It's almost hard to believe that Drake Maye is only going into his third NFL season with the New England Patriots, since he has already accomplished a lot for a young quarterback in his position. He was drafted to a team that was far from ready to compete for anything, and although he faced a lot of uncertainty in a chaotic environment as a rookie, he thrived and proved he was the future of the franchise.
Despite enduring massive changes like a new head coach and staff in Year 2, plus a mountain of doubt for analysts and fans everywhere outside New England, Maye helped lead the Patriots to their most successful season since Tom Brady left in 2020, racking up a 10-game win streak that led to 14 wins, an AFC East title, and representing the AFC in the Super Bowl.
Maye led all quarterbacks in several categories. Perhaps most impressive was his 72% completion percentage, and his performance immediately put him on everyone's radar for the foreseeable future, especially since most believed the quarterbacks drafted before him, Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, would become superstars first.
Daniels achieved incredible success in Year 1, taking the Commanders to the NFC Championship Game as a rookie. Williams accomplished similar success as Maye last year, too, and both are expected to continue their rise to the top this fall, but that fact is still not getting everyone on board that they might be the best of their class.
That is particularly true with Maye, who continues to be overlooked and diminished for various reasons, none of which make much sense.
NFL analysts can't help but continue overlooking Drake Maye and his potential
Obviously, not everyone has to be the biggest supporter or believer in what Maye has been or will be in the NFL. But it would seem clear that what we've seen from him so far proves he might have been the quarterback the Bears and Commanders should've drafted instead, especially considering the damage it might do by allowing the Patriots to get him.
Yet plenty of analysts, with ESPN's Louis Riddick becoming the latest, continue to downplay just how good Maye has been so far in his career, even claiming that Daniels is "still the best QB of the '24 class."
While he's certainly allowed his opinion, Riddick's response was to the latest quarterback rankings in which Maye was listed at No. 8 and Williams at 10. Daniels was named an honorable mention after Sam Darnold, with one NFL personnel evaluator stating he "would still take him over the other quarterbacks [from the 2024 draft class] from a pure quarterback, decision-making standpoint."
From what we saw during their rookie seasons, it would have been fair to claim that Daniels was going to be the next superstar over Maye, since he did have an impressive year.
And although he dealt with injuries that derailed his 2025 season, Maye's performance shouldn't eliminate him from the conversation. It also shouldn't have anyone, including Riddick, so certain that Daniels is the best quarerback of the 2024 class at this point.
Maybe the Patriots' schedule last season is doing more damage to how Maye is perceived at this stage of his career, and that is why analysts like Riddick feel comfortable making this kind of assertion.
But taking a team like the 2025 Patriots to the Super Bowl while winning every away game, including the postseason, and leading all quarterbacks in several statistics shouldn't be overlooked or downplayed.
Drake Maye can change the narrative with another breakout season
With a much-improved roster, especially offensively, Maye enters his third season with high expectations and a lot of motivation. It would be fair to say he has the best group around him since he joined the league two years ago, and that only raises the stakes for what he can accomplish this season.
With an upgraded offensive line and receiving corps, along with adding a secret weapon in fullback Reggie Gilliam, the issues we saw from the offense in the postseason and the Super Bowl shouldn't continue to be a problem. We might see the best performance yet from Maye in 2026.
It won't be easy, however, since the Patriots are said to be facing one of the most difficult schedules in the NFL, starting with a gauntlet of games in the first month against the Seahawks, Steelers, Jaguars, and Bills.
It might be the most brutal stretch of their season, and it will almost surely set the tone for how the rest of the year goes. A lot of that will be determined by how Maye plays out the gate.
He has plenty of motivation to use to his benefit, however, and his teammates are going to be feeling a lot of that, too. A frustrating performance against the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX has left a bad taste in their mouths, and the hope is they will use that as fuel to keep the momentum going as soon as Week 1.
There is a lot of confidence that Maye can do that with a revamped offensive roster that should make it much easier for the quarterback to do what he does best. We saw a lot of that last year, and now that he will have better protection and more weapons to work with, he has the chance to blow everyone away every single week.
That would presumably make someone like Riddick rethink his assertion that any other quarterback from the 2024 draft class is better than Maye at this stage of their career, especially if Maye continues to lead in certain metrics that aren't so easily achievable.
Even if he doesn't change the minds of the doubters, it's beyond clear that he is the future of the Patriots. And although many things didn't go right under Jerod Mayo, his staff made the right decision to draft Maye and set the Patriots up for success for a long time.
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