Drake Maye is poised to be a phenom for the Patriots

The Patriots’ rookie is playing well beyond his years.

Unless you live in New England it’s been easy to overlook Drake Maye in his rookie season. The No. 3 quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft didn’t carry near the fanfare or hype as the two guys selected before him, nor did Maye come with the same level of profound (bordering unrealistic) expectations. However, as we approach 2025 it’s tough to be more bullish about many young quarterbacks in the league. Drake Maye is poised to be an absolute stud.

Maye almost led the Patriots to a victory over the Bills on Sunday, narrowly getting edged out 24-21. Maye categorically out-played Josh Allen, who is getting MVP nods — throwing for more yards, a better TD/INT ratio, and a better completion percentage, all while running for identical yards.

All this with a paltry supporting cast. The Patriots’ offensive line is still a work in progress, struggling both as pass rushers and blocking for Rhamondre Stevenson. Meanwhile the weapons Maye has at his disposal are horrific right now — needing several years to truly give him a decent host of weapons. Still Maye is able to not only lead the Patriots to narrow losses at quarterback, but is already taking a leadership role off the field, deflecting questions about the futures of head coach Jerrod Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt like a seasoned veteran.

What makes this profoundly interesting is that Maye was supposed to be the project. The quarterback who was going to need two or three years before he was ready to take over a franchise — and yet, Maye has endured serious adversity during his rookie season as well. Sacked 27 times in 10 games, a 3-12 team, an offense that really hasn’t been clicking in any phase. At no point has Maye thrown anyone under the bus or done anything but putting the future of the team on his shoulders.

The jury is still out on the 2024 class. Truth be told it’s still impossible to know who will shake out the best. Caleb Williams has been inconsistent, but brilliant when he’s been on. Jayden Daniels has been consistently very good, without many true high points. Meanwhile Maye has been a steady force on an unsteady team, and it wouldn’t be shocking if Maye follows in the footsteps of someone like Philip Rivers, always great, but often overlooked. In addition, we don’t really need to fight over the top quarterback of the 2024 NFL Draft — at least not yet.

That said, of the three top quarterbacks from that draft class it’s Maye who is displaying the most characteristics which indicate he could be a long-term force in the NFL. Daniels is flying right now with the Kliff Kingsbury offense, but we saw that from early-stage Kyler Murray as well. Williams is physically gifted, but at times has had questionable reactions to moments which could be worrisome for his leadership capabilities.

It obviously isn’t going to happen for the Patriots this year, who will once again have a Top 1- pick in 2025 — but this team can be safe in knowing the made the right pick at QB, and the sky is the limit.

Winner: Sam Darnold

We’re all still waiting for that moment where Darnold goes belly up and destroys his team, but it’s yet to really happen so far. Sure, there have been some down times — but it’s still been exceptionally good for the Vikings.

Darnold was dominant once again on Sunday, this time against really solid competition in Seattle. It’s feeling a little too familiar for the Vikings, another elite regular season which feels like it’s destined for disappointment in the playoffs. It might be too early to think like that, or perhaps it’s concern from past failures — but is Darnold really going to be able to do what Kirk Cousins couldn’t? We’ll see.

If anything this run is proving that Kevin O’Connell is the next generation of elite offensive playcallers in the NFL. He’s now proved that basically anyone can plug into his system and have success, not dissimilarly to Kyle Shanahan — and that’s fun to watch.

Loser: The Arizona Cardinals

You just lost your playoff hopes to the Carolina Panthers. Moreover, your star QB was outplayed by Bryce Young.

There was so much to be satisfied with when it comes to the 2024 Cardinals, but this is still a massive letdown. A hot start gave way to four losses in five games, culminating with the botch in Charlotte.

In the end the Arizona defense just couldn’t hold up, and the offense was unable to make headway. Too many key mistakes and missed plays by Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. opened up the door to allow Carolina to assert their will in overtime. Now they have months to think about it.

Winner: The Commanders

Washington is the feel-good team of 2024, and their win over the Eagles typified how far this team has come. Everything is firing on all cylinders for Dan Quinn’s team, who have quickly become a nightmare team in the NFC when it comes to the playoffs.

Seriously, who wants to see Jayden Daniels and Co. in the Wild Card round? This team runs a varied, but efficient offense — and a defense capable of stopping anyone on any given day.

Loser: Philadelphia Eagles

This is not how you want to go into the postseason. The Eagles look extremely vulnerable after losing to Washington, but beyond that they’ve been incredibly inconsistent in 2024. This is not the team who went on a Super Bowl run a few years back, or the ready to contest on every year.

Instead this team still has a lot of soul searching to do about what its next step will be, how its offense will function, and what the focus of the defense will be. If you have money on a deep Eagles playoff run, I might be looking to rescind your bet,