How Drake Maye Led the Patriots to the Super Bowl in his Sophomore Season

Drake Maye getting to the Super Bowl in only his 2nd year is an outstanding feat that only 8 quarterbacks in history have accomplished. And while he may have not been able to pull through in the big game, his success is still significant. So how exactly did he do it?

Drake Maye was selected 3rd overall in the 2024 draft by the Patriots, however he wasn't declared the starter until later in the season. The Patriots instead chose to roll with Jacoby Brissett for the first 5 games. This decision proved to be very valuable as it allowed Maye to sit behind and learn from a veteran quarterback. Many rookie qbs fail to live up to expectations, mainly because they are rushed into the game week 1 and expected to win the Super Bowl from there. However, the Patriots taking it slow was the key to Maye's success. They finished the season 4-13, but the future was bright from there.

In the offseason, the Patriots brought in new head coach Mike Vrabel, along with some key free agent acquisitions such as Stefon Diggs. These new additions completely changed Drake Maye's game and turned him into a superstar. One area where he specifically thrived was the deep game.

This graph shows the EPA (Expected Points Added) and success rate for passes with 10+ air yards from the past quarter century. As you can see, Maye stands above all qb's on this list by a significant margin. This is even crazier to think of when you consider some of the names on this list such as Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, and more.

This all goes to show how much Drake Maye has surged in the qb race. Despite this, I still believe that the greatest reason for the Patriot's super bowl run was their schedule.

As you can see, the Patriots had the easiest regular season strength of schedule by a decent margin. Adding onto this, they played a Chargers team with an atrocious o-line in the wild card, followed by a CJ Stroud who threw 4 picks in the divisional round, and finally a backup quarterback in the championship game. Maye didn't even play exceptionally well in these games either and his Super Bowl performance did not stand out well. It seemed as if as soon as he played tough defenses such as the Texans, Broncos, and Seahawks, he crumbled. All this goes to say that Drake Maye has emerged as one of the best quarterbacks in the league however the Patriots' Super Bowl appearance was more due to their defense and quite frankly cakewalk of a schedule.