There was a lot of optimism during the offseason about what Drake Maye could do during his second season with the New England Patriots, mostly because of how good he looked during his rookie year despite the unfavorable circumstances he walked into. That only increased once Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels were hired, and we've seen the fruits of that labor so far through the first 13 games.
Maye has gotten a lot of attention for his performance, as he's helped lead the team to an 11-2 record after their win over the Giants on Monday night, and he's squarely in the MVP conversation at just 23 years old.
What's more fascinating about that is how many records he's broken with his production, and the fact that he leads the league in passing yards, despite not recording a single game with 300+ yards just yet.
So, once it looked like he could accomplish that this week, fans were on the edge of their seats waiting for it to happen, only for the NFL officials to rob him of the chance.
Drake Maye throws a 30-yard TD to Hunter Henry that would've put him over 300 yards, but offsetting penalties wipe out the play.
— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) December 2, 2025
Although the Patriots' offense was able to get on the field again after that drive, Maye wasn't able to cross the 300-yard mark for the first time in his career.
On top of that, they took away another unbelievable touchdown pass that could have stolen the MVP spotlight from Matthew Stafford, making the situation even worse.
Drake Maye ends Week 13 just shy of a career-high mark thanks to the referees
It's certainly not something that has determined the Patriots' fate through 13 games so far, as Maye has done more than enough to keep the offense moving and showing off his arm strength with some of the most accurate deep passes among all quarterbacks.
We saw that on Monday night, but he wasn't able to cross the 300-yard threshold fans have been hoping for, and instead ended the game 18 yards shy of it.
Drake Maye Monday ✅@DrakeMaye2 | #ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/58fDfTjP8p
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) December 2, 2025
It's not something that the quarterback is too concerned about, however, because he's just focused on winning.
That's something the fans can definitely get behind and hope that he can hit that yardage marker at some point during the final games of the year. He will have some tough defenses to go against to accomplish that, and it won't be easy being down two starting offensive linemen.
But Maye has shown he can overcome obstacles in his path, and he's proven he is the future of the position for the Patriots, which is exciting enough.