watching Drake Maye — I was here Thursday night doing the game on Westwood One — and just how calm he is. Seeing it in person after being there in the offseason during training camp and seeing the team develop has been really cool.
“I think they have as good a chance of anybody in the AFC right now,” he continued. “I don’t think anyone is just way better that you should be like, ‘Oh man, if they don’t play perfect, they can’t win. I just don’t see anyone out there in that situation. So I think they have a really good chance to be there and be a team that could, you know, be a true contender.”
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