The New England Patriots surprised the NFL by winning 14 regular-season games and getting all the way to the record 12th Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. But they lost the championship game in one-sided fashion to the Seattle Seahawks, and now the Patriots and 23-year-old quarterback Drake Maye face an offseason with plenty of work to do.
Maye will be better prepared this time around. In a significant development for the young quarterback, Maye will experience year-to-year consistency in the New England coaching staff for the first time. In his sophomore season, Maye worked with a new head coach in Mike Vrabel, a new offensive coordinator in Josh McDaniels and a new quarterbacks coach in Ashton Grant. All three return for 2026 after replacing Jerod Mayo, Alex Van Pelt and T.C. McCartney before the 2025 season.
A second year in the same offensive system, plus time to recover from a shoulder injury, which according to a Boston.com report affected the 23-year-old in the Super Bowl more than he publicly admitted, indicates that Maye will only improve on the performance that brought him within one vote of the NFL MVP award — and earned him a No. 4 spot in NFL.com’s season-end ranking of all NFL quarterbacks in 2025.
Patriots QB Gets Welcome Respect in This Week’s News
With the heartbreaking way his season ended, followed by NFL media and fans rubbing salt in his wounds, Maye could only have been encouraged, even thrilled, to see the news this week that a highly respected NFL analyst, Nick Shook of NFL.com, came out with his final ranking of all 63 quarterbacks who started at least one NFL game in the just-concluded season.
Maye came out ranked No. 4, despite having now made only 33 NFL starts after two seasons. In fact, of the top 10 quarterbacks in Shook’s ranking, all had at least five years of experience, most more than that, except for Maye and Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, who each had only two.
The No. 1-rated quarterback, in Shook’s estimation, was the Los Angeles Rams‘ Matthew Stafford, who has now played 17 seasons in the NFL. Second was Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen with eight years, and third, Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys, who is 10 years into his career.
Maye Put Up ‘Incredible Season’: Expert
Though Maye’s performance dropped off in the postseason, in the regular season he was so spectacular that he finished a close second to Stafford in MVP voting.
“Drake Maye nearly won NFL MVP but certainly didn’t look the part in the postseason. After producing an incredible season in only his second year, Maye looked like a sophomore starter in the playoffs, struggling to find the consistency that defined his campaign,” Shook wrote. “He made big plays in key spots, sure, but struggled with turnovers all the way through Super Bowl LX, a game in which his youth was painfully evident. Luckily, he’s only 23 and has plenty of learning experiences already under his belt.”
Maye himself said after the Super Bowl that losing the game was “tough,” but that he would use it as “fuel” to improve for next season.
Patriots QB Drake Maye Gets Major Boost Before 2026 NFL Season