After a Week 1 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, it seemed as if the 2025 regular season would officially be another rebuilding year for the New England Patriots. Here we are just six weeks later, however, and Drake Maye currently has the fourth shortest MVP odds of any player in the league.
Advertisement
The UNC product first managed to catch everyone’s attention by handing the Buffalo Bills their first loss of the season in Week 5, and he’s now followed that up with a pair of victories against the New Orleans Saints and the Tennessee Titans, the second of which has now proven to be historic.
By completing 21 of his 23 pass attempts for a total of 222 passing yards and two passing touchdowns, not only was Maye able to continue his sophomore breakout, he was also able to solidify himself as one of the better QB prospects in recent history.
Prior to Maye’s performance in Week 7, only Patrick Mahomes and Dan Marino were able to enjoy six consecutive games of 200+ passing yards and 100+ passer ratings while being 24 years old or younger. There’s still plenty of football that needs to be played, but that’s a factoid that should excite everyone in Foxborough about what the next few weeks could continue to look like.
It’s also worth noting that Maye was able to usurp Tom Brady himself for one of the Patriots’ all-time passing records. His completion percentage of 91.3% is now the highest single-game completion percentage among Patriots quarterbacks with at least 20 pass attempts.
The record was previously held by Brady, who recorded a 88.5% completion percentage against the Jacksonville Jaguars back in December of 2009. He completed 23 of his 26 pass attempts which resulted in 267 passing yards, four touchdowns, and a 35-7 victory that would lift the Patriots to 10-5.
Maye’s rookie campaign may not have come with the immediate production that we saw with the likes of Jayden Daniels or C.J. Stroud, but he’s now proving to be just as, if not more efficient as either of them. His progression may have been more lineal, but Maye seems to have finally arrived, and that could be an issue for the Bills.
New England is 5-2 and holding the keys to the AFC East right now, meaning that the pressure to perform is officially on Buffalo. If Maye’s second campaign ends up being a historic one, however, then the current MVP favorite in Josh Allen may end up missing out on his own divisional title.
Suffice to say, even if Maye begins to cool off throughout the coming weeks, he’s at least given New England its first bit of hope since Brady left, and that alone is worth celebrating.
