FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Drake Maye’s first memory of the deep ball wasn’t as a quarterback. It was as a receiver. He’s the youngest of four brothers and anyone who has older siblings knows how the hierarchy works.
“They wouldn’t let me play quarterback,” he said.
Their mistake.
Finally, when they gave him the ball, Drake connected on his first-ever long ball with his brother Luke, the fastest sibling, at their house in Huntersville, North Carolina. And so it began. By high school, Maye was the QB1 at Myers Park in Charlotte.
His downfield throws would take the air out of the stadium.
“I just remember throwing deep balls and the crowd would gasp,” Maye said. “Just hearing that gasp was pretty cool. … Hearing the crowd get into it, I think you always get excited.”
There might not be another quarterback in the NFL making more people gasp this year than Maye. Midway through his second year with the Patriots, Maye has 32 pass plays of 20-plus yards, tied for third-most in the NFL. He has 19 completions of 20-plus air yards, tied for second-most in the NFL.
His completion percentage over expected (CPOE) is an absurd 9.6, first in the NFL among starting quarterbacks. That shouldn’t be happening with the number of deep throws he’s attempting. Despite the high attempt rate, Maye leads the NFL with a 74.1 completion percentage.
That’s right: One of the NFL’s most aggressive passers is also the league’s most efficient.
And he’s converting those opportunities in ways that are changing the game in New England’s favor. He leads the league in total expected points added: 72.4. That’s more than MVP QBs Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, and the hottest QBs like Jordan Love and Daniel Jones.
It’s why Maye is a clear-cut candidate for the 2025 NFL MVP award.
One swing of Maye’s arm and the Patriots can eat up half the field. That electricity, at just 23 years old, makes him the envy of the league.
Patriots star Drake Maye has been going deep ever since his older brothers let him start playing quarterback. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Getty Images)
He is entirely unafraid of pushing the ball downfield, even if he’s targeting receivers without household names: Kayshon Boutte, Mack Hollins and DeMario Douglas. The one receiver who is a household name, Stefon Diggs, hasn’t been the beneficiary of the long ball. Maye made sure I knew that. When I asked Diggs in the locker room for his thoughts on Maye’s downfield throwing, the QB interrupted as he walked by.
“He wouldn’t know. He hasn’t caught one yet,” Maye said with a smirk.
“Exactly, I’ll let you know when I catch one,” Diggs said as he headed out to practice.
Sports journalists often talk about moxie. But it’s hard to pinpoint what it is — what it looks like. Well, it looks like that interaction above.
It’s only a matter of time before Diggs, a four-time Pro Bowler, does catch one of Maye’s bombs. The biggest bomb beneficiary so far has been third-year pro Boutte, who leads the team in receiving touchdowns (5). He seems to be Maye’s favorite downfield target.
“You just got to know how to get open and how to catch the balls,” Boutte told me when asked for the fine details of how they convert deep passes.
Is it really that simple? Because Maye has made it look that easy.
*Narrator’s voice* It’s not.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Boutte, in particular, has unique “long speed.” He is “strong.” He’s competitive in contested-catch situations and can “track the ball very well.” That’s what makes Boutte, a sixth-round pick in 2023, so dangerous in 2025.
For the quarterback, the deep ball often starts with a play call that’s designed to go downfield. Now, Maye has found downfield options by going off-script, but more often, it’s by design. He admits there’s a different energy in the huddle when he delivers a call where the deep ball is a high likelihood.
“The offensive line gets excited,” Maye said. “I think they know in the huddle, based on the call, some of the same words are showing up for deep shots.”
Center Garrett Bradbury confirmed as much. He knows when he’ll have to hold the rusher just a split second longer to help Maye find his receiver downfield. And while that means more work for the team’s pass protectors, it’s worth it.
“He’s playing lights out. His head’s not getting too big. He’s the same guy as when I first met him,” Bradbury told me.
