If you ask a New England Patriots fan like Bill Simmons about rookie QB Drake Maye, you’ll get a description of the next Tom Brady. But, that Boston bias aside, Maye did impress as a rookie in 2024. And that’s in spite of the fact that most of the team around him (including the coaching staff) was a dumpster fire for most of the campaign.
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Thankfully, Maye came into that dumpster fire with a strong football foundation. A piece of that foundation was the Manning Passing Academy.
Maye, along with college QB peers Jayden Daniels and Quinn Ewers, attended the camp back in 2023 when he was still at UNC. While the camp is designed for high school athletes, top college QBs will often come to help work those youngsters out.
“The camp’s huge. The best thing about it is—all these camps nowadays, they just come out here and ‘hey, go play’ a little flag football—down at the Manning camp he brings in us college guys, QBs from around the country… We’re coaching these kids hard,” he said on Green Light with Chris Long.
Founded in 1996 by the patriarch, Archie Manning, the Academy is now run by him and his three sons: Cooper, and NFL legends Peyton and Eli. It is an annual four-day camp at Nicholls State University in Louisiana in June for the very best high school athletes at QB, RB, TE, and WR.
Maye also acknowledged that he did more than tutor high schoolers at the Manning Passing Academy—he was able to pick the brains of two of the best QB minds of their generation.
“Get a chance to mingle with these guys, hang out with them at night, throw with them during the day. What a great experience to be down there with the Manning crew. Two of the best Super Bowl-winning QBs. The best thing about them is that they’re one of the guys. They call quarterbacks a special fraternity, and I think it’s special what they do, and it’s fun to be a part of it.”
Some alumni of the program include Super Bowl 59 MVP Jalen Hurts, his backup Kenny Pickett, Patrick Mahomes, Daniels, and Josh Allen, among a litany of other superstars.
At the 2025 Pro Bowl games, Peyton Manning got to get up close and personal with the 22-year-old Maye. What he saw impressed him. Not only his arm—which is a cannon—but his demeanor and his leadership ability.
“You can tell he’s a natural leader. And then when you watch him throw … his arm just jumps out at you, and then his athletic ability. And the fact that he got to play so much as a rookie. I think all those things are just gonna serve him well,” Manning said of Maye.
Manning also noted Maye’s leadership style., calling him “very accountable” and willing to give “credit to his receivers and linemen.”
Instead of playing the blame game with teammates when something goes wrong, he always looks at himself first, per Manning. When something goes right, you would think he had nothing to do with it by the way he praises his comrades.
You might be asking, how did Drake Maye even make it to the Pro Bowl Games? He was a replacement choice after the real Pro Bowlers opted out. As a rookie, Maye went 3-9 as a starter while throwing for 175.1 yards per game, a 66.6 completion percentage, a 15-10 TD-INT ratio, and an 88.1 passer rating.
He also showed that he can move in that 6’4″, 225-pound frame. He rushed 54 times for 421 yards, two TDs, and 22 first downs. Not exactly a dual-threat like fellow MPA alumni Daniels and Hurts. But certainly mobile enough to outrun defensive linemen and make a man miss.
Athleticism, howitzer for an arm, elite leadership skills. The Pats might have snagged themselves another legacy quarterback here.
