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Is Patriots’ Drake Maye about to become NFL’s best quarterback? This analyst makes the case appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The New England Patriots made a run all the way through a wonky AFC last season to the Super Bowl, where they were beaten by the Seattle Seahawks. Nobody expected such a strong season from New England in its first season under Mike Vrabel, but the team immediately became a contender under its former linebacker.
The roster improved from top to bottom last offseason, but the biggest reason for the Patriots’ meteoric rise was undoubtedly Drake Maye. In just his second season, the North Carolina product finished second in the NFL MVP voting, coming within just a few votes of beating Matthew Stafford for the league’s highest individual honor.
Now, Maye might be poised to take another leap in year three. Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr thinks Maye might be poised to become the best quarterback in football this fall.
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“This list is an exercise in many what-ifs, but what if Drake Maye ends up as the league’s consensus best quarterback in 2026? Last year was his second season in the NFL,” Orr wrote. “This year, the team has added A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs as weapons, plus Alijah Vera-Tucker and Caleb Lomu to protect him. It’s impossible for me to ascribe that much of New England’s success last year to its schedule and ignore the overwhelming additions made to a team that reached the Super Bowl. Maye was exceptional and had a completion percentage over expectation of 3% better than the next-best quarterback in the league. Again, a tougher slate of defenses may narrow that margin a bit, but not nearly enough to dispose of his progress from a year ago.”
There’s no question that the Patriots’ pass-catching group is better than it was a year ago with Brown and Doubs in the mix. Whether that is enough to catapult Maye to the top of the league is another question.
Regardless, the former No. 3 overall pick finished last season with 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing a league-leading 72% of his passes. If he can continue to build on those numbers and make them even better in 2026, there will be no denying his place as one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL.
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