Before I get this rant off my chest, let me just state this for the record: I love Drake Maye.
I have multiple Drake Maye T-shirts in my dresser. My 4-year-old son barely knows what football is, and he wears his Drake Maye Patriots jersey to preschool at least once a week.
I also watched every snap of the New England Patriots’ 2025 season as a contributor for Musket Fire, and all fandom aside, Maye landing well inside the top 10 on FanSided’s list of the NFL’s most overrated players is borderline egregious.
Drake Maye's resume simply doesn't scream "overrated"
How exactly are we defining overrated here? Maye was the No. 3 overall pick in 2024 who entered an impossible situation. Jerod Mayo was way over his head as a first-time head coach, and he hired the extremely underwhelming Alex Van Pelt as offensive coordinator.
The Patriots opened that season with K.J. Osborn, Tyquan Thornton, and DeMario Douglas as their starting wide receivers.
Maye survived the exact type of situation that crushes rookie quarterbacks so often when they enter the NFL. He managed the transition to Josh McDaniels in Year 2, learned a new offense with new skill-position players like Stefon Diggs and Mack Hollins, and still managed to reach a Super Bowl in his first full season as a starter — at the age of 23.
Overrated? There are plenty of words to describe Maye’s breakout sophomore season. That’s definitely not one of them.
Maybe “inflated” is the word my colleagues are looking for? The Patriots obviously had an easy path through the regular season and ultimately Super Bowl LX thanks to finishing fourth in the AFC East in 2024 and drawing the NFC South on their schedule. Fair enough. You’re not going to hear logical Patriots fans argue with facts. The schedule was historically favorable.
But as Maye said, it’s not like the Patriots were playing Foxborough High School. They finished 14-3 in the regular season while facing eight of the NFL’s top 20 defenses in terms of EPA (expected points added). Maye led the NFL in completion percentage, yards per attempt, and quarterback rating.
In the article, FanSided's Jason Reed — who was only the messenger here — focused more on Maye's poor playoff production than the Patriots' easy path.
“This stems from Maye's performance in the NFL Playoffs despite the Patriots' success," Reed wrote on Maye's ranking, which was tied for fifth with Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf. "Maye was pretty dreadful in the Super Bowl and wasn't lighting the world on fire prior to that. Outside of one really good half against the Chargers in the AFC Wild Card Round, Maye did not play like an elite quarterback despite his playoff success.”
Again, fair enough. Those were tough playoff games against the Chargers and Texans. Folks love to discredit the Patriots for those wins because Justin Herbert and C.J. Stroud played so poorly in the cold Foxboro weather. But Houston’s defense was on an all-time heater.
How many quarterbacks are lighting up the Texans' defense in that divisional round game?
Maye wasn’t perfect in that one. He had every Patriots fan ripping their hair out in real time by putting the ball on the turf four times. He also had three touchdown passes that night. One of them was on fourth down. Another was an absolute dime from 32 yards out with Derek Stingley Jr. right on Kayshon Boutte’s hip.
I don’t care what anyone says. Everyone picked Houston to win that game. That was a ballsy win by Maye and the Patriots. It was never going to be pretty against that team. The fumbles were maddening. But Maye didn’t play scared. I thought that game was his official arrival, how he battled through adversity against a ridiculously good defense. Apparently not.
I was in the stadium for the AFC Championship Game in Denver. The weather change around halftime was out of a movie. That was never going to be a big day for Maye, Jarrett Stidham, Bo Nix, or Peyton Manning.
No one gives Maye credit, though, for protecting the football in brutal conditions and giving his team a chance. He called his own number in a blizzard for the game-sealing first down. It was an all-time highlight for a player who doesn't turn 24 until Aug. 30.
The Super Bowl? I mean, that was brutal. But Maye got an injection in his injured right throwing shoulder pregame, and Will Campbell was trying to protect him on one leg. Seattle was the better football team and literally knocked the crap out of Maye.
He never checked out of the game with an injury, though. He kept battling and actually made it interesting at one point during the fourth quarter.
Maye also said all the right things after the game — as he did throughout the entire season, by the way. He was a top-three draft pick who just played in the Super Bowl, earned second-team All-Pro, and finished one vote shy of winning league MVP, showing leadership qualities well beyond his years. It would seem to me like he's living up to the hype.
There’s nothing overrated about Drake Maye — and yes, I just typed that while wearing my blue and red Drake “Drake Maye” Maye T-shirt. He was so good last year that rival fans (and site experts) have clearly spent far too much time and energy trying to convince themselves that it was all a fluke.
They could not be more wrong.
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