Five things that have made Patriots QB Drake Maye an MVP favorite

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye has made plenty of highlight-reel plays this season to become the favorite to win the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award.

But it’s one of the simplest plays in the playbook that excites the second-year player more than any other:

Maye ensures three players are behind him, approaches the line of scrimmage, sets under center Garrett Bradbury, calls for the snap and then backtracks a step before planting his left knee in the ground.

«Getting into victory formation … That’s what I’m proud of the most,» he said. «There are probably some plays in there, some throws I made, but I think as a whole, it’s just working hard to win in this league.»

Maye hardly had practice at the play as a rookie in 2024, when the Patriots won four games. But he already has called the play 11 times this season for minus-13 yards, one of the rare occasions in football where moving backward means a team is surging ahead.

Denver Broncos, and hopes to be calling the victory formation again Thursday when they host the 2-7 New York Jets (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video).

This season, Maye ranks in the top three in completion percentage (71.7%), passing touchdowns (19) and passing yards (2,555).

He has had five games with a 75% completion rate and at least two touchdown passes, which ties for the fourth most in a season in NFL history. Only Tom Brady (2007), Matt Ryan (2016) and Jared Goff (2024) have more, and Brady and Ryan earned MVP honors in those respective seasons.

All of that has been made possible thanks to an evolving leadership role, a growing mastery of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ offense, a willingness to spread the ball around featuring pinpoint deep passes, and mobility reminiscent of last year’s MVP, Josh Allen.

«I’ve been super impressed,» veteran wide receiver and go-to target Stefon Diggs said earlier this month. «I’m riding with Drake Maye.»

Here are the five keys to Maye’s MVP-like season.

Jacoby Brissett — until the team turned to Maye in Week 6.

This season, however, Maye has been more assertive taking the reins as the leader of the offense. In the offseason, he hosted a gathering for his pass catchers in his native North Carolina. In Week 6, he hosted his offensive linemen for a hibachi dinner at his home, where his wife, Ann Michael, baked an oatmeal apple cinnamon crisp that had his blockers buzzing.

Tight end Austin Hooper has noticed the difference in the Year 2 version of Maye on and off the field.

«Seeing where he’s at now, the command of the huddle, seeing him being willing to say subtle things like, ‘If you want the ball, this is what I expect’ — but in a very nice Drake way,» Hooper said. «… You see the comfortability coming off the rookie year — shoulders a little lower, has a little more swag to him, confidence.»

Veteran quarterback Joshua Dobbs spends a lot of time with Maye, with their lockers positioned next to each other, and has also noticed.

«Authentic and intentional are the two words I’d say that describe [Maye’s] leadership,» Dobbs said. «He’s himself every day. He hangs out with everyone … but he’s also very intentional with what he wants to get done and how he wants to push a certain person to achieve something on the field.»

Dobbs and Maye also sit together in the quarterbacks room, where McDaniels has shared his past history and experience coaching legendary Patriots quarterback Brady to help push Maye.

«Josh does a good job saying, ‘This is how I’ve seen it done at a high level.’ And [Maye] soaks it in,» Dobbs said. «And he’s able to do not exactly how Josh tells him to do it, but he puts his own spin and personality on it.»

Starting right tackle Morgan Moses, who at 34 is the oldest player on the Patriots’ roster, called Maye «magical.»

«The detail he plays with, and the professionalism he brings every day, it makes everybody better around him [and] commands greatness out of the offense. He does it in his own way. You’re able to feed off him.»

Like all good leaders do, Maye practices what he preaches. He has worked to reduce turnovers, one of the top parts of the team identity coach Mike Vrabel has preached.

In 13 games last season, Maye threw 10 interceptions. In 10 games this year, he has had five.

Dobbs pointed to the Patriots’ Week 3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers as the turning point to better ball security — a game in which the team totaled five turnovers including a Maye interception and lost fumble.

«He’s done a good job, especially after that moment, of being intentional, taking care of the ball, being good in the pocket, working on those habits in practice. And it’s shown,» Dobbs said. «As long as we keep doing that, we’ll always have a chance any week.»

