- Drake Maye is stringing together high-level performances: Second-year passer Drake Maye has now earned five consecutive 70.0-plus PFF game grades, a benchmark no Patriots quarterback has reached since Tom Brady in 2017-18.
- Maye’s growth shows up across every metric tied to rhythm, decision-making and ball placement: His PFF grade has climbed from 64.9 to 85.4, while his accuracy rate and accuracy-plus rate have both improved meaningfully. He’s operating more efficiently within structure, throwing in rhythm on 65.5% of his dropbacks (up six points from last season) and delivering to his first read nearly 70% of the time.
- Unlock your edge with PFF+: Access Premium Stats, dominate fantasy with in-season tools and projections and make smarter bets with the new PFF Player Prop Tool.
For the first time since Tom Brady’s MVP stretch in 2017-18, a New England Patriots quarterback is stacking consistent, high-level performances.
Second-year passer Drake Maye has now earned five consecutive 70.0-plus PFF game grades, a benchmark no Patriots quarterback has reached since Tom Brady.
From 2006 to his final year with the Patriots in 2019, Brady produced eight distinct streaks of five or more games with a 70.0-plus PFF grade, peaking with a nine-game run during his 2017 MVP season.
For Maye, matching that week-to-week steadiness not only highlights his development but also signals something New England has been chasing since Brady’s departure: true stability at the most important position in football.
New England Patriots Quarterbacks: Longest streaks of 70.0-plus PFF grades
Sustained efficiency at that level isn’t about one explosive outing; it’s about avoiding valleys.
Over his past five games, Maye has gone 93-of-120 (77.5%) for 1,241 yards — a league-best 10.3 yards per attempt over that span. He’s added 10 big-time throws to just three turnover-worthy plays, producing a 10-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio in the process.
His 87.5% adjusted completion percentage leads the NFL by nearly two full points (Jared Goff sits second at 85.6%). His 134.1 passer rating over that stretch is almost 12 points clear of the next-closest quarterback (Jalen Hurts, 122.2).
Maye’s underlying metrics are just as impressive. His 1.8% turnover-worthy play rate ranks 10th among 37 qualifying quarterbacks, while his 7.7% big-time throw rate trails only Sam Darnold. And from a grading standpoint, he’s been elite in nearly every context.
The New England Patriots quarterback has been the highest-graded passer in football over the past five weeks, and it’s been a long time since anyone in Foxborough could say that sentence with sincerity.
One of the clearest indicators of Maye's growth is his frequent positive plays. Through Week 8, his 30.1% positively graded play rate trails only Matthew Stafford (30.3%) among 34 qualifying quarterbacks — elite company for any passer, let alone one in his second NFL season.
Just as importantly, his 10.8% negatively graded throw rate ranks seventh-best in that same group, which goes to show how well he’s balancing good football with control.
That kind of efficiency — high-end positive output with minimal negative variance — was one of the hallmarks of Tom Brady’s greatness. Across 13 full seasons in New England from 2006 onward (excluding his 2008 injury year), Brady dipped below a 25.0% positive-grade rate only three times and exceeded a 15.0% negative-grade rate just twice.
For perspective, 13 quarterbacks this year alone have a negative-grade rate above 15.0%, including Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield and Michael Penix Jr.
In a recent conversation, PFF head of analysis Billy Moy said Maye’s growth under pressure has been a clear marker of his second-year leap.
"What really stands out about Maye in Year 2 is how much more efficient he’s become on a play-by-play basis,” Moy said. "As a rookie, he was solid at surviving pressure but not creating out of it — only about 20% of his pressured throws earned a positive grade. This year, he’s up to 26%, sixth-best in the league, and at the same time he’s cut his turnover-worthy plays in half, down from 4.5% to 2.6%. That’s a huge leap because you’re talking about a quarterback who’s not just avoiding mistakes, but also producing more high-end plays under pressure."
Moy also highlighted Maye’s improvement on throws beyond the sticks — another area that separates good quarterbacks from efficient ones.
"He’s gone from being inconsistent beyond the sticks to one of the league’s best," Moy said. "Last year, just 48.9% of those throws graded positively, 28th in the NFL. This season, he’s all the way up to 63.0%, second-best, while dropping his negative rate from 27.0% to 19.4%."
Additionally, Moy pointed to Maye’s growth as a deep passer.
"On true deep shots — 20-plus yards downfield — he was near the bottom of the league as a rookie with only a 31.3% positive-grade rate and a 12.5% turnover-worthy play rate," Moy said. "This year, he’s first in the league with a 67.8% positive rate and second with just a 16.1% negative-grade rate, and he hasn’t had a single turnover-worthy play on a deep ball. That’s night-and-day improvement."
That efficiency hasn’t come at the expense of discipline. As Moy noted, Maye’s added aggression has been paired with smarter decision-making.
"The striking part is that he’s not chasing those explosive plays recklessly," Moy said. "He’s pushing the ball further downfield — 44.6% of his attempts are beyond the sticks compared to 37.6% last year — but he’s dropped his turnover-worthy play rate on those throws from 7.8% down to 4.7%. More aggression, less risk."
Moy also contextualized just how meaningful Maye’s weekly consistency has been, both historically and within the PFF grading scale.
"A 70.0 grade might sound ordinary, but it isn’t," Moy said. "In nearly 11,000 qualifying QB performances since 2006, only about 40% have cleared