Next comes the pre-snap recognition from Maye, who is looking for one-on-one coverage on the perimeter receiver who’s headed downfield. There was a perfect example of that during the team’s Week 8 win over the Cleveland Browns. Because McDaniels was mic’d up for the game, we saw him recognize the opportunity in real-time alongside the quarterback.
The Patriots wanted a one-on-one matchup for Boutte. They wanted the Cleveland cornerback to step off the line and give Boutte a cushion. And they wanted the corner to move to the middle of the field before the snap to give Boutte leverage and built-in separation down the sideline.
Check. Check. Check.
But even after seeing everything fall perfectly into place, not every quarterback will let the football fly.
“So many times you see on film people have stuff schemed up, and they don’t always take advantage of it,” backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs told me. “We’d had [the Boutte touchdown] dibuat selama beberapa minggu, tapi akhirnya kami mendapatkan tampilan yang tepat, dan — bang — kami berhasil.”
Maye memercayai pembacaan pra-snap dan pelatihannya. Dia memercayai perlindungannya — bahkan selama pertandingan ketika keunggulan Browns, Myles Garrett, mencetak lima karung yang memecahkan rekor waralaba. Maye mempercayai receivernya untuk bermain sepak bola. Itulah yang dilakukan Boutte untuk touchdown sejauh 39 yard.
“Menurut saya [the long ball] dimulai dengan kepercayaan, hanya mampu menempatkannya pada posisi di mana orang-orang dapat bermain,” kata pelatih Mike Vrabel. “Pertama: kepercayaan. Lalu lokasinya.”
Akurasi Maye dalam setiap jenis lemparan sangat luar biasa.
“Dia memberi kita kesempatan,” kata Hollins.
Bagus sekali.
Patriots 2025 memiliki tingkat kepercayaan pada quarterback mereka yang belum pernah dilihat oleh organisasi sejak Anda tahu siapa: Tom Brady. Bahan rahasia kesuksesan ofensif New England bukan hanya kekuatan elit yang dimiliki Maye. Ini bukan hanya proses cepat Maye. Atau sifat atletisnya yang luar biasa. Gabungan dari hal-hal tersebut (dan lebih banyak lagi) telah menciptakan kepercayaan pada pelanggaran tersebut. Itulah yang membuat New England beroperasi secara agresif — dan itulah yang membuat pertahanan mereka kewalahan (sebelum mencoba dan gagal mengejar Boutte).
“Saya terus mengatakan kepada mereka, 'Saya akan memberi Anda kesempatan untuk bermain,'” kata Maye tentang penangkap umpannya. “Mereka terus bermain-main dan membangun kepercayaan setiap minggunya. Jadi kepercayaan itu tidak akan berubah.”
Tentu saja bisa. Pemain menjadi panas. Pemain menjadi dingin, terutama ketika tim bijaksana dalam berkomitmen terhadap bola dalam. Maye bisa melihat lebih banyak cakupan shell — perlakuan defensif yang didapat Allen dan Mahomes ketika passing bawah mereka tidak terkendali. Cara untuk mengalahkan cakupan shell adalah dengan tetap bersabar dan menerima checkdown. Hal ini akan mempercepat titik pertumbuhan baru bagi Maye.
Hollins percaya pada Maye, apa pun situasinya.
“Ini adalah pelanggaran yang sangat sulit dipelajari di posisi mana pun, apalagi quarterback, yang harus mengetahui semuanya,” kata Hollins kepada saya. “Tetapi ketika dia terus belajar, terus belajar, terus belajar, dia menjadi lebih baik dan lebih percaya diri.”
Jika semua itu sesuai, Maye akan terus melihat dan mengambil gambar yang dalam. Dan jika demikian, Patriots, salah satu kejutan terbesar di musim 2025, bisa saja lolos ke babak playoff.
Sebelum bergabung dengan FOX Sports sebagai reporter dan kolumnis NFL, Henry McKenna menghabiskan tujuh tahun meliput Patriots untuk USA TODAY Sports Media Group dan Boston Globe Media. Ikuti dia di Twitter di @henrycmckenna.
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