Inside Drake Maye’s rookie year: ‘We’re going to have that Tom Brady story again’

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Drake Maye showed up to Week 17 without a coat. He’s from Charlotte, North Carolina, but the spitting rain and the 40-degree temperatures didn’t faze him before the New England Patriots’ game against the Chargers at Gillette Stadium.

It wasn’t the only cold greeting he has received since the Patriots drafted him in May.

This is New England, after all, where the fans and the sports radio hosts have temperaments as frigid as their stick season. This is the land of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and six Lombardi Trophies. This is where a generation of fans had never seen a below .500 team, let alone a rebuilding one at its lowest point. At this time of year, Patriots fans are accustomed to sizing up their Super Bowl chances, not their odds at the No. 1 pick.

None of that pressure has bothered Maye.

“I’m proud to be a Patriot,” he said in December, a month when the team didn’t win a game.

For all the negativity, New England’s quarterback has left little doubt that he’s the future. He’s the culture. He’s the solution to turning this 3-13 organization around.

That’s not just a credit to him. 

The Patriots planned carefully to get the quarterback position right. It’s not just crucial to get the right guy, it’s important to develop him properly. Look at Mac Jones, who started strong before seeing the wheels fall off. Look at Zach Wilson, who has never recovered after the Jets threw him into the fire as a rookie. 

While New England is in a tough spot by just about every measure, there is still optimism within the Patriots building.

Why?

Drake Maye.

“His potential is through the roof. That’s what makes the future bright and that’s what I’m most excited about,” receiver Kendrick Bourne told FOX Sports.

“I enjoy coming to work every day because of him,” said Jacoby Brissett, the man Maye replaced as QB1.

Maye’s development has meant everything to the organization. 

“Oftentimes we forget that he’s a rookie quarterback,” coach Jerod Mayo said.

And given that he got a standing ovation when returning from a head injury during the Chargers game, Maye clearly means a lot to Patriots fans. They’ve warmed up to him. And his teammates have so much love for him.

“We’re going to have that Tom Brady story again, but it’s a first-rounder this time,” receiver Demario Douglas told FOX Sports. “You see the swagger that he has on the field and the dog in him. As long as he keeps that, he’s unstoppable.”

Brady? What does Douglas mean by the comparison?

“The winning culture, how he was leading the team. [Maye] has that. 

“He has all those traits.” 

*** *** ***

In Week 1, Caleb Williams was on the field. Jayden Daniels was out there. Even Bo Nix was starting. And where was Maye? The third overall pick was QB2 in New England. The average onlooker might’ve seen that as a red flag. 

But within the walls of Gillette Stadium, that was the plan all along.

Immediately after the Patriots drafted Maye, executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf made it clear he intended to remain patient. Wolf hails from the Green Bay front-office tree, and the Packers have had as much success as any team in creating continuity at the QB position. That’s in part due to the team regularly drafting and developing signal-callers as backups, which is how both Jordan Love and Aaron Rodgers started their NFL careers.

One of New England’s best decisions might have been when Mayo, Wolf, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and quarterbacks coach T.C. McCartney decided not to start Maye in Week 1 — delaying his debut. The rookie got his feet wet in the fourth quarter against the Jets in Week 3, but he didn’t start until Week 6. Instead, he watched and learned from Brissett.

“I think it was important for him to see how hard the game is,” Wolf told FOX Sports. “And he kind of weathered that storm, like what he got in Week 3 against the Jets. It didn’t necessarily look like he was ready to roll.

“And I think that was good for him, because he got in there and was like, ‘Holy s—, this is fast.’ And you know, then, by the time it came to the Houston game where he started, I think he was a lot more dialed in. Not that he wasn’t before, but I think he was more aware of how hard this league is, and he was able to kind of hit the ground running a little bit.”

When Wolf & Co. finally pulled the trigger, it wasn’t a hard decision to insert Maye into the starting lineup. His status as QB1 was undeniable in Week 6, which was exactly what the team had been waiting for.

“A lot of times, quarterbacks get thrown out there, and sometimes it backfires. You look at guys like Jayden Daniels, he’s had a hell of a year, right? But that’s not always the case,” Van Pelt told FOX Sports. “I know there’s a lot of instant gratification when you have a first-round draft pick to get him out there immediately, but at the same time, you want to make sure he’s ready to go, and you want to bring him along the right way.

“And then there came a point where we needed to put him in the game.”

There were clear signs.

Van Pelt said he has been present for every single meeting that involved Maye this season. One thing that became evident in those meetings was the specificity of the rookie’s preparation.

“You could tell he was watching the film, because he would come in each morning with a bunch of questions,” Van Pelt said. “They would be about, ‘Hey what about Houston playing 24? What do we do there?’ So, you know, just the work that he put in through, one, virtual reality and then, two, the extra film study away from the building or in the room outside of meeting times.”

That extra work started right away, when Maye spent time in training camp studying film by himself and in the virtual reality simulations that New England invested in last offseason. When he arrived in New England, Maye was raw when it came to footwork, timing and the dropback. That was one of the biggest reasons why the leadership group agreed to give him time off the field. Another reason, Wolf explained, was the simple matter of experience. Daniels, 24, was a five-year starter in college, but Maye, 22, missed a high school season because of COVID and then was a two-year starter at UNC.

“Everyone’s starting at a different point,” Wolf said.

To accelerate Maye’s development, the Patriots laid out a plan to get him reps not just with the backups but also with the first team during the regular season. You don’t often see that past training camp, but the Patriots had an eye on both their weekly preparation and their future.

“It’s not a secret,” Mayo said in September. “We have a quarterback in the wings that needs to continue to develop. Normally, I would say the starter gets, let’s say, 95 percent of the reps and the backup doesn’t. With this, it’s a little bit different. … It is like a 70-30 split. 

“We’re very thoughtful. When we talk about [how] we have a development plan for Drake, that’s part of it. … He’s doing a good job, and you can see his confidence continuing to grow.”

The important traits were present in Maye from the start. The arm was impressive. And, what thrilled Van Pelt most, the processing power was there, too. That is, after all, one of the most crucial ingredients to becoming a truly great quarterback, according to the OC. Because it’s hard to decipher during the pre-draft process how quickly and how well a QB is processing in a foreign offensive system, Van Pelt wasn’t sure what to expect as Maye transitioned from UNC’s playbook to New England’s.

“That was something early on that we identified as a strength — that he was able to see and process,” Van Pelt said. “It’s not just what the issues are — the coverage recognition, the spatial awareness. You know: Is a guy covered or is he not covered? It’s his ability to quickly move from covered receiver to covered receiver to uncovered receiver, and work at progressions. That stood out right away. That’s stuff you really can’t see on tape until you have the system in place.”

The Patriots saw Maye demonstrate the necessary command as a thrower, as a thinker, as a communicator and as a leader. On the field and off it. 

“Jerod did a pretty good job of making sure everyone is in the loop of everything,” Wolf said. “And I would say ignoring noise has been a big part of this. There was the crowd that didn’t want us to draft the quarterback, and there was the crowd that wanted us to start him in Week 1, and there was a crowd that didn’t think he should play against Houston because they had a good [defensive] front. The reality is, there’s no perfect time.”

It came together in the right ways in time for Week 6 against the Texans.

“You could just tell he was ready to start,” Van Pelt said.

*** *** ***

Maye admitted he would be nervous for his first NFL start, at home on Oct. 13. 

“I was a little amped, for sure,” he said. 

You could see it.

His third throw was an interception, an easy checkdown to Douglas that Maye aired to a Houston defender. His nerves got in the way.

“That first start — that’s always a tough one,” Van Pelt said. “Doesn’t matter how many games you played in college, [you] get your first NFL start, the butterflies are there again. That was a poor throw by him on that one.”

But that throw didn’t define his day. It didn’t define his season.

