Dear America: I Hope You Had Fun While it Lasted, Because Drake Maye is Back to Being Your Worst Nightmare
I think I've mentioned here before that I absolutely don't understand what it is about a huge segment of the Masshole population that makes them bail on an athlete or a coach at the first sign of any struggles. I mean, it's one thing to acknowledge a guy had a bad game, or is in a slump or whatever. That's just objectivity. My brain might be wired toward pro-Boston subjectivity, but that's just me. To each his own.
What I'm talking about is this bizarre desire to be the first one to abandon ship at the first sign of a problem. I mean, I get why the media does it.
For them, there's no emotional investment. It's just rage porn. It's a formula. Start with the premise that the current thing is something to be furious about, and work backwards from there. Get everyone riled up, keep them that way, and get clicks and views. What I don't get is why anyone would want to be sheeple enough to follow the outrage.
It's like there's a reward for being first to say, "This guy sucks! Get rid of him!" A trophy. A cash prize. Points toward your social credit score. Or maybe it's just the self-satisfaction of telling yourself you're smarter than everyone else. Like you can see through the bullshit the rest of us great unwashed cannot or something. Which was happening to Drake Maye for all of last year's postseason and the first three weeks of this year. Or as Ben Affleck put it, people were quick to chirp Maye the same way they used to do it to Pedro Martinez, of all people:
I have buddies like that. One in particular who spent all of Larry Bird's career telling our friend circle he wasn't as good as we thought. Same with Tom Brady. It's always been a mystery to me why anyone would default to that attitude, instead of just being grateful to watch Larry Bird and Tom Brady. But the inescapable ugly truth is, we like to turn on our own around here.
What's not at all hard to process is why 44 other states and 31 other NFL markets were rushing to bathe in Maye's blood. Because they wanted to believe that 2025 was all just smoke and mirrors. Because they didn't want to believe this team was able to find Brady's replacement so soon. When franchises like the Jets, Browns, Titans and Panthers go years, and sometimes decades, without a truly viable Franchise QB option, the thought that it would take just four drafts after the GOAT left to land a perennial MVP candidate is too much to bear. And don't think for one second the Patriots were the skunk at the Super Bowl XL lawn party in February.
So rather than accept the truth, America chose to believe that it was all just an unfortunate accident that won't be repeated. So when Maye was turning the ball over in Weeks 1-3, the national confirmation bias kicked in. And the country convinced itself Drake Maye is a fraud. The NFL has him figured out. And the search for the next great Pats QB would just have to continue for another couple of generations of mediocrity. Or worse.
If either of these describes you - if you're a Masshole who was raised to hate success or someone from the rest of the country who spent 20 years hoping the Patriots would go away, I'm happy to break the bad news to you:
Drake Maye is great again. Whatever was wrong before is wrong no more. Whether it was his shoulder, his confidence, the scheme, the lack of reps in preseason, or (as some were suggesting) him taking vacations with his lovely bride or not getting along with his coaches, he is back. With a vengeance. In all the ways. Which I'll be glad to list for you.
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Maye better than the rest of his legendary QB draft class.
I say this not just because Caleb Williams dramatically got carted off the field with a minor hammy pull that has kept him out for weeks or because 2024 ROTY Jayden Daniels doesn't know how to stop the clock in field goal range in overtime. But because the data proves it:
In fact, it's not even close:
In time, we may look back at the end of the Belichick Era and be grateful they won enough games to "only" have the 3rd overall pick. Because any earlier and they may have ended up with the wrong guy.
For that matter, Maye is playing better than anyone from any other QB class, too.
I'll give credit where it's due to DrakeMayeLover for the theory that Maye saps power from Josh Allen:
Which would seem to be borne out by the fact that since they faced each other in Buffalo:
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Maye is 48 of 71, for 643 yards, 7 TDs, 1 INT (a muff by one of his receivers) and passer ratings of 97.7 and 150.9.
Allen is 35 of 52, for 463 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, and passer ratings of 89.6 and 96.4.
And while Allen did run all over the Rams last night, the Pats held him to 5 yards on 4 carries, while Maye has 15 carries for 79 yards, 5.3 YPC on his own.
But Maye has outplayed more than just Allen.
He's QB'd circles around the entire league.
Despite the injuries:
His deep passing is back to where it was last year:
Every graph is a Drake Maye graph:
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And his team is responding.
From the bottom of the wide receiver depth chart he's been relying on, to his All Pro veteran safety:
The national quarterbacking pundits agree.
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And finally, the film don't lie.
Even some of his rare throws that aren't successful make jaws hit floors:
So yes, the Maye we love and the rest of the world fears might have been missing for a few weeks. But he's back. All the way. New and improved, in fact. It’s frightening, turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Drake Maye arrives all the same. And now he's here once more.
I hope you enjoyed your September while it lasted. Buy a shirt: