After news of Tom Brady’s departure broke, it seemed likely that football fans wouldn’t have to worry about the New England Patriots appearing in another Super Bowl anytime soon, if ever. One final run under Bill Belichick, followed by Jerod Mayo’s first and only season, both ended with 4–13 records, reinforcing the belief that the bill had finally come due. After two decades of sustained dominance, it looked like the Patriots were finally paying for all that success.
Advertisement
Fortunately, it doesn’t appear as if Drake Maye believes in karma. The 23-year-old from Huntersville, North Carolina, is the odds-on favorite to win the 2025 regular season MVP award heading into Week 18 and has the Patriots looking like their old selves at 13-3. But according to the team’s former quarterback, Cam Newton, fans need to hold off on the Brady comparisons, as the evidence suggests that Maye is a “game manager” rather than a game breaker.
“Drake Maye is well and capable, and has all of the upside and skill set, but last year, under his player status, a head coach was fired… Does Jerod Mayo have a job right now? Offensive coordinator was Alex Van Pelt. Is an offensive coordinator anywhere in this league today? Now insert Mike Vrabel. Now insert a dynamic play caller in Josh McDaniels. The system is right.”
While Maye’s sophomore breakout has been undeniable, and perhaps even good enough to win an MVP award, with it only being one season’s worth of success that came after a series of drastic changes, Newton just isn’t willing to buy the hype on some of the league’s youngest quarterbacks. Maye himself hasn’t issued any form of a response to Newton’s assessment, although the signal caller for the San Francisco 49ers, Brock Purdy, who Newton also labeled as a “game manager,” wasn’t as shy.
“I’m playing quarterback, trying to win games, and we’ll see at the end of it all,” Purdy responded. While he wasn’t quite as popular a pick as Maye, Purdy was still garnering some MVP hype of his own when Newton initially slapped him with the label.
Shortly after Newton deemed Maye to be in the same class of quarterbacks as Purdy, the former Carolina Panther jokingly told his critics to “insert the GIF of Cam Newton in a Super Bowl.” So, in Purdy’s defense, it’s worth mentioning that he’s at least managed to start in a Super Bowl as well.
Of course, none of this matters to either Maye or Purdy, who are both likely hoping to see one another in this year’s championship. In the case of Maye, however, there is the added bonus of potentially winning both an MVP award and a Super Bowl as a sophomore, and breaking Newton’s two primary units of measurement.
