When it comes to the commentary surrounding Drake Maye and the New England Patriots, it really is getting silly. People seem so quick to write off the 2025 Patriots as a one-hit wonder that they fail to see the truth that’s staring them straight in the face.
With voluntary OTAs set to kick off in Foxboro this week, Patriots talk should be focused less on the schedule and more on Maye’s pending leap year.
Year 3 is typically when young, ascending quarterbacks transform into household names. It happened recently for Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, and Jared Goff. It could already be loading for Maye, whose breakout may have come a year early. He’s a reigning All-Pro, fell one first-place vote shy of winning league MVP, and just played in Super Bowl LX — at the age of 23.
If the NFL world really believes New England’s 2025 run was a luck-fueled fluke due to an easy schedule, it could be in for a rude awakening. According to Patriots analyst Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal, team leadership is excited to see what Maye can do entering his second full year in Josh McDaniels’ tailor-made offense.
“They’re telling people this: ‘Look out for the quarterback this year. Like, you thought he was good last year? Wait till you see him now.’” Bedard said during a recent podcast episode with Nick Cattles. “Look, it’s hard to tell physically. I look at the pictures and I was like, ‘Oh, you know, Drake looks a little bit thicker.’ But that’s not it. From what I understand, it’s the mentality. It’s how much he knows the offense even more. It’s how he has the tools that are in this offense. So … that’s a great indicator of what’s to come. But, of course, he’s going to have to do it on the field.”
.@GregABedard says the Patriots are raving about Drake Maye ahead of next season👀
— Patriots on CLNS (@PatriotsCLNS) May 19, 2026
"They're telling people this: 'Look out for the quarterback this year. You thought he was good last year, wait till you see him now.'"
"From what I understand, it's the mentality, it's how much… pic.twitter.com/KNjSnLUCdB
The NFL may be badly underestimating Drake Maye’s Year 3 leap
The 2025 season was Maye’s first as the starter from Week 1 on, and his stats were almost an anomaly. He wasn’t putting up video-game-like numbers on a weekly basis. In the Patriots’ 21 games including the playoffs, he only passed for 300-plus yards once.
He still accumulated over 5,200 passing yards in those games, thanks to his remarkable efficiency. He wound up leading all NFL passers in both completion percentage and yards per attempt, a rare and deadly combo that rightfully had him neck and neck with Matthew Stafford for MVP by season’s end.
With the heavily reported speculation about New England zeroing in on a trade with the Eagles for A.J. Brown next month, the disrespect flying toward Maye and the Patriots has reached embarrassing levels. The new “hot take” is that they’ll miss the playoffs altogether in 2026 due to an uptick in competition, as if a team that went 9-0 in true road games last year and won 17 overall will simply morph back into a mere speed bump.
The reality is that Year 3 quarterback leaps are very real. Goff’s third season with the Rams included over 4,600 yards passing, 32 touchdowns, and a trip to the Super Bowl. Allen’s third season saw his passing yards jump from barely 3,000 to over 4,500, and his total touchdowns climb from 29 to 45. Hurts had a monster Year 3 with 3,700 passing yards, 760 rushing yards, and 35 total touchdowns.
You could make an easy argument that Maye’s already ahead of those players entering his third year as a pro, and that should be a much scarier proposition than it seems right now.
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