Patriots' ongoing Drake Maye mistake could derail their postseason hopes

Finding a quarterback after Tom Brady left in 2020 has been a tough task for the Patriots. They were fortunate to get one good thing out of the Jerod Mayo era: selecting Drake Maye with the third-overall pick in the 2024 Draft, and it looks like they have found their next franchise player.

It's been a long, hard road to get to this point, with Cam Newton, Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe, and Jacoby Brissett taking turns under center to see if they were the right fit for what the new-look Patriots needed.

No one has been better suited for that role than Maye, who helped lead the team to the Super Bowl in just his second season.

He's already achieved a lot at such a young age (24) and so early in his NFL career, as he's only in Year 3. That has raised expectations even higher than for any incoming quarterback in New England, and because he hasn't lived up to that standard for much of the current season, a lot of the blame for the Patriots' 2026 season has fallen on his shoulders.

Although he hasn't been the strongest player based on his statistics, particularly regarding turnovers, that doesn't tell the whole story, as those stats lack important context.

From injuries and inconsistent production from his offensive teammates to a brutal schedule that doesn't make things any easier, Maye hasn't been the biggest problem for the Patriots this year. In fact, he's been nearly the complete opposite.

That doesn't mean the team isn't asking him to be nearly perfect to keep them afloat, however, and the longer they keep demanding it, the more of a problem that's going to become.

The Patriots' reliance on Drake Maye is going to become a big problem this season

Despite being without his WR1, WR2, WR3, RB1, RB2, LG1, LG2, RG1, RG2, and LT1 at one point or another this season, Maye has thrown the fourth-most touchdowns among all quarterbacks this season, including setting a franchise record for 30+ yard touchdowns multiple weeks in a row.

That isn't easy when he's without the playmakers who were expected to be his go-to weapons, especially A.J. Brown, yet the quarterback has shown he can overcome the unfavorable circumstances and do as much as he can to get the team in a winning position.

It doesn't always work, of course, as we saw last week. But it's not always the fault of Maye.

Over the first 9 weeks, he has faced the most pressure in the league on dropbacks, reaching 45.9%, meaning the offensive line's protection has been far from stellar. A quarterback can't be very successful if his linemen don't give him time to make a play, and as we've seen with Maye, it often leads to turnovers.

That's quite a jump from the league's lowest pressure, which is 23.8% for the Raiders, and much higher than the league average at 34.6%.

Much of that can be blamed on injuries to starters Mike Onwenu and Alijah Vera-Tucker, while plenty of blame falls on Morgan Moses, who hasn't been playing well for much of the season, and the revolving door of guards replacing those who have gotten injured.

It also doesn't help when the top receivers have dealt with various injuries, too.

Brown spent four weeks on injured reserve with a high ankle sprain before returning for two games, aggravating a previous knee injury, and could miss his third straight game this weekend. Couple that with a stint in IR for Mack Hollins, who just returned last week, and Romeo Doubs, who can't return until Week 12, and the receiving corps hasn't been up to par for Maye.

Even worse is seeing that the Patriots receivers lead the league in most yards lost to drops, with the current tally at 260 yards, some of which we saw last week with Kyle Williams' frustrating drop right outside the end zone that surely would've been a walk-in touchdown.

It's clear that Maye is carrying the offense on his back, and his performance dictates the Patriots' result.

When he makes a mistake, the defense isn't able to make up for it when it's their turn on the field, and if they want to change things up with the offensive game plan, like utilizing the run game to avoid more interceptions, the offensive line isn't making that an option.

If Maye wants to air it out, despite being one of the league's most accurate deep-ball passers, his receivers aren't gaining separation to open up the field.

It's a lose-lose situation that puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback and forces him to play mistake-free football to overcompensate for what the rest of the team can't do. That's not sustainable for any quarterback, whether you're Drake Maye or Tom Brady; it's a mistake the Patriots aren't recognizing yet.

It's also something his biggest critics are overlooking, even though it provides the clearest explanation for why the 2026 season has progressed the way it has for Maye.

Obviously, once more players return from injury, there's hope the offense will improve and the weight of the world will lift off Maye's shoulders. The problem is that until that point, he is the Patriots' entire offense, and that's not expected to change any time soon.

It's an unfortunate reality the team is in, thanks to poor drafting, hesitancy to pay big-name players in free agency, and an unwillingness to trade for talent that would massively improve their production.

They're asking Maye to be a magician, and for the most part, he's delivered. But games like last week's loss to the Packers are bound to happen again as long as they keep relying solely on him to lead them to more wins this season.

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