Leading a team to a Super Bowl appearance isn't easy for any NFL quarterback, let alone a second-year player with a new head coach and an entirely new offense to work with. But that's what Drake Maye did for the Patriots in 2025; although they didn't take home the win, it put the team and Maye on the map for years to come.
A most unexciting rookie season didn't bring on high expectations for what the quarterback would do the following season. Even with the addition of Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels, it didn't raise much optimism that the Patriots would be a legitimate threat so soon.
Most believed Maye could eventually become a suitable quarterback for the team and in the NFL, just not as quickly as he did, so going into the 2026 season, he was put in a new category of NFL quarterbacks, putting a lot of pressure on him to deliver.
As we saw in the first three weeks of the season, Maye struggled against some of the toughest opponents the league has to offer, Maye struggled. Most analysts and fans began to question whether he was a legitimate quarterback or whether the "easy schedule" the Patriots faced last year made him look better than he is.
But a bounce-back game against the undefeated Bills and the MVP front-runner leading their offense proved them wrong, at least for now, and the NFL is acknowledging his hard work in a great way.
Drake Maye gets big-time credit for leading the Patriots to a win in Week 4
On Wednesday morning, the NFL announced the Players of the Week, with Maye winning the AFC Offensive player category for the first time this season.
It might not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it confirms he had an impressive showing against one of the conference's top contenders, and that the NFL and fans outside New England recognize it.
AFC Players of the Week! (Week 4)@DrakeMaye2 | @foyelicious | @matt_araiza pic.twitter.com/9UrzGDXRVS
— NFL (@NFL) October 7, 2026
Considering he's thrown more interceptions than touchdowns so far this season, and the Patriots didn't score more than 10 points in the first three weeks, seeing Maye throw for 3 touchdowns, lead the team in rushing attempts and yards, while helping the team score 29 points proved he is exactly the player we thought he was after last season.
It certainly sent a message to the rest of the league, which had begun to overlook what the Patriots were capable of and what Maye could do if he regained some confidence and reverted to the kind of player he was in 2025.
Now, of course, he will need to keep the momentum going, especially now that the Patriots have back-to-back home games over the next two weeks, and get the season back on track. The hardest stretch of their schedule is now in the rearview mirror, so they have a lot of room to take advantage of that moving forward.
Whether they can do that will be the question.
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