Patriots’ Drake Maye Keeps Reporters On Toes With Comments About MVP-Level Stats
A lot of players in New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye’s current position would be enjoying all of the MVP buzz that’s come with Maye’s 2025 season. The second-year pro has helped reinvigorate the Patriots franchise (with a 9-2 record to show for it), and his numbers are excellent. But when prompted on Wednesday to discuss his No. 1 NFL rank in passing yards and completion percentage, as well as his No. 2 passer rating and No. 4 rank in passing TDs, Maye displayed humility and logic with his response, and he kept all of the reporters in the room on their toes in doing so.
“Probably the reason I am (ranked highly in those categories) is we haven’t had a bye yet,” Maye said plainly, per MassLive’s Mark Daniels.
Touché.
Maye’s deflection of praise aside (he’s really good at doing that), this is still a top MVP candidate we’re looking at, and “inflated” stats due to a lack of a bye week doesn’t change much in that regard.
It’s not as if Maye needs to maintain a top one or top two rank in all of those categories to ultimately win the award. If the Patriots keep winning, and Maye more or less stays the course in terms of his accuracy and limiting turnovers, he’ll be at the very least in the running for MVP at season’s end.
What also gives Maye a psychological edge in the race for MVP is that he appears completely uninterested in winning the award, at least when compared with his desire to lead the Patriots on a playoff run and legitimately contend.
Obviously, MVP is likely in the back of Maye’s mind, and he’d prefer to win it than not win it if he’s in the running, but there’s something to be said about a player chasing accolades versus a player chasing team success. Ironically, accolades usually tend to find the latter player, while escaping the former.
More on the bye week theory: Maye’s top competitors in the MVP race, Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford, have indeed already had a bye. Maybe Maye’s onto something. Or maybe he’s just exercising some common sense.
Either way, Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor might end up sneaking in and stealing the award away from all of these QBs. For now, Maye’s onto Cincinnati.