I’ve written about this a few times in the last month, but now that Mike Vrabel is openly campaigning for Drake Maye to be the league MVP, what’s one more time? That the ballots had to be cast on Sunday night is neither here nor there.
“He's extremely accurate,” Vrabel told us on Monday. “He's made the most of every passing opportunity. We’ve created a lot of X plays, and to create X plays, it's about 30% scheme, it's about 70% of the players making a play, and part of that is the quarterback putting it in a great location for run after catch. I think you continue to see that.
“His ability to extend, use his legs to gain first downs, critical first downs. His ability to score when we've asked him to score and run it in. He's been everything that we've asked, and he continues to get better. He's not satisfied. So, I know that our success of where we are right now, today, has a lot to do with Drake Maye.”
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell also made his case for Maye over Matthew Stafford, actually attacking the strength-of-schedule argument that’s been used against the Pats QB. And no, that’s not to say he didn’t acknowledge the schedule is one of the easiest in league history - it is - but Barnwell writes, in part:
“Using each team's finish in pass defense EPA per play from NFL Next Gen Stats, Maye's average opponent ranked 20th against the pass this season. Stafford's average opponent was 17th. Do the same test with QBR instead of pass defense EPA, and their schedules were virtually identical; Maye's average opponent ranked 18.6 out of 32 defenses, while Stafford's average pass defense was at 18.4. While these two quarterbacks faced massively different opposition on the whole, that doesn't hold true for the pass defenses.”
Then, Barnwell breaks it down further, comparing the two men side-by-side against common opponents:
Completion percentage: 72% to 67.2% in favor of Maye
Yards Per Attempt: 8.9 to 8.0 in favor of Maye
Total QBR: 77 to 57.7 in favor of....drumroll please...Maye
Yes, I know the Vegas odds flipped back to Stafford after his 4-TD game on Sunday against Arizona, but that doesn’t mean Vegas knows. I spoke to one voter who was torn between the two and wondered how a player whose team ended up as the 6th seed could win. For the record, I think I swayed said voter (when you speak of me, speak well).
On to Musings...
THUMBS UP
There were plenty of folks who wanted to run Rhamondre Stevenson out on a rail. Good thing the Pats didn’t listen. Stevenson had 151 total yards and three TDs against the Fins, and now has 279 rushing yards over the last four games on just 29 carries. That’s 9.6 yards per carry. That’s absurd. TreVeyon Henderson has 51 carries over that same period of time. I can’t decide if the Pats are gearing up for more Stevenson in the playoffs, or if this job-share is going to remain tilted in the rookie’s favor. I’d prefer the former, not the latter.
“He’s a tough back. He can move. He’s agile. He’s got a little two-foot jump cut that I just love watching on film. He just makes people miss like that. He’s got great hands. He’s smart,” Maye said. “His blocks in protection (have been) unbelievable this year. He always tells me I owe him something. I really do; I do owe him something. He’s done a great job.”
It’s not often that the Patriots ask so little of