Could Patriots QB Drake Maye be primed to take a big step forward in his 2nd NFL season?

Yahoo

22-05-2025

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The 2024 NFL Draft quarterback class was hyped entering the league, then gave fans plenty of reason to justify it in Year 1.
Jayden Daniels won Rookie of the Year, Bo Nix led the Denver Broncos to the playoffs, and Caleb Williams flashed moments of promise despite a poor ecosystem. But Drake Maye might be the one to watch as a sophomore, something Nate Tice, Charles McDonald and Matt Harmon discussed on the latest episode of the "Football 301" podcast.
Nobody's saying Daniels shouldn't have won Rookie of the Year last season, but in terms of how their performances bode for the future, Charles McDonald is excited about Maye given how well he played amid the circumstances.
"It just felt like the structure of the team was not there," McDonald said. "Obviously there was no offensive line at all. The weapons they had didn't really work out."
New England finished with a 4-13 record. The Patriots used the fourth overall pick this spring on LSU offensive lineman Will Campbell, plus they drafted Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson in Round 2 and Washington State wide receiver Kyle Williams in Round 3.
The strengthening around him should help Maye. McDonald was impressed with how Maye generated offense by himself, even throwing players open from the pocket and staring down pressure.
"When you look at most quarterbacks and guys who kind of need a supporting cast around them, they probably would have drowned in that situation last year," McDonald said. "So the fact that he could even just stay up and just be his own generator of plays when things are falling apart, it gives you such a high floor for what this offense can be."
The Patriots' second-round pick of a year ago, wide receiver Ja'Lynn Polk, was one of the most disappointing rookies last season. But there might be good reason for that, according to Matt Harmon.
"He's the perfect type of player that I think was set up to fail coming into the year, because the 9 route was his most commonly run route. And he basically took all of his snaps from X receiver, which there was quite literally nothing on his on his college film as a prospect that indicated like he should be doing that," Harmon said.
Polk might have also been the worst blocking receiver in the league last year, according to Harmon, and he was good at it in college.
"Educated guess: Not a lot of good coaching going on in New England last year," Harmon said.
Unsurprisingly, the Patriots fired head coach Jerod Mayo and brought in former New England linebacker and Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel to run the show.
Vrabel brought back Josh McDaniels, who was offensive coordinator for 13 total seasons under Bill Belichick and also served as Tom Brady's quarterbacks coach those years. Nate Tice is optimistic for Drake Maye in part because of McDaniels' hire.
"He always has structured offenses," Tice said. "They had really good run game. They tied stuff together with what the quarterback likes, whether it was Tom Brady or Mac Jones or Cam Newton. Like, no matter what the offense really feels fits the quarterback."
Moreover, Maye had a dropback success rate of 46.5% as a rookie, which was good for 16th in the NFL already and puts him in some rare air. It's the seventh-best dropback success rate among rookie QBs since 2012, behind Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, Jayden Daniels, Mac Jones and Robert Griffin III, and ahead of the likes of C.J. Stroud and Justin Herbert.
"That's great that his efficiency is already at that high level in this bad circumstances," Tice said. "And the fact that I thought even early on he'd be a little boom-busty as a quarterback until he figured it out. He shows so much more already."