The New England Patriots are having a barn-burning season. New Head Coach Mike Vrabel has fashioned a playoff team, and it could be much more. Yet, atop the pyramid of on-field performers has been second-year quarterback Drake Maye, who's taking the top off the NFL. One stat site has noted he's done something no other quarterback in NFL history has ever done before in a single-season run of 11 straight games.
Maye's emergence is no surprise. In 2024, with an awful supporting offensive cast, he played brilliantly. His 66 percent completion percentage, along with 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, was totally underrated. He had taken no first-team snaps until the fourth game of the regular season. That mismanagement restricted his progress, but the precocious rookie excelled nonetheless.
Now, in his sophomore season (no so-called sophomore slump has shown its face), Maye is tearing the cover off the NFL. While Vrabel has built a far better roster than in 2024, there's a lot still left to be desired. Regardless, Maye has taken what he has and is threatening to carry off the NFL's MVP award.
Drake Maye is a superstar in the making in just his second season with the Patriots
Quarterback Drake Maye's 2025 stats are amazing, and in one 11-game spell in 2025, he's demonstrated just how good they are.
In 11 starts this season, the @Patriots' Drake Maye has:
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) November 14, 2025
2500+ passing yards
250+ rushing yards
20+ TD passes
70.0+ comp pct
.800+ win pct
No other QB in NFL history has put up those numbers over any span of 11 starts in a single regular season. pic.twitter.com/6s2EdZKB1Q
The unassuming yet unflappable Maye has literally taken the cover off the 2025 NFL and and he and his Patriots might do a whole lot more. There is no personal achievement Maye can't win, and similarly, his Patriots may very well carry off the biggest of the big prizes, the Lombardi Trophy.
Varbel and Maye are a combination that can dominate the NFL for a decade
Mike Vrabel took the Patriots' job in part, maybe in large part, because he realized he had the most essential component of any winning NFL team in his young quarterback, Drake Maye. The rest, the established professional Vrabel knew, could be assembled if you know NFL personnel as he does.
Neither has disappointed. The Patriots are the talk of the NFL, and Vrabel is a solid candidate for his second NFL Coach of the Year Award. And Drake Maye may be heading for the Patriots' first MVP since Tom Brady last achieved one in 2017.
Maye is poised to shatter maybe even some of the rosiest predictions for his 2025 season. Yet, the quiet 23-year-old takes everything in stride and just keeps leading his team to victory after victory.
The Patriots made one 2024 draft pick who made the grade, the third-overall pick, Drake Maye. Kudos to owner Robert Kraft, who, after a string of gaffes, wanted a young quarterback to build around, and he got one in Maye.
Vrabel knew a good thing when he saw one. He had other opportunities to coach other teams, but with Maye, he knew he had an ace. Both Vrabel and Maye are in contention for deserved personal awards. But bet on this, each wants the only award that really matters to uber-competitors, the Lombardi trophy. Neither will rest until the Patriots' seventh sits in Gillette Stadium.