The New England Patriots put together one of the most important regular-season wins in recent memory when they handed the Buffalo Bills a 29-26 defeat in Week 4. After a slow 1-2 start to the year, picking up a divisional win over the first-place Bills is huge for the Pats as they attempt to prove that last season’s Super Bowl run wasn’t a fluke.
Even with this win, it’s been a bumpy start to the year for New England, with rumors of tension between Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel recently bubbling to the surface. If there’s anyone who will have a pulse on that situation, it’s NFL insider Field Yates, and in an exclusive interview with Heavy on Patriots, Yates opened on the team’s start to the 2026 campaign, while also discussing his unique new partnership with Red Baron.
Do the Patriots Have a Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel Problem?
The first year of the Maye/Vrabel pairing was a success, as Maye transformed into an MVP candidate and Vrabel led the team to the Super Bowl. An ugly Week 3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, though, started tearing everything apart at the seams. Rumors have spread suggesting that Maye and Vrabel are not on the same page, even though both guys publicly shot them down. When asked about the subject, Yates revealed he’s heard nothing to indicate these rumors are true.
“I haven’t heard anything to the sort or to the effect,” Yates admitted to Heavy on Patriots. Week 4 and what the Patriots showed probably is the most important thing, and the relationship or the dynamic that Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye have was pretty apparent both during and after that game. There was some real emotion shown between those two, and the Patriots are in good hands if Drake Maye can play close to what he was in Week 4 going forward.”
Winning cures all in the world of sports, and the Patriots silenced all this chatter by defeating the Bills. Maye, of course, played a big part in this win, as he completed 22 of his 37 pass attempts for 269 yards and three touchdowns, while also rushing for 54 yards on eight carries. Sure, he committed a pair of turnovers, but at the end of the day, it was an encouraging performance, and Yates is expecting to see more outings like this from Maye moving forward.
“Maye, for whatever reason, got in his own head from basically, I’d say, the fourth quarter of Week 1 against Seattle to where the Patriots were until that Buffalo game kicked off,” Yates opined. “It just wasn’t good enough, flat-out. But I think Drake Maye showed way too much last year, not just in terms of physical ability, but also natural poise, leadership, confidence, that it was just a matter of time before he snapped that streak that he was in, that funk that he was in.”
At 2-2 entering Week 5, nobody really knows what sort of team New England is. That’s certainly how Yates felt when asked about the Pats’ ceiling, but he believes if they play as they did in Week 4, they are a playoff-caliber group. “They can play with anybody,” he said. They have a playoff-ready defense and an offense that, if Drake Maye plays closer to expectation, can be playoff level with A.J. Brown back … I think they’re one of the seven best teams in the AFC.”
Field Yates Discusses New Partnership With Red Baron
While Yates keeps his ear to the ground in NFL circles, he’s also renowned for being one of the brightest minds in the world of fantasy football. In an effort to help fantasy football managers around the world win their respective leagues, Yates is teaming up with Red Baron for their new “Field Access” campaign, which will see him provide fantasy football advice to a handful of managers through exclusive strategy sessions.
“It’s a cool thing we’re doing here. It’s called ‘Field Access,'” Yates shared. “What you can win is five-minute weekly sessions, Weeks 9 through 14, with me. A select number of people will do so, and we’re gonna spend five minutes a week going through waiver wire pickups, trades, lineup decisions, whatever it might be.”
The timing of Yates’ calls is quite important, as they will take place during the final playoff push in the fantasy football regular season. The five-minute timeframe for these calls is also notable, as that’s how long it takes to cook Red Baron’s Crunch Time microwavable pizzas. Even if you don’t win the exclusive strategy sessions with Yates, he revealed there’s still a way for fans to get in on the action.
“Keep in mind that if you’re not one of the people that ends up winning the five-minute weekly sessions, you could be one of the people that receives a pizza. 10,000 of those are going out the door,” Yates revealed.
Fans who are interested in taking part in the contest can head over to redbaron.com/fieldaccess and enter for their chance to win some Red Baron pizza and exclusive fantasy football strategy sessions with Yates that could wind up being the difference between winning and losing your respective leagues.
Exclusive: NFL Insider Field Yates Weighs in on Patriots’ Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel Rumors