When the Patriots initially selected Drake Maye in the first round of last year’s draft, concerns arose about his readiness to be an NFL starter, given his limited experience at UNC and his age. There were numerous questions about his ability to lead and keep up with the defenses in the NFL, which may have contributed to the decision to keep him on the bench until Week 6.
As soon as he was given the start, however, it was clear he probably should have been the quarterback all along, and his performance throughout the season only solidified that.
Now, he appears to be on track for the most impressive second-year jump in recent memory, prompting many to have strong takes about his future, with some analysts believing it’s premature to come to such conclusions about his future just yet, especially as the Patriots head into their toughest matchup of the season so far against the Bills on the road.
Drake Maye’s rise to stardom this season has some skeptical about putting a label on him just yet
Based on his impressive statistics, which include a run that has only been outdone by Tom Brady in 2007, there is a lot of chatter suggesting Maye is already a top quarterback in the league.
But Patriots insider Tom Curran believes it’s far too early to make such a claim, and suggests analysts and fans slow their roll before they end up potentially disappointed.
“He’s probably a top-eight passer, even a top-five if you look statistically right now. But he’s still a top-15 quarterback, because quarterback is about decision-making, taking care of the ball, game management, blitz understanding, all that stuff. I’m splitting hairs, but I’m just trying to temper expectations.
He’s not a top-five quarterback. He’s a top-10 passer, though, already.”
All things considered, it’s hard to argue that Curran is wrong because there have been times over the last five years that analysts and fans have jumped to conclusions about how good the quarterback was and it all inevitably led to disappoint.
That likely isn’t the case with Maye, who is far more talented than the quarterbacks they’ve had since the 2020 season, but it’s also not entirely fair to hold him to such high expectations with only 16 starts under his belt. Sure, he’s been impressive so far, but there needs to be room to accept mistakes that will likely come, so it’s better to temper expectations, as Curran said.
At the same time, Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston believes Maye is better than what some might think because he’s not getting as much credit as he should be, especially since he is leading the league in various categories.
“I think we’re seeing it fall into place. Passer vs. quarterback? I think he’s already doing some quarterbacky things that maybe we haven’t given him a ton of credit for. One of the things that is really interesting to me, he leads the league in a lot of these categories, he’s top five in a lot of categories.”
What Maye is doing is certainly noteworthy and very exciting for fans to see after years of inconsistent quarterback play. However, it’s also good to embrace what is happening and not get too ahead of ourselves with what Maye can accomplish, or there could be a lot of disappointment if something goes wrong.
Instead, we should take it week by week and be excited about the fact that the Patriots appear to have finally gotten the right guy for the job.
