FOXBOROUGH — If I had professed, after the Week 1 loss to the Raiders, that by the bye week Drake Maye would be the favorite to win the NFL MVP award with the Patriots at 11-2 and the top seed in the AFC, a bunch of people would have rightfully called emergency services and alerted them to check my mental health.
I mean, this is really unbelievable. In the season opener, Maye looked jittery, sped up, not all that improved from this rookie season. Some people (not me this time) wondered if he was going to be able to hack it. If there was too much stuff on his plate. If Maye and Josh McDaniels were a bad marriage that could end in disaster.
I'm not pointing that out to bleh anyone because while there was some hyperbole there, things didn't look great after an iffy preseason as well. I'm using those thoughts to illustrate how far Maye has come in 14 short weeks. That start against the Raiders doesn't even seem like this season, or even reality. It feels like it was a bad fever dream.
Because the Maye that showed out for a national television audience was the complete opposite of Week 1 Maye. He looked like a five-year veteran as he completed 24 of 31 passes for two touchdowns and a passer rating of 126. The thing is, Maye made it look easy, and he's making it look easier for each passing week.
How good has Maye been? Even Mike Vrabel spoke highly of him after the game when I asked the coach about his quarterback's performance.
"I thought Drake is ... I think he's realizing what he can be and what the impact that he makes on this offense and being the conductor," Vrabel said. "He's hard on himself. I think that he challenges himself as well as his coaches. He means a great deal to this football team. And just being able to not get rattled and escape or pressure and find Rhamondre or scramble -- then when we do have time and he sees a guy win, he put a ball in a great spot for Kyle to make a huge play or Kayshon down in the red zone. A lot of third-down conversions. So, again, very appreciative that he's our quarterback."
With Vrabel, praise for a really good player is hard to come by, especially a quarterback. So for Vrabel to speak that way of Maye ... basically, it was him zipping down his red vest and revealing one of those "I Love Drake Maye" t-shirts you see in the stands at Gillette.
The kid deserves it. I'm not one to issue a ton of praise myself, and I especially don't like to say the same thing over and over again, but, man, Maye just keeps getting better every time he takes this field. He looked like a five-year veteran out there. One week, you're pointing out a flaw with him — last week against the Bengals it was not setting up his protection well enough, leading to some free runners — and the next week, he has solved that issue. Maye knew exactly where the pressures were coming from, and he was getting rid of the ball quickly, often for completions, and avoiding taking big shots. On scrambles, he wasn't even close to reckless and putting himself in harm's way. Compare that to Jaxson Dart, who reminds of Carson Wentz in the way he plays out of control and recklessly.
If you looked at Maye, there's no way you would have known he had a new left tackle and left guard in this game. I want to see the results of those monitors that the players wear during games and practices. I bet his heart rate when he drops back isn't any different than the one he has standing on the sideline.
"It’s been exciting, as far as with a young quarterback, showing a lot of promise, a lot of confidence," Stefon Diggs siad. "Coming from a quarterback position and being young, it’s obviously something there. But I think the biggest thing is, he comes in each and every day and he’s the same guy. He approaches the game like a professional and he has a lot of fun. And he’s super hard on himself.”
Let's also point out that Josh McDaniels had a great gameplan to deal with the shortcomings on the offensive line (the Patriots also got an assist that Abdul Carter was benched for the first quarter and the score was 17-0 by the time he entered), and the players executed well. Vederian Lowe was left alone a lot more than anticipated, but McDaniels did his thing like he always does, changing pitches and personnel to help the playeres out. Of course they has to execute as well, including Maye. He knew the plays where he couldn't hold the ball.
The result? According to NextGenStats, the Patriots allowed a pressure rate of 25.0%, the 2nd-lowest mark of Drake Maye’s career. From a clean pocket, Maye completed 21 of 25 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns.
McDaniels gave a personnel and formational tutorial. He used an eye-popping EIGHT different personnel groupings in the game (T is an extra tackle):
Meanwhile, the Giants and Mike Kafka used just TWO personnel groupings. #chesscheckers
And, of course, there was Maye with his trademark accuracy as he perfectly placed touchdown passes to Kayshon Boutte and Kyle Williams.
"I mean, it is unbelievable," Williams said of Maye's accuracy. "You know, sometimes you just sit there and be like, 'That is too good to be true.' But, you know, he has a great arm talent. He sees the field very well, and overall, I am just so proud of him.”
The oddsmakers have Maye as a slight favorite over Matthew Stafford for NFL MVP, after the Rams' QB stumbled in a loss to the Panthers. But there's a long way to go, and both have upcoming spotlight matchups in the same weeks (15 and 16) before finishing with laughers out of the spotlight: Maye takes on the Bills and then travels to the Ravens, while Stafford hosts the Lions and has a monumental challenge at Seattle on Thursday Night Football. That might be a tough physical turnaround for the 37-year-old QB, who has a 32/4 touchdown/interception ratio, while Maye is at 23/6. Plus, Stafford has never won the award. So, if it's close, the voters might go with a lifetime achievement award for Stafford, thinking Maye will have many more chances in front of him.
And he will at that. If he can go from where he was in Week 1 to what we saw on Monday night, the sky truly is the limit for Maye.
Just ask Vrabel.
