If you want to talk about a leap in the NFL's MVP odds, let's cite the New England Patriots' meteorically rising second-year quarterback, Drake Maye, in the discussion. Maye, as predicted, has exploded onto the NFL scene and has risen to third in the latest MVP Odds of a major national observer. And, as the Carpenters once sang, he's "Only just begun".
Maye's on-field performance has catapulted him from a seeming also-ran (totally unwarranted) into a certified NFL MVP contender. He now stands alongside perennial contenders, Josh Allen (whom he's already beaten in Buffalo) and Patrick Mahomes.
Maye can compete with the best now that he has a top professional Head Coach/personnel evaluator, Mike Vrabel, on hand. Since this regime is only in its first 10 months of operation, many more positives can be expected as the supporting cast around Maye goes from adequate to superb.
Drake Maye has Super Potential in the NFL
Fox Sports has recently listed Drake Maye as the third in the list of 2025 NFL MVP candidates. And it's a very nice short list. He trails only Allen and Patrick Mahomes, two future Pro Football Hall of Famers on Fox Sports MVP Odds list.
"Drake Maye, QB, Patriots: +425
What to know: The Pats have won six straight behind their second-year QB, who is quickly turning into a star. In a Week 9 win over Atlanta, he had 259 passing yards, two touchdowns and a pick, guiding New England to a 24-23 win. He was at +500 last week."
Maye, even after a poor performance (by his standards) against Atlanta, completing 65.5% of his passes) still leads the NFL in completion percentage. This, though he's been sacked 34 times in nine games and threatens to blow away the perfectly awful 52 allowed by 2024's (N)O-line.
Add a tepid running game to the equation, and that completion percentage, an often underrated statistic among all the pseudo-stats, and Maye's achievement is all the more impressive. He's taken a monster step up in the NFL rankings, and he's just getting started.
Interestingly, all the 2024 preseason blather about changing his throwing mechanics —getting him to stop throwing off his "wrong foot" and not throwing on the run, etc., is eerily silent. Critics who espoused that have faded into the woodwork, and that silliness isn't likely to be heard again. "Letting Drake Maye be Drake Maye" has worked out just fine.
Drake Maye is just scratching the surface of his talent
The best news of all of this is that the 23-year-old Drake Maye has only started 21 games in his NFL career. His 2024 development was stunted by keeping him on the bench without any first-team snaps until about game four of the regular season. This cost the team its season and the coach his job.
That was then, and this is now. Vrabel is now running the Patriots' football operation, and everything has changed. In barely two months, Vrabel's Patriots have nearly doubled 2024's win total - and one of those was gifted to the Patriots by the savvy Buffalo Bills. The AFC champs laughed all the way to keeping the Patriots from getting the first overall draft pick by dropping a meaningless final game.
That ineptitude has vanished from Foxborough, as Vrabel and his MVP candidate Maye have already beaten the Bills in Buffalo and sit alone atop the AFC East. As comedian Jackie Gleason used to say, "How sweet it is!". Indeed, the best part is that the new Patriots are just in the early stages of their re-emergence. And, for the rest of the NFL, that is an absolute nightmare.