Patriots’ Drake Maye Just Joined Peyton Manning On Two-Man List
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye has emerged as the front-runner for NFL MVP through 11 games of his second season. The Patriots’ 9-2 record is what matters most to Maye, but his individual production at the sport’s most pivotal position has become impossible to ignore, especially given Maye’s age (23).
Maye has been dynamite with his accuracy as a passer in 2025, but the most impressive thing about this accuracy is that he’s doing it while throwing plenty of deep balls. This isn’t a guy just cashing in on screen passes week-to-week. Maye is presiding over the NFL’s most explosive offense because he is always a threat to go deep, and often does.
When asked to describe his fearlessness to throw the deep ball, Maye has often said that “shooters shoot,” and that’s a perfect way to describe the young QB’s outlook. He has full confidence in his ability to connect on big throws, so why hesitate?
It sounds simple enough, but when you look at the history of the NFL, it’s rare to have a QB possessing elite accuracy, the arm strength to throw bombs, and the mental makeup to air it out without second-guessing, all wrapped up into one player.
Fans might point to Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen as two obvious, current examples, and touché, but neither Mahomes nor Allen has achieved the degree of accuracy-deep ball combo that Maye is pulling off in 2025, as ESPN’s Mike Reiss pointed out on Sunday.
“Maye has a 71.9% completion percentage and is averaging 8.6 air yards per attempt this season,” Reiss wrote. “Since ESPN began tracking air yards in 2006, Maye is just the second player to complete 70% of his passes and average 8.5 air yards per attempt through his team’s first 11 games (minimum 200 pass attempts) — joining Peyton Manning in 2009.”
Peyton Manning … not bad company to keep in the record books if you are an NFL QB.