Have defenses solved Drake Maye, Patriots offense?

New England Patriots

“It will require us to be — I would say, in my words — disciplined. Because patience sounds like a passive word to me.”

Drake Maye’s emergence as a legitimate MVP candidate in 2025 played the largest role in New England’s unexpected run to Super Bowl LX on Sunday.

​But, the 24-year-old QB has labored as of late — starting with New England’s playoff slate last season against some elite defenses.

In Maye’s last five games (postseason included), the Patriots QB has completed 60.8 percent of his passes (93-of-153) for 1,006 yards and seven touchdowns — but with seven interceptions and seven fumbles. ​

Some of that is a byproduct of some daunting defensive matchups, including two meetings with the Seahawks and bouts with the Chargers, Texans, and Broncos.

But, after routinely torching defenses for most of the 2025 campaign, has Maye hit a wall at this stage of his career — due to opposing teams and coaches figuring out a game plan for the dynamic signal-caller?

Speaking on Thursday at Gillette Stadium, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels acknowledged that it’s all but inevitable for even the most gifted quarterbacks to hit speed bumps in their development — especially when more game tape is made available to the opposition.

“I would say there was no film on him and our offense prior to Week 1 last year,” McDaniels acknowledged. “And so you go through the process of playing a season and 21 games or whatever the number was, and now there’s evidence of things he does, things he does in our offense, things we use him to do, how we use our players, et cetera.

“I think there’s a natural progression in this league because the coaches on the other teams, the players on the other teams are so talented. And when you have a year like Drake did last year, there’s going to be a reaction and a response to that.”

Even if teams might be a bit more prepared for Maye’s heaves down the field and his ability to gain yards on the ground, McDaniels stressed that the Patriots’ third-year QB still has the means to capitalize against matchups and move the ball down the field— as was the case for several drives against an elite Seattle defense in Week 1.

While McDaniels plans to augment the offensive game plan against the Steelers to both account for the loss of A.J. Brown and put Maye in the best position to bounce back from a rough season opener (three interceptions in the fourth quarter against Seattle), some of that also falls on Maye to make the right calls under pressure — with McDaniels harping on “patience and repetition.” ​

“I know nobody wants to talk about that but, [Maye] does a lot of good things and he’s gotten better and better and better since we’ve gotten to work together,” McDaniels said. “We want him to be aggressive and smart, and always at the same time. That’s not asking too much, that’s the reality of playing this position.

“You want to be aggressive when you get your chances. Some teams don’t give you many. Some teams don’t give you many at all. And then you’ve got to be smart with the football, because we know what our record has been when we don’t turn it over.”

Limiting turnovers has to be the priority for Maye and the Patriots, with New England holding a 10-0 record in the turnover battle since the start of the 2025 campaign.

For McDaniels, the key for Maye isn’t waiting things out as plays develop in front of him. Rather, it’s about knowing when to limit risk and opt for the more conservative, safer play when it presents itself.

Such was the case for a majority of New England’s Week 1 game against the Seahawks, with the Patriots controlling the clock in Seattle off of quick throws for short yardage and simple ground-and-pound runs — only for that plan to unravel once Maye started airing things out in the fourth quarter.

​”I think what we’re going to find out as we go through this season is, people will do different things. We’ll see different things. It will require us to be — I would say, in my words — disciplined. Because patience sounds like a passive word to me,” McDaniels noted. “I agree with some of those things, but I think discipline is more important because, ‘Yeah, great, be patient,’ but what if the first play of the game we have a chance to score a touchdown on a deep route? I want him to be disciplined and take the chance.”

​”I think that the fine line there is protecting it and doing the right thing when they take things away from us, and being really aggressive and not taking away one of his greatest attributes, which is to be able to do things down the field and be wonderful [at] throwing the ball,” McDaniels added. “So, I think you can do both. I think we’ll see a development from him as he sees how people play him now differently.”

A Week 2 home matchup against the Steelers may not make or break Maye and the 2026 Patriots’ season. But, there will be plenty of eyes on Maye as the talented QB looks to break out of his extended malaise.

“You always have got to be hardest on yourself,” Maye said Wednesday of his poor showing against the Seahawks. “I think that’s the way I grew up in my family. I always felt like being the hardest on yourself, you can always get back to having confidence, and battling that line of being hard on yourself but also having confidence in yourself.

“I think it’s been throughout my whole career of having games where you feel like you did not put out your best work, and even times when you win, there are times where you feel like, ‘Man, I wish we could have done this better,’ or, ‘We got lucky almost,’ in this league. So, just finding ways to battle that line and having the ultimate confidence in the guys around me, confidence in my ability and knowing that we can win games in this league.”

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.