There was talk about a shoulder injury. There was talk about a rift with head coach Mike Vrabel. There even were comparisons with Mac Jones.
And yet, when he left the field at Highmark Stadium on Sunday, all the speculation and exaggeration surrounding Drake Maye was suddenly a thing of the past. At least for one game, the New England Patriots’ third-year quarterback looked like the MVP candidate again that he was just last season.
Maye had just led his team to a 29-26 upset win over the previously-unbeaten
Buffalo Bills, and doing so in style. He was efficient as a passer, productive as a runner, and most importantly avoided the back-breaking mistakes that cost the Patriots in their previous losses to the Seahawks and Jaguars.
He looked like vintage Drake Maye.
“I think it’s relieving a little bit,” the 24-year-old said during his postgame press conference.
Entering 2026 off a Super Bowl berth and one of the best individual seasons in Patriots franchise history — a history, mind you, dominated by the greatest quarterback of all time — Maye and the team had high expectations. The first three games, however, tempered those expectations.
Maye looked insecure, made questionable decisions, and was one of the least effective QBs in the NFL. In those three games, two of them losses, the turned the ball over a league-worst seven times. But while he did add two more giveaways to his tally on Sunday in Orchard Park, his performance as a whole was much more in line with the pre-season expectation.
Not only did he go toe-to-toe with one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, Josh Allen, he statistically out-performed his Bills counterpart.
Maye looked particularly good during the Patriots’ game-winning drive in the late fourth quarter. Taking possession of the ball down five points with 4:27 left on the clock, he completed passes to Hunter Henry, Romeo Doubs and Efton Chism before again connecting with Chism on a 23-yard touchdown; he also added two more points on a subsequent conversion to Rhamondre Stevenson.
In total, Maye went 4-for-7 for 68 yards and a touchdown on the final possession.
“We definitely got to build off it,” he said after the game. “I’m just proud of the way the guys fought. Nobody blinked when we were over there on the sideline and they scored and went up 26-21. We just did what we do and just thankful for those guys stepping up. Everybody’s stepping up.”
For his head coach, Maye’s performance on Sunday did not come as a surprise even after his slow start to the season.
“He’s extremely prepared and focused and had a good week of practice for the most part,” Mike Vrabel said. “I thought that there was some protection. I thought he was decisive.”
There was a lot to feel good about for the Patriots coming out of Sunday’s game.
But despite playing his best football of the season in a hostile environment and without two of his top targets — A.J. Brown (IR), Mack Hollins (third-quarter calf injury) — Maye was not entirely happy with the performance on Sunday. Besides the two turnovers, he lamented missed opportunities to close out the game sooner than the late fourth quarter.
“We still have some work left out there. We left our defense in some bad positions. We got the ball back twice in that third quarter, where we got a chance to really put it on them,” he said.
“You’re 1-2, we come to this game and just earned a second win, 2-2. You can’t hang your hat. This is the league, and I know I have to play better and still left some stuff out there today. So, we have to build on it and know that this isn’t a point in the season where you can end the season on this. You have to get back and keep going.”
