{"id":167852,"date":"2025-09-25T09:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167852\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T09:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:57:08","slug":"where-patriots-qb-drake-maye-ranks-among-nfl-quarterbacks-after-week-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167852\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Patriots QB Drake Maye ranks among NFL quarterbacks after Week 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOXBORO \u2014 Progress has not always been linear for Drake Maye, but the future still looks bright for the young Patriots quarterback.<\/p>\n

It appears Maye is beginning to take a second-year leap this season while playing for a new head coach in Mike Vrabel, in a new system under offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and with improved pass-catchers and an upgraded offensive line.<\/p>\n

But Maye has also still played inconsistently through the first three weeks of the season as he\u2019s led the Patriots to a 1-2 record. Depending on what stat you\u2019re weighing, Maye has either already ascended into the upper echelon of quarterbacks or he\u2019s a young, turnover-prone passer only still flashing traits.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dive deeper into those numbers to find out where Maye really stands among NFL quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start extremely surface level. Maye is completing 72.6% of his passes for 785 yards with five touchdowns, two interceptions and a 101.3 passer rating. He ranks second in completion percentage, fifth in yards, 13th in yards per attempt, seventh in touchdowns, 13th-highest in interceptions and ninth in passer rating. That paints the picture of a top-10 quarterback in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Going more advanced, Maye ranks sixth in total EPA (expected points added), eighth in EPA\/play, fifth in completion percentage over expected, seventh in success rate and seventh in accuracy rate. Once again, it appears Maye ranks as one of the NFL\u2019s best quarterbacks and that he\u2019s already taken the requisite jump this season.<\/p>\n

Those stats don\u2019t account for the Patriots\u2019 opponents, however. All of the Patriots\u2019 first three opponents rank in the bottom seven in defensive passing DVOA (defense adjusted value over average). The Raiders, Dolphins and Steelers all rank in the bottom 11 of total DVOA, as well.<\/p>\n

Maye\u2019s DVOA this season ranks 14th. He ranks 15th in QBR, an ESPN stat that also adjusts for quality of opponent.<\/p>\n

Maye also already has three turnovers on the season. FTN has him charted with four turnover-worthy throws. PFF charted him with four turnover-worthy plays. He ranks 13th-highest in FTN\u2019s turnover-worthy throw rate, and he ranks 13th-highest in PFF\u2019s turnover-worthy play rate. He ranked 11th-highest in turnover-worthy throw rate in 2024 and third-highest in turnover-worthy play rate, so it\u2019s an ongoing issue that bears monitoring.<\/p>\n

Maye\u2019s averaging one actual turnover per game. In his career, he\u2019s averaging 1.19 turnovers per game, which ranks him fifth among active QBs with at least 10 games played. He ranks below Jameis Winston, Will Levis, Bailey Zappe and Sam Howell and just above Trevor Lawrence, Anthony Richardson, Joshua Dobbs, Joe Flacco and Sam Darnold.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurnovers in this league are such a big deal,\u201d Maye said Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that we can clean up. Holding onto the football, me holding on in the pocket and the running backs is something that I do think is fixable. It\u2019s something that you try to overemphasize, and usually when you overemphasize things, you fix it. Something throughout the week is just trying to do the extra little things to protect it, and me in the pocket, ensure there\u2019s two hands on it and just know when the play is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Week 3<\/a>, Maye had two turnovers, and both came at pivotal moments of the game. He was intercepted on third down in the red zone to finish the first half when a target into the end zone intended for Kayshon Boutte was tipped at the line and picked off. Both Maye and Vrabel both said Maye\u2019s pass should have been arced more<\/a>. He also fumbled midway through the fourth quarter while the score was tied 14-14 and the Patriots were driving for a go-ahead score at the Steelers\u2019 33-yard line. And those are the stories that raw data can\u2019t tell.<\/p>\n

For Maye, wins and losses are still the most important stat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning matters to me. That\u2019s the main goal. It\u2019s why I play this position, why I play this sport,\u201d Maye said. \u201cWith quarterback, the ultimate stat is wins. So, that\u2019s the biggest thing that I focus on. If that\u2019s throwing 10 touchdowns in a game or throwing one pass in a game, just trying to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maye is officially 4-11 as a starter, but he didn\u2019t finish two of those wins last season. So, in games that he started and finished, he\u2019s only 2-11 in his young career.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew England Patriots quarterbacks Drake Maye, left, and Joshua Dobbs during a team practice Wednesday. (Mark Stockwell\/Boston Herald)<\/p>\n

So far this season, Maye ranks 14th among 32 QBs in overall PFF grade and 12th in passing grade. He ranks 18th in The Ringer\u2019s QB rankings, formulated by Steven Ruiz, and FOX Sports\u2019 QB stock market, put together by Henry McKenna. He\u2019s 14th in The Athletic\u2019s QB stock report, assembled by Jeff Howe.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say, based on data, circumstances, context and supporting cast, that Maye is currently outside of the top 10 NFL QBs but firmly above the bottom third. He has the traits to land inside the top 10 by season\u2019s end, and he can take that full second-year leap if he can begin to limit his turnovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBORO \u2014 Progress has not always been linear for Drake Maye, but the future still looks bright for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[1827,64,63,5374,50715,42502,5384,1231,593,10028,9519,110121,5348,110119,110120,110118,110122,110124,110123,40469,85],"class_list":["post-167852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-2025-nfl-draft","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-drake-maye","tag-eliot-wolf","tag-mike-vrabel","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-nfl-news","tag-nfl-patriots","tag-patriots","tag-patriots-2025","tag-patriots-game","tag-patriots-news","tag-patriots-schedule","tag-patriots-stats","tag-pats","tag-robert-kraft","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}