Drake Maye and Josh McDaniels have quietly built something special in Foxborough - and the rest of the league is starting to take notice.
After the Patriots retooled their leadership this offseason, bringing in Mike Vrabel to replace Jerod Mayo as head coach, the return of McDaniels for his third stint as offensive coordinator didn’t make headlines - at least not at first. But now, with New England sitting at 12-3 and headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2021, it’s clear that the pairing of Maye and McDaniels has been a game-changer.
Let’s be clear: Maye was already showing flashes as a rookie under Alex Van Pelt. But this season, under McDaniels, he’s taken a massive leap - the kind that turns potential into production, and quarterbacks into MVP candidates. At just 23 years old, Maye has stepped into one of the NFL’s most demanding offensive systems and not only survived, but thrived.
McDaniels has long been known for running the Erhardt-Perkins offense - a scheme that puts the quarterback in the driver’s seat. It’s not a system that holds your hand.
It demands that the QB read coverages, make protection calls, and adjust at the line of scrimmage. It’s the kind of offense that helped build the Brady-era dynasty, and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Former Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer knows exactly what that learning curve looks like. Speaking on the Next Pats Podcast, Hoyer broke it down: “You’ve got to have the Mike calls on every single play for the run game and the pass game.
You have to adjust protection. You have to alert the plays to the proper read.”
In contrast to the West Coast offense - which is designed to simplify decisions and speed up play - McDaniels’ approach asks more of the quarterback. But when it clicks, it elevates the entire offense.
And with Maye, it’s clicking.
McDaniels recently joined Hoyer on the Quick Snap podcast and offered some insight into how Maye has embraced the challenge. He likened the process of learning his system to climbing a mountain - and Maye, he said, has been climbing fast.
“Just starting that process back in April when he got in here, we had a really good start together,” McDaniels said. “The communication aspect of it, the responsibility at the line of scrimmage, understanding what defenses are presenting and how does that impact what we’re doing...”
McDaniels didn’t sugarcoat the difficulty of the system. But he made it clear: if you put in the work, the payoff is worth it.
“For us, we’ve always looked at it as a little bit of a mountain, and you start climbing it, and as you’re going up, you learn how to do more things to help you get to the top,” he said. “When you get to the top and you’ve learned how to do all these things well, the view from the top is pretty good.”
That view includes command of protections, the ability to adjust out of bad run plays, and the poise to dissect disguised coverages - all things Maye is now doing at a high level.
And the numbers back it up. Through 15 games, Maye is leading the league in completion percentage at 70.9%, with 3,947 passing yards and 25 touchdowns.
He’s added four more scores on the ground. Those are MVP-caliber numbers - and more importantly, they reflect a quarterback who’s mastering both the mental and physical sides of the position.
“He’s pretty dang close [to the top of the mountain]. He really is.
It’s been amazing,” Hoyer said. “It was clear last year as a rookie, Drake was a very smart quarterback.
If he made a mistake, he corrected it almost instantaneously.”
Hoyer saw the early signs during training camp - the growing pains, yes, but also the steady progress. “There were some struggles, but you would see Drake taking those steps of alerting to the right play, getting to the right receiver in the progression,” he said.
And now, that growth is translating into wins - and playoff football.
“He’s taking the physical part, that we all knew he was supremely talented in, and he’s pairing it with that mental part,” Hoyer added. “That’s why he’s been an MVP candidate at only 23 years old.”
The Patriots will look to keep the momentum rolling next Sunday against the Jets. And with Maye playing like this - confident, composed, and in complete control of McDaniels’ offense - New England fans have every reason to believe the best is yet to come.