After the 2024 draft, if you could have laid money down on which quarterback of the trio of Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye would win the NFL MVP first, you probably would have gotten some
long odds on Maye.
Of the three, he was considered the biggest “project” going into the NFL. Those odds, if anything, seemed longer after the Washington Commanders invested heavily in their team going into the 2024 season and Daniels was able to take his team to the NFC Title game, losing to the eventual champ Philadelphia Eagles. Meanwhile, the Patriots were still suffering from the malaise at the end of the Bill Belichick era as first-year coach Jerod Mayo struggled to find any traction, and while Maye had showed some promise he ended his season on the sidelines as the Patriots tried — and failed — to get the number one overall pick for 2025.
So the deck seemed stacked for Maye to have an ascendent season. Mayo was out right after that last game, and Maye didn’t really provide much comment to reporters when the season concluded. In came Mike Vrabel as the head coach and Josh McDaniels as the offensive coordinator. The Patriots made moves in the offseason, but staring at being in the same division as the Buffalo Bills and 2024 MVP Josh Allen, the vibe for the team going into 2025 was hoping to use an easier schedule to finish above .500 and build toward having a consistent team for the first time in years.
After a start that seemed to be what people were expecting, Maye had a signature game against Allen and the Bills in front of a national audience in Buffalo. It was enough to where Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth were calling for respect to be given to Maye and the offense, and included a game-winning field goal drive. That game was one of a ten-game winning streak for New England, and during that stretch highlight after highlight would pop on social media.
Maye and the Patriots stumbled against the Bills after the bye and were again on Sunday Night Football, this time against Baltimore. By this point talk had gotten loud of Maye being the NFL MVP, but his loss to Buffalo seemingly ceded the title to the Rams’ Matthew Stafford. That week, though, things seemingly flipped back in Maye’s favor. First off, the other seeming contender in Matthew Stafford lost a close game to Seattle on Thursday Night and ceded control of the division to the Seahawks. Then on Sunday, Maye delivered yet another signature performance that included an 11-point fourth-quarter comeback, 380 yards in the air, two touchdowns, and a game-clinching run after the defense helped give the team a chance.
Maye followed that up this past weekend with a foot-on-the-throat approach that showed he and the Patriots may have found another gear.
Matthew Stafford followed by losing to the Atlanta Falcons on the road and now all of a sudden, Drake Maye is the betting favorite to win the MVP. He would be the first Tar Heel alum to do so since Lawrence Taylor in 1986.
All of this is bittersweet for UNC fans. Earlier in the week on 98.5 The Sports Hub, a host during drive time was recounting this historic rise and mused “he’s obviously so talented you look at those years at North Carolina and wonder how they didn’t win more.” Fans likely felt that disturbance in the force and screamed “MACK BROWN, PHIL LONGO, AND CHIP LINDSEY!” Those that watched those amazing two years of Maye under center could see the talent, the skill and know that the combination of inept coaching on defense and some lack of support on offense really kept Maye from achieving the heights he should have.
Still, it’s a source of pride for UNC fans that had to hear in the lead-up to the draft about how Maye was the weakest of the top three. Those that watched knew, and there’s a delicious irony that the former Patriots and current UNC coach likely wouldn’t have taken Maye for that team — and now Maye is on the doorstep of his first major NFL award and leading the Patriots back to the top tier of the NFL.