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Spreading the ball around with accuracy

The Patriots have had six different players lead the team in catches and receiving yards in a game, something no other club has done this season through Week 10. Coaches and players say that’s a good indicator of Maye often taking what is there.

«He has an uncanny ability to see the coverage post-snap,» New England quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant said. «We try to give him clues on what to look at pre-snap, and what to key post-snap, and if he sees a certain look too, he knows what his answers are and what to get back to. It’s a quarterback taking his coaching, and the work he’s put in, and realizing it on Sunday.»

Maye had completed 66% of his passes in 2022 at North Carolina, which dipped to 63.3% in his final collegiate season. In his 2024 rookie NFL campaign, he finished at 66.6%, so his current mark of 71.7% would be a new benchmark for him. Grant cited his «consistent stroke» and work with a private quarterback coach to home in on technique.

«You pride yourself on trying to be accurate with the football — trying to hit a guy in a spot, on the shoulder, for yards after the catch,» Maye said, deflecting praise to his teammates. «Credit to them, they’re making great plays and great plays on the ball, and credit to the guys up front. They’ve been blocking their butts off.»

Dobbs pinpointed the second half of the Week 5 win against the Buffalo Bills as a breakthrough for better efficiency. Maye was 9-of-16 for 89 yards in the first half of that game. He was 13-of-14 for 184 yards in the second half.

«That was the moment you saw it. … I thought playing on the road, hard environment, you’re on the silent count and their defense likes to spin the coverage and try to confuse you — and it’s ‘Let me get the ball out, find the first open guy, simple football.’ He hooped in the second half,» Dobbs said. «Then he really has propelled himself since then. That’s something that comes with time.»

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Tommy DeVito, who joined the Patriots in late August after being waived by the New York Giants.

«Just how much control he has over this offense in his first year; I’ve been here a couple months and there are so many moving parts to this offense that the outside eye doesn’t see. The run game, everything flows through Drake. Every single thing. Every check. Every alert. Whether it’s built in or not, he gets to the answer,» DeVito said. «That’s been the most impressive thing — he’s not overwhelmed and still able to play at a high speed.»

Maye’s willingness to learn and improve has been tone-setting, according to Grant. He highlighted a practice leading into the team’s Week 9 win against the Atlanta Falcons as an example.

The Patriots had been working on an offensive concept, and Maye didn’t make the correct decision on one play that led to a defender getting his hand on the football. But when the team came back to the same play later in practice, Maye aced it, and the result was an explosive play.

«It’s been great, because he’s excited to learn and continue to improve. He has the right mindset of attacking each and every day. He’s thirsty to learn,» Grant said, noting footwork, pocket maneuvering and trusting protection as areas in which Maye has been all «about owning the details.»

Those details have been complemented by McDaniels’ unwavering belief in him, which came to the forefront after a surprising season-opening loss to the Las Vegas Raiders when Maye wasn’t as decisive as he has since been over the team’s current seven-game win streak.

The hot topic on local sports radio in the aftermath was if Maye had «too much on his plate,» to which McDaniels calmly retorted: «We have to understand it’s his first game in our system. The view of it is a long-term vision of where this guy is going to be. He’s the right guy.»

McDaniels’ guidance has sparked Maye’s rise to MVP consideration.

«He’s done it his whole life, and I feel like he was put on this Earth to be an offensive coordinator,» Maye said after a Week 8 win against the Cleveland Browns in which adjustments from McDaniels were a driving factor in turning a 9-7 game at halftime into a 32-13 rout. «It’s fun to be in the headset with him.»

Maye’s mastery has been especially apparent against the blitz. Through Week 10, he leads the NFL in QBR (94) when blitzed, according to ESPN Research. He also has a 69% completion rate while averaging 9.5 yards per attempt, both ranking him third in the NFL against the blitz.

In addition, Maye has thrown nine touchdown passes and only one interception against the blitz. The only players with more touchdown passes against the blitz are Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (18) and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (11). Last season against the blitz, Maye had a QBR of 48 and completed 54% of his passes with five touchdowns and five interceptions.

