Drake Maye Didn’t Win MVP. On Sunday Night, He Might Show Why He Should Have.
Drake Maye didn’t walk away with the MVP trophy on Thursday night. But come Sunday, under the bright lights of Super Bowl 60, he’s got a chance to show the football world exactly why he should’ve been the one holding that hardware. And it starts with the part of his game that’s been impossible to ignore all season: his legs.
Let’s not sugarcoat it-there were plenty of reasons to believe Maye was the most valuable player in the league this year. Start with the turnaround.
His team went from four wins last season to a staggering 17 this year. That’s not just improvement-that’s a full-blown transformation.
And yes, they won the AFC East, which wasn’t exactly murderers’ row this season, but still-it’s a division title and a ticket to the top seed.
Compare that to Matthew Stafford and the Rams. They improved too, going from 10-7 to 12-5.
But they still finished third in a much tougher NFC West. And while Stafford ultimately took home the MVP, the final stretch of the regular season painted a different picture.
In Week 17, with the Rams needing a win to keep pace with Seattle, Stafford threw three interceptions, one of which went back for six. Meanwhile, Maye was nearly perfect against the Jets-19-for-21, five touchdowns, and a QBR of 99.8, tied for the highest single-game mark since the stat was invented.
That performance should’ve been the knockout blow in the MVP race. It wasn’t.
Maye did all this in his first year with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, throwing to a cast of receivers that most fans couldn’t name without a roster in front of them. Stafford had Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. Maye had… well, let’s just say he made the most of what he had.
And when it came to crunch time-third and fourth downs-Maye was surgical. The Patriots faced 91 third-or-fourth-and-long situations.
Maye converted 43 of them. That’s 47%.
Stafford? He converted 29 of 69 (42%).
Not a massive gap, but in high-leverage situations, every percentage point matters.
Yes, Stafford threw for more yards and had more touchdown passes. But Maye had the better completion percentage, a higher passer rating, more yards per attempt, and a significantly better EPA (expected points added).
He also posted a CPOE (completion percentage over expected) of 9.1%, compared to Stafford’s 1.5%. That tells us Maye was hitting tight-window throws all season long.
Even if you wanted to argue this was a "Most Valuable Passer" award, the case for Stafford still felt shaky. Especially when you look at common opponents.
Both teams played the Ravens, Saints, Bucs, Titans, Falcons, and Panthers. The Patriots went 6-0.
The Rams dropped games to the Bucs and Falcons.
And then there’s the ground game-where the gap between these two quarterbacks turns into a canyon.
Stafford ran the ball 29 times this season. He gained one yard.
One. Some of that’s due to kneel-downs, sure, but the bottom line is that he was a complete non-factor as a runner.
Maye? He ran 103 times for 450 yards and four touchdowns.
He picked up 40 first downs with his legs-19 of those on third or fourth down. That’s not just mobility.
That’s a weapon.
So when you ask which player elevated his team more, the answer is as clear as it gets. One of them is playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday night. The other is watching from home-MVP trophy in hand, but season over.
Now, to be fair, Maye’s playoff run hasn’t been flawless. Far from it.
The Patriots’ path to the Super Bowl has been more grind than glide. Across three games, Maye has completed just 55.8% of his passes, thrown two picks, fumbled six times (losing three), and been sacked 15 times.
That’s a lot of wear and tear. But even when his arm hasn’t been at its sharpest, his legs have kept the Patriots alive.
Against the Chargers, he ran 10 times for 66 yards, including a 37-yard scramble just before halftime that set up a crucial field goal. Against Houston, the numbers weren’t flashy-four carries for 10 yards-but two were kneel-downs, and one was a clutch 8-yard conversion on third-and-7.
Then came the AFC Championship against Denver. Maye was a nightmare to contain.
He scored the game’s only touchdown on a designed run, iced the game with a naked bootleg, converted a third-and-15 with a 16-yard scramble, and extended the go-ahead drive with a 28-yard run on third-and-9. Those are back-breaking plays for a defense.
And now, he faces a Seattle defense that’s been excellent all season-but hasn’t really been tested by a quarterback like Maye.
The Seahawks rank 29th in yards per rush allowed to quarterbacks (5.0) and just 16th in EPA on scramble drills. They’ve allowed the most passing yards on extended plays this season-414-and have only faced one top-10 rushing quarterback all year: Baker Mayfield, back in Week 5. Mayfield’s Bucs dropped 38 points on them.
Maye’s scrambling isn’t always scripted. He admits that a lot of it is instinct.
“On film, it's tough to pinpoint, 'Hey, I can maybe use my legs this week,’” Maye said this week. “It's kind of something that just comes naturally. If I feel like there's a chance for me to make some yards, I'm going to go and try to make them.”
Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has done a masterful job this season tailoring the system to Maye’s strengths-and he’s not done yet.
“We haven't used all the things we used with him,” McDaniels said. “But having Thomas [Brown], [Jason Houghtaling], Todd [Downing], Tony [Dews], and these guys that had some mobile quarterbacks in their past and do some of those things has been helpful to us also. We've added a lot this year and I still think we're just scratching the surface on where this is going.”
That’s a scary thought for Seattle.
Drake Maye didn’t win MVP. But if he keeps doing what he’s been doing-making plays with his arm when he can and with his legs when he must-he might just leave Santa Clara with a different kind of hardware. And this one might be even sweeter.