Does Drake Maye’s development make the 2024 season a success for the Patriots?
The Patriots sit at 3-11 firmly in last place in the AFC East. Sometimes records can be deceiving but that certainly isn’t the case for this Patriots team. The story of the 2024 Patriots has been one of dysfunction and a lot of bad football. Patriots fans have become accustomed to an undisciplined team that has costly penalties time and again. A porous defense that gets gashed on a weekly basis, and a lackluster offense that’s only bright spot has been the rookie quarterback Drake Maye.
New England went into the season with a new head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and a rookie quarterback. Of the 4 the only one who’s even remotely lived up to expectations and even exceeded them at times is their rookie quarterback Drake Maye. Maye finds himself in a very undesirable position as one of the best players on the team already because of the giant holes all around the Patriots roster. Mayo and his defensive coordinator Demarcus Covington have been a massive disappointment in year one.
Mayo was supposed to be a defensive minded head coach and Covington was lauded as an innovator who would keep the Patriots playing at the high level fans have become accustomed too. However the season defensively has been a disaster for New England‘s new coaches. Bad penalties, missed tackles, blown coverages you name it the Patriots defense is unfortunately doing it.
On the offensive side of the ball Alex Van Pelt has probably been the best of the 3 new coaches but it’s not exactly a high bar. AVP has shown signs of improvement as the season goes on and his relationship with Drake Maye is a positive as Maye seems to be improving on a weekly basis. Many believe that AVP may be the fall guy in the offseason for the Patriots because of all the negative storylines surrounding the team and their dysfunction on the field this year.
Even with all of the Patriots problems and question marks heading into the offseason is it possible to consider this season a success because of how good Drake Maye has looked in his rookie season? Maye has been impressive in his rookie campaign but the team is so bad and a lot of his stats have been racked up in garbage time. However the biggest need for any NFL franchise is finding an elite QB that can elevate your team to Superbowl contention and Drake Maye has shown flashes of being just that.
It’s still way too early to declare Maye is a Superbowl winning caliber QB who can lead a team deep in the playoffs, he has very limited experience in cold weather and hasn’t played in many close games where he’s been asked to elevate his team over the hump. But when looking at the Patriots season as a whole would I rather the coaching staff have been better this year and looked competent while Maye struggled and looked like he wasn’t fit for the job, the answer is absolutely not. Finding a very good to elite QB is the most important thing in all of sports and the Patriots may have just done that with Maye.
I’m not saying Patriots fans should be happy with this season or accept the fact that everything might be okay one day because you might have that quarterback. What I am saying is that it’s much easier to find a new head coach for a quarterback with elite talent than it is to do the reverse. The amount of teams that have sucked year after year and drafted at the top of the draft and missed on quarterbacks time and again is much longer than the list of above average to elite QB’s that were held back by bad coaching.
For me this season shouldn’t be viewed as a success for New England because of how poorly they drafted outside of Maye and how the team has looked completely lost on the field for large portions of the season. Maye’s development is probably the only concrete positive from the Patriots season so far, he shows positive strides on a weekly basis and his ceiling may be the highest of any QB in his draft class.
So while Maye is a massive band aid for the Patriots their needs and issues far outweigh his talent at this point in his career. If I had to choose this season or one with a quarterback like Mac Jones and a more complete coaching staff I’m taking this one because Maye is the light at the end of the tunnel that can get a team deep into the playoffs but his emergence isn’t enough to fully absolve the Patriots of all their issues and they’ll need a lot more than Maye in 2025 to have a successful season.