On the sideline, Maye and Van Pelt discussed the interception.

“‘Hey, yep, it wasn’t a great play, but again, you got to go out there and use the Dan Marino [method]. You might throw three picks in the first half and five touchdowns in the second half,'” Van Pelt remembered telling Maye. “‘You just got to keep swinging.'”

Maye finished the day with 243 passing yards, three touchdown passes and three turnovers (two interceptions and a fumble).

New England spent all those weeks getting Maye ready to operate at a high level. Now the coaches had to work on the in-game development — perhaps the most important phase.

It’s customary for offensive coordinators and quarterbacks to sit together between drives, but Maye basically never leaves Van Pelt’s side during games. As is customary, the OC runs through the previous drive to evaluate anything the QB might have missed. Then they’re onto the next drive.

“I think there’s a special bond between a playcaller and quarterback, where you always have to be on that same page,” Van Pelt said. “And I think our communication during the course of the game of, ‘Hey, these next three or four calls are going to come up in the series.’ [Or,] ‘I’m expecting this look on this certain call.’ Or, ‘Hey, be ready to get us out of this one if they give us this look.’ So kind of giving him the answers to the test for the next series.”

There have been a few major developmental milestones for Maye.

One came up this week as the Patriots prepared for their season finale when the quarterback room laughed about how Maye executed a play to perfection. During that same play at rookie minicamp, he’d mistakenly thrown the ball to the flat — the one place he shouldn’t throw it. So it was a look-how-far-you’ve-come moment. 

Another moment came ahead of Maye’s second start. Previously, during practice, Van Pelt would sometimes help his QB with pre-snap recognition on the defense. But this time, the OC decided not to hold Maye’s hand through that process. Van Pelt felt like he could loosen his grip on the rookie and schematically toss him into the deep end.

“We had a competitive period versus our defense in the red zone, and I didn’t give him a good answer if they did zero pressure us, and they did,” Van Pelt said. “And he got to the right protection call and the right route concept, and that’s when I was like, ‘OK, the light is on.'”

*** *** ***

Maye’s rookie season is one for the game-film nerds.

If counting stats are your thing, you won’t like what you see. With one game left, he has 2,276 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He’s added 421 rushing yards with two rushing touchdowns. And he has just two wins to his name.

So perhaps his story — as I’ve told it so far — seems a bit overoptimistic.

But then you see some of the throws he’s made. The degree of difficulty shows his potential.

“It’s more than glimpses of talent,” Wolf said. “The display of talent that he has shown, the maturity to be a leader, the ability to elevate those around him, are things that are going to be huge building blocks for us moving forward.”

Even when studying the film, you’ll see Maye’s propensity for turnovers, particularly late in games. Week 9 against the Titans might feature his best and worst plays of the year.

There was the clutch moment: a touchdown as time expired.

But then he followed it with one of his least clutch throws: an INT in overtime.

One knock on Maye is that he lacks situational awareness. When his team enters gotta-have-it moments, he has a habit of turning the ball over. On the flip side, the Patriots have only been in those gotta-have-it moments because Maye has kept them in the game. But he has let too many of those moments slip between his fingers. That’ll be one of the key areas where he’ll need to progress in 2025.

“I think it’s all experience, like him being young. It’s young mistakes,” Bourne said. “He comes back, and he really tries to apply himself to make those changes. And I think that’s what’s gonna bring the touchdowns instead of interceptions, the wins instead of the losses at the end. So those tangibles are going to eventually change because he’s showing the characteristics to change them.”

*** *** ***

In the locker room and the huddle, Maye’s teammates rave about his positivity and optimism. He’s genuine. He’s accountable. He is fiercely loyal.

“When he walks in the room, you could just feel that aura of him just being a playmaker and a leader,” said rookie receiver Ja’Lynn Polk, who has just 12 catches for 87 yards and two touchdowns this year. “He’s been there in my corner. … He’ll check on me once in a while to make sure I’m straight.”

