Drake Maye put up MVP-caliber stats during the 2025 regular season, in only his second season as the New England Patriots' starting quarterback. So far in the 2026 AFC playoffs, however, the Patriots have gotten away with some shaky play from Maye.
The Patriots have been able to survive and advance in their home wild-card and divisional games, thanks in most part to the defense making big plays vs. Both the Chargers and Texans. But with slow starts and a pair of close games going into the fourth quarter, Maye has put them too much on upset alert.
New England, the No. 2 seed in the AFC, will be favored to win at No. 1 Denver in next Sunday's AFC championship game because Maye, instead of dueling fellow second-year breakout QB Bo Nix, will be dueling 2019 fourth-rounder Jarrett Stidham, a former Patriot. The Patriots' defense will be licking its chops again after ripping into Justin Herbert and C.J. Stroud.
Before taking the field vs. Houston in Gillette Stadium, Maye got a mandate from coach Mike Vrabel to better take care of the ball. Maye overcame an early interception and a lost fumble against the Chargers, as well as five sacks, with a late TD pass to seal a 16-3 victory.
Maye ended up with two more lost fumbles and an interception, along with taking five more sacks, in a 28-16 escape from the Texans. On the other side, Herbert was sacked six times and lost a fumble, while Stroud was sacked three times and threw four interceptions.
Maye did have 3 TD passes against the Texans to help the Patriots pull away again, but faces another tough playoff pass defense in Denver (No. 9 in the NFL) after seeing Los Angeles (No. 6) and Houston (No. 5).
But for Maye to win his first road playoff game and lead the Patriots to Super Bowl 60, he must raise his game again
MORE PATRIOTS-TEXANS NEWS:
- Patriots defense picks apart Texans to advance to AFC Championship
- C.J. Stroud's four first-half INTs doom Texans
- Where C.J. Stroud's disastrous day ranks among most turnovers in a playoff game
Drake Maye playoff stats for Patriots
- Passing attempts: 56
- Passing completions: 33
- Passing yards: 447
- Passing TDs: 4
- Interceptions: 2
- Passing YPA: 7.98
- Completion percentage: 58.9
- Passer rating: 93.4
- Rushing yards: 76
During the regular season, Maye's completion percentage (72.0), yards per attempt (8.9) and rating (113.5) were much better in his push for NFL MVP. The playoff sacks (10) are concerning with rookie left tackle Will Campbell struggling and Broncos' superstar edge rusher Nik Bonitto waiting for the matchup.
The good news is the Texans had 29 takeaways (No. 2 in AFC) and the Chargers had 23 takeaways (No. 4 in AFC), but the Broncos had only 14. The bad news is, the Broncos just got five from Josh Allen and the Bills, allowing them to steal a 33-30 overtime thriller.
Maye still needs to be a lot more careful with the ball in a much more hostile environment, despite having a big QB edge over counterpart Stidham. The Broncos will no doubt emphasize Stidham being careful with the ball and Maye needs to clean up his game, too, to not give the Broncos an opening to steal the game.
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Given his playoff inexperience and the raised level of competition, Maye's dropoff is natural and he can't expect to pick apart the Broncos, knowing how much pressure they can create and their coverage prowess with cornerback Pat Surtain II and others.
Maye is expected to outplay Stidham and put the Patriots in Super Bowl 60 and that means he can't afford more of the same mistakes and inefficiency.