‘A New Leading Receiver on the Team, Each Week’: NFL Vet on Why He’d Pick the Patriots Over the Bills in AFC East

Drake Maye and the New England Patriots continued their roll in Week 8. This time, they demolished the Cleveland Browns 32-13 to improve their record to 6-2. While their current five-game winning streak has featured victories over several downtrodden teams like Cleveland, you can only beat who they put in front of you at the end of the day.

And the Patriots haven’t just been winning these games. They’ve been blowing teams out. Over the past five games, the Patriots have scored 153 points (3rd in the league) while posting the best point differential in the league over that span (+75).

Former 11-year NFL veteran and current CBS analyst Nate Burleson has been impressed with the Patriots, and Maye specifically. So much so, in fact, that Burleson believes the Patriots should be considered favorites to win the AFC East despite the Buffalo Bills being just a half-game back and riding a five-year streak of division titles.

“The narrative was [that] this was supposed to be the Buffalo Bills’ division. And it’s okay, because the Bills are Super Bowl contenders every single season… Let’s not be scared of what Buffalo’s doing, and I honestly believe that. If you’re asking me right now, who would I take between the two teams? I know the Buffalo Bills beat up on the Panthers today, but I would take the New England Patriots,” said the pundit.

Burleson, a former wide receiver, went on to explain what he loves the most about Maye’s play in recent weeks. It’s his ability to keep all of his skill position players involved by spreading the ball around. If you need proof: Maye has had a different No. 1 target in each of the last three weeks: Mack Hollins (seven targets in Week 8), Stefon Diggs (seven targets in Week 7), Kayshon Boutte (five targets in Week 6).

“I just feel like they are catching the right type of rhythm, they are spreading the ball around. Each week, there is a new leading receiver on their team. And for me, that means the quarterback is literally going through his reads as perfectly as you can. Because he’s not throwing the ball 10 times to Stefon Diggs, or just throwing it to Kayshon Boutte because he had two TDs last week. He is spreading the ball out.”

As Burleson outlined, the Patriots have been great, but Maye has been especially… special. During this five-game winning streak, Maye is first in completion percentage (77.5), second in TD rate (8.3), first in passer rating (134.1) by some margin, and first in yards per attempt (10.3).

With New England off to such a hot start, they could really run the table here thanks to that easy-peasy last-place schedule. Apart from a tough trip to Tampa in a couple of weeks, the Patriots should cruise to at least four more wins before their Week 14 bye week.

Their next five games are: home for ATL, at Tampa, home for the Jets, at the Bengals, and home to the Giants. A 10-3 record by the end of that run is arguably more likely than not.