The NFL wasn’t ready for Drake Maye’s 2025 breakout season. It arrived like a fast-moving hurricane with a wake so devastating that fans around the league were left grasping at straws, like the widespread conclusion that the New England Patriots’ schedule was most responsible for Maye’s All-Pro season.
Now that the haze of Super Bowl LX has fully dissipated and we’re officially on to a new league year, those same fans could soon realize that Maye’s rise, and the Patriots’ rebirth under Mike Vrabel, is no fluke.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft recently admitted that he felt the team overachieved in Vrabel’s first year, but the head coach clearly doesn’t agree. He made it clear on Tuesday, during the annual head coaches' breakfast at the NFL Owners Meetings in Phoenix, that competing for championships has and always will be the standard going forward.
As the reigning AFC East champs, New England’s 2026 schedule naturally gets much more difficult. On top of playing each of the other three AFC division winners, the Patriots will face teams from the NFC North and AFC West this year.
It’s a daunting task, but after establishing a strong team culture throughout the 2025 season, the Patriots are unlikely to get crushed under its weight. It all starts with Maye, who’s about to enter his third year as a pro with 33 NFL starts under his belt.
He’s also set to enter his second full season in Josh McDaniels’ complex offense. That, Vrabel hinted on Tuesday morning, is where Maye’s game could soon reach an elite next level.
“I think his ability to control the game at the line of scrimmage, whether that’s operationally getting us into a better play, you know… continue to take ownership of the offense. He’s an extension of Josh (McDaniels), and Josh sends the play in. We want Drake to own it, to own the play, and bring it to life with cadence, communication, motion. … I think physically he’s very talented, so we’ll continue to push him to lead and to try to orchestrate and conduct the offense.”
The part of Drake Maye’s game Mike Vrabel wants to unlock next
If not for the Patriots’ easy 2025 schedule providing some low-hanging fruit, fans and analysts alike would still be marveling over what Maye accomplished in 2025, as a 24-year-old working with a second head coach and offensive coordinator in as many pro seasons.
He elevated an offensive line that featured a pair of rookies on the left side, and routinely carved up opponents with a skill position group led by Stefon Diggs, Mack Hollins, Kayshon Boutte, and Hunter Henry. To Vrabel’s point, he did the majority of the heavy lifting with his physical ability to work the pocket, extend plays with his legs, and take the necessary punishment to hold the ball for an extra second and deliver ropes down the field. The opposition may have had a losing win-loss record on most game days, but those actually watching the Patriots play know that Maye's All-Pro season was no joke, nor was his case for MVP.
Now comes the next step in his development — the part that helped Tom Brady hold “the answers to the test,” as he used to call it. McDaniels’ offense breathes at the line of scrimmage. It’s on Maye to set the protection on every snap, diagnose the defense and, as Vrabel put it, get the team in the right play. Sometimes that might mean a hand signal to Boutte, changing his route. Other times it might mean changing a play completely.
It's an art form that comes with experience. The beauty of the McDaniels offense is that it evolves with the quarterback’s strengths over time. Over the next five years, the Patriots will be running the Drake Maye offense, but it takes a synchronization between the quarterback and coordinator that doesn't happen overnight.
With Tuesday's comments, Vrabel is essentially admitting that Maye hasn't yet mastered the offense. He's still learning how to put the defense on ice skates pre-snap, rather than the other way around, like the Seattle Seahawks did to Maye and the Patriots a couple of months ago in the Super Bowl.
At this point, Maye has already proven he has the physical tools to perform among the best quarterbacks in football. Once he masters the processing power of this Patriots offense and starts using those mental tools to his advantage in real time, the result could be scary for the rest of the NFL.
This upcoming 2026 season could be the start of it.