Drake Maye
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Drake Maye spoke up for a New England Patriots WR called out by Jerod Mayo.
The New England Patriots could be in line to play international games in 2026. ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported this in his Sunday notes column earlier this week.
The Detroit Lions and the Jacksonville Jaguars could serve as the Patriots’ opponents. The 2026 full schedule has not been released yet, but there are rumblings about the Patriots potentially heading overseas to play.
Reiss noted that one matchup in particular may pique the interest of schedule-makers, as the Patriots themselves look to build off a successful 2025 season. He elaborated on this line of thinking, as well as which matchup the schedule-makers may favor.
The value a potential Patriots-Lions game could create as part of a Sunday morning TV package was noted by some at the annual meeting … and why it’s among the possibilities that could generate momentum in the coming month or so as the league finalizes its 2026 slate.
The Patriots are familiar with overseas games. They first began to play them in 2009. They took on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won the game by a 35-7 margin. This was also during the height of the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era.
Three years later, they traveled to Wembley once again, where they were able to defeat the then-St. Louis Rams by a 45-7 score. They showed their dominance once again. For fans keeping score at home, this was also the game where legendary tight end Rob Gronkowski did his Buckingham Palace-style spike that caught the attention of football fans everywhere.
The Patriots would not return to play in an international game until 2017. They faced the Las Vegas Raiders in Mexico City that year. They were able to establish their dominance once again, winning by a 33-8 margin. Brady had a masterful game, throwing for 339 yards and three touchdowns. He also helped achieve some Patriots history in the process. They became the first team to win regular-season games in three different countries, including on their home soil.
Patriots Have Not Always Succeeded Overseas
Some of the battles internationally have not always been as pretty. The Patriots lost by a 10-6 margin to the Indianapolis Colts in Germany, as quarterback Mac Jones and the rest of the offense struggled. Red-zone turnovers, among other things, did them in. Unfortunately, they were unable to recover.
By the time the Patriots made it across the pond the following year, things were different. They had a promising young quarterback in Drake Maye. The latter was making his second-career start, and his first in an international game. The Patriots ended up losing the game by a 32-16 margin. That being said, there were signs that the future would be bright for the Patriots organization.
Now, they can potentially enter another international game with an even better trajectory. They are coming off a Super Bowl appearance, and things look to be headed in the right direction under coach Mike Vrabel. They now have a foundation to build from and a team that looks like they could be contenders for several years.
It will be intriguing to see if they get an international game. Furthermore, it will be intriguing to see who they will face if given one. The Patriots, by and large, have had success across the pond, and they could have a very good chance to add to that moving forward. At the very least, they have made things exciting when they have traveled out of the confines of the United States.