There might have been no more declarative moment from Maye than when reporters asked the QB about speculation surrounding Mayo’s job security. And the rookie QB delivered a short but impassioned defense of his rookie head coach.

“I think it’s some B.S. to be quite honest. Coach Mayo, we’ve got his back and he’s coached us hard,” said Maye. “He wants to win. We all want to win. We’re all frustrated. …. We’re just plays away, and it’s basically me turning the ball over.”

His accountability is what his teammates and coaches rave about most. Even Wolf said that, when the Patriots put on Maye’s worst film during the pre-draft process (a game against NC State), he refused to let anyone else take the blame, even as Patriots coaches asked questions that gave Maye the option of throwing teammates under the bus. Maye is the same guy now, saying and doing the right things in public and in private.

“It’s been a difficult year in a lot of ways,” Wolf said. “And his consistent ability, like when he’s in front of the microphone, to say the right thing has been impressive.”

Maye declined an interview request for this story. So did his family.

He doesn’t seem to want any attention on himself, likely because he is a guy who cares more about winning — and right now, he’s not doing it. But he’s demonstrated enough this season that seemingly everyone in the building believes he will change the culture.

“Brett Favre sucked his first couple of years in the league,” veteran Patriots edge Deatrich Wise said. “And now he’s one of the greatest quarterbacks. … Not gonna say [Drake] is on the same path. What I’m saying is, he’s been playing well. He runs the ball well. He passes the ball well. … I feel like we continue to rally around him and I feel like he is going to be a great player for us in the future.”

*** *** ***

When asked about how the Patriots build around Maye this offseason, Wolf emphasized that the offensive line is “an area that we’re certainly going to look to improve.” 

It’s not like New England sat on its hands last offseason. The Patriots extended their best players: OL Michael Onwenu, RB Rhamondre Stevenson, TE Hunter Henry, center David Andrews, DT Christian Barmore, safety Kyle Dugger. The list goes on. They brought in Brissett, RB Antonio Gibson, WR K.J. Osborn, TE Austin Hooper and OT Chukwuma Okorafor.

The Patriots addressed their needs in the draft, too, with receivers Polk and Javon Baker and offensive linemen Caedan Wallace and Layden Robinson in the first four rounds.

Still, the O-line might have been the biggest issue on the team, especially when Okorafor surprisingly retired after Week 1 and Onwenu moved inside. Those moves kicked off an unsettling sequence — New England had eight different offensive-line configurations over the first nine games. Not surprisingly, the Patriots rank among the worst in the league in sacks allowed this season.

“We’re 3-13, so not good enough. Let’s start there. We had a lot of needs. I would say that I guess personally, what I was expecting maybe a little bit more internal development, which is a good lesson certainly heading into next year, and that you can’t always rely on that,” Wolf said. “The rookie receivers didn’t have it really that much for us. And, you know, Polk was sort of in our estimation a plug-and-play. … Ultimately, to answer to your question, our record speaks for itself. We didn’t do enough.”

But there’s hope for the 2025 Patriots in large part because of Maye. Wolf didn’t hesitate when asked whether his QB will make life easier in free agency.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “Player X from another team is like, ‘Yeah, rookie quarterback, great. You know, we’ve all seen rookie quarterbacks come in and struggle, so that doesn’t really mean a lot now.’ 

“Drake’s actually playing well. It’s on film for everyone to see.”

In the past year, New England failed to land receiver Calvin Ridley in free agency and wideout Brandon Aiyuk on the trade market. This offseason, things might start to turn in Wolf and Maye’s favor. Plenty of players have given Maye his flowers, including such top quarterbacks as Josh Allen and Justin Herbert.

“He looks like a stud,” Rams coach Sean McVay said in November. “You can just see the impact he has on his teammates. He looks like he’s going to be a special player for a long time.”

That’s the kind of recognition that’ll serve the Patriots. You never know how the market will move, but there’s really no way out of the Patriots’ situation without optimism around the QB.

And if nothing else, the Patriots certainly have that.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.

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