The New England Patriots basically made one solid 2024 offseason move. They drafted quarterback Drake Maye with the third overall pick in the draft. In the latest Bleacher Report grades for Week 7 of 2025, Maye scored as high as it gets with an A+ grade. Can one pick make an entire draft? Indeed, it can, if it's Drake Maye.
Maye has begun to dominate the NFL with astronomical completion percentages, achieving a recorded 91.3% in Week 7, which helped him earn a lofty grade from the respected Bleacher Report. Yet, over seven games, he's at 75.2 percent. If that continues all season, he'll set a new single-season record.
And it's safe to say, the 23-year-old quarterback who's already led the Patriots to the top of the AFC East, along with the mighty Bills, is just getting started.
Maye was named to the Pro Bowl after his superb and underrated 2024 season. That was recognized for what it was, a masterful performance in light of a terrible offensive supporting cast. Yet, on January 12, owner Robert Kraft astutely hired Mike Vrabel, and everything changed in one offseason.
Drake Maye's emergence was helped along by Mike Vrabel
Mike Vrabel knew he had a monster roster transformation to undertake. The 2024 version was bottom-of-the-NFL level. Yet, he knew he had the key ingredient - the quarterback. He then wasted no time in making improvements to help his young quarterback reach his potential. On offense, the additions he made have fueled Maye's emergence as a top 5 NFL quarterback in a mere seven weeks.
Brent Sobleski of Bleacher Report has given grades to the NFL's quarterbacks after Week 7 in an article, "Quarterback Report Cards for NFL Week 7". No one did any better than the Patriots' Drake Maye.
"It's official. Drake Maye is better than Tom Brady. Well, the New England Patriots' sophomore signal-caller is better in one very specific category thanks to Sunday's performance. Maye set a single-game franchise record by completing 91.3 percent of his passes (with over 20 attempts), according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Even more impressively, he provided plus-24.4 completion percentage over expected. The Patriots quarterback isn't just relying on a dink-and-dunk approach, either.
He's the only quarterback in the NFL this season with multiple touchdown passes that traveled 50 or more air yards. Maye is quickly becoming bona fide as a true franchise quarterback, and the Patriots continue to reap the rewards. At 5-2 with the early tiebreaker against the Buffalo Bills, New England leads the AFC East. Maye's development is a very large reason why."
As noted, Maye's completion percentage in Week 7 was a franchise-high. The Patriots were founded in 1960. For 65 years, no one has completed such a percentage before, not even the best ever, Tom Brady. No one's saying Maye is a Tom Brady. No one is. Maye will chart his own course of excellence, and Patriot Nation has a right to be very excited, indeed.
Can Drake Maye sustain what are now astronomical expectations?
A fair question is whether the Patriots' quarterback Drake Maye can sustain the high level of play he's now exhibiting weekly. It's a valid question, yet several mitigating factors suggest he can- and probably will.
One is that Maye's supporting cast, even in 2025, will continue to improve. His offensive line sports four new faces from the lackluster 2024 group, and all are improvements. The two rookies manning the left side, left tackle Will Campbell and guard Jared Wilson, have only seven NFL games apiece to lean upon for experience. They will improve week-to-week, as will the cohesiveness of the entire O-line, as the season progresses.
As for Maye, he seems to improve every Sunday compared to the previous week. How he might achieve a 91.2% completion percentage is hard to fathom. Yet he wasn't far from a perfect 100% against the Titans either. He'll continue to improve, and why shouldn't he? The 23-year-old has only started 19 games in his career.
Yet, one thing he needs to improve right now is avoiding taking unnecessary hits, as he did against Tennessee. Losing Maye will crash the Patriots' season in an instant. He was warned about that by Vrabel in the spring, and the coach must be doing so again now. Expect Maye to get that right, and for the team to continue to soar. It is what it is, the beginning of another great run in Foxborough.