When looking for professional opinions and expertise, folks tend to favor first-hand experience over book smarts. So with that in mind, perhaps it’s worth humoring Asante Samuel whenever he’s discussing the current rate of quarterback play for the New England Patriots.
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Having won two Super Bowls with Tom Brady himself, it’s safe to say that Samuel knows his traits better than most, and following the Patriots’ 28-24 prime-time win over the Baltimore Ravens, the former DB now believes that he’s seeing something similar with Drake Maye. Going as far as to label the Tar Heel product as “Baby Tom Brady,” the four-time Pro Bowler recently explained that,
“Drake Maye went off in the first half… Not only did he go crazy in the fourth quarter to make sure his team got the victory, Drake Maye had over 170 yards passing in the first half of this game… Baby Brady, that’s what we’re going to call him. I gotta give it to Drake Maye, Baby Brady, man. He throws the prettiest deep ball out of anyone in the NFL right now.”
The sophomore sensation has completed 59 passes of 20+ yards throughout his 15 starts this season, second only to Matthew Stafford, who has completed 64. Maye’s chemistry with his wide receivers, Stefon Diggs and Kayshon Boutte, has developed rather quickly, and that’s helped to make the Patriots’ offense one of the more potent ones in the league.
New England has scored the sixth most points of any team this season, and according to Samuel that’s largely a result of Maye’s ability to place the football “exactly where it needs to be for a wide receiver to make a good catch.”
“He throws his deep passes better than he does his intermediate, short passes, and that’s so backwards but he’s getting it done,” Samuel joked. “Whatever works man, he’s getting it done.”
New England now finds itself tied with the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks for the honor of having the best record in the NFL as we approach the last two weeks of the season. And with the only remaining match ups on the Patriots’ schedule being against the lowly New York Jets and an imploding Miami Dolphins team, they figure to have a pretty good chance at finishing their 2025 campaign with a 14-3 record.
In addition to securing a bid for the number-one seed in the playoffs, a finish of that magnitude could also spur them towards what many AFC fans had thought they’d seen the last of after following the departures of Brady and Bill Belichick, and that’s the return of the New England Patriots to the championship stage.
