New England Patriots
“He’s doing whatever they need him to, and he can score the ball at will, and he does it nonchalantly.”
Drake Maye is making a very compelling argument to win NFL MVP in just his second season in the pro ranks.
As expected, the 23-year-old Patriots has largely brushed aside all talk of his individual success, even if he leads the NFL in passer rating (112.9) and completion percentage (71.7) — while also throwing for 4,203 yards and 30 touchdowns against just eight interceptions.
Instead, Maye has opted to focus more on the success of the 2025 Patriots, with New England currently holding onto the No. 2 seed in the AFC with a 13-3 record.
And during his weekly interview with WEEI Afternoons on Monday, Maye opted to prop up another Boston athlete who is making a legitimate push for MVP this season: Celtics star Jaylen Brown.
“I’d say 100 percent,” Maye said when asked about Brown’s standing as an MVP candidate this season. “I think he’s had what, how many games with 30-plus [points]? I think he just had a couple games with 40 [points]. He’s doing whatever they need him to, and he can score the ball at will, and he does it nonchalantly. Looks like he’s not even trying out there.”
“He came out in my brother’s [Luke Maye] class,” Maye added. “Thought about going with my brother to North Carolina but he ended up better off … going to Cal. So I think definitely, for sure.”
Brown has made the most of this season taking over as Boston’s top option while Jayson Tatum recovers from a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Through 29 games this season, Brown is averaging a career-best 29.7 points per game to go along with 6.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game.
Brown dropped a game-high 37 points in Sunday’s loss to Portland, marking his ninth-straight, 30-point performance. That ties a franchise record set by Larry Bird, with Brown now reaching that 30-point threshold in 12 of his last 13 games.
Even though Maye hasn’t entertained much of the discourse regarding his own MVP odds, his head coach and several of his teammates have answered the call to prop up their star QB.
“They don’t give me [an MVP] vote, but I would [give it to him],” Mike Vrabel said Sunday. “There’s nobody else that we want as our quarterback or that I want as our quarterback.”
Stefon Diggs has seen Maye develop from a promising talent into a legitimate star in short order, even though the veteran wideout was candid on Sunday when asked if he expected his QB to take such a leap in two years.
“No, I did not,” Diggs told NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo postgame Sunday when asked if he expected Maye to become a MVP talent so soon. “He surprised all of us. I knew he was going to be good, but nah, I didn’t know he was going to be this good.”
“I’m just super proud of him. He approaches this game in the right way, man. I look forward to seeing more of him.”
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