«He’s poised in the pocket, athletic and has great touch,» Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said.

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Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert.

If anything, at times Maye has trusted his legs too much, sometimes kicking himself for bailing out of passing plays early. But teammates believe he’s being too hard on himself.

«He’s not forcing it,» Dobbs said. «That’s the big thing you see sometimes — guys can try to force it, especially if the game has a little lull. Like the Cleveland game [Week 8], we did fine in the first half, playing good defense. But just staying true to the reads and progressions, and the way it naturally happens — he had the big [28-yard] run in the third quarter. And then the next play you catch them in man again and throw a [39-yard] touchdown. That’s just good football.»

Players ribbed Maye for how the 28-yard scramble ended with a less-than-artful slide, with Vrabel joking that he might have to send the quarterback to baseball’s spring training to learn better sliding skills.

In a Week 6 win at Tennessee, Maye failed to get down on a third-down scramble and paid a heavy price — a crunching hit that led to his head hitting the ground with a thud, with the independent spotter pulling him for a concussion check. Maye missed three plays, with Dobbs delivering a clutch third-down conversion, before returning to the game.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Maye is built to take some hits, but it’s the accumulation of them over the course of the season that coaches worry could wear him down.

«The No. 4 thing on our pillars and what we’re trying to build, our team identity, is making great decisions,» Grant said.

«For Drake Maye, being healthy is making a great decision for the football team. We continuously talk to him about the balance between his aggressiveness and competitiveness — and putting us in the best position to win games.»

Dobbs, who has made a career out of being a dependable backup for seven franchises, echoed the need for Maye to be out there.

«You look around the league, and teams that are in it, playing well, with good records, their guy is out there,» Dobbs said. «Not to say no one else can go in there and execute. But that’s the nature of the league — the person that gets the most [practice] reps, you need him out there. He’s always protected himself.»

When Maye has taken big hits or made an uncharacteristic mistake, teammates have noted his response and growth-based mindset. They cite it as another key ingredient in his rise, which has in turn elevated the offense.

«Things aren’t always going to be perfect. You have to roll with the punches. It’s a hard job, playing quarterback,» Diggs said. «To rally, stay poised, with that quarterback mindset — I tell him, ‘We’ve got your back — right or wrong — we don’t care what you do. Keep making plays. Keep being smart.'»

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Mack Hollins in Sunday’s win against the Buccaneers.

Drake Maye connects for 54 yards on the deep ball!

NEvsTB on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/WoRu3WDNlA

— NFL (@NFL) November 9, 2025

Plays like that contributed to Maye entering Week 11 completing 58% of his throws 20-plus yards downfield, the second-best mark in the NFL behind the Seattle Seahawks’ Sam Darnold (72%).

«It starts with the guys up front, trusting those guys. I think they know in the huddle, based on the call, some of the same words are showing up for deep shots and the offensive line gets excited. So it makes them want to block, makes them want to hold in,» Maye said.

«And then those guys down the field, they’re just worried about the details and knowing that one-on-one is open. I keep on telling them I’m going to give you a chance to go make a play. They keep on making plays and building trust every week.»

Patience and discipline have been critical on those deep shots.

«[Maye] does a really good job taking what’s there throughout the game and not forcing the deep ball. So that way when it is there, he hits it. It’s a splash play and everything is very clean. He throws a very clean ball,» DeVito said. «He does a good job manipulating defenders and giving guys a chance. And guys on the outside have made a lot of great plays.»

Grant added «time on task» as a factor in the deep-ball passing proficiency. He said Maye’s first choice when given the option is to practice deep shots, and it’s a regular part of his routine to stay after practice and work on them with pass catchers tracking the ball over their shoulders.

Combine that with his processing skills and the results have been potent.

«Every quarterback, pre-snap, has a read on what they’re trying to get done,» Grant said. «… Some of the deep balls, it’s the first read in the progression. Sometimes it’s late in the progression; sometimes it’s out of structure. He’s done a good job staying true to his rules, and when those opportunities have presented themselves, he’s pressed go on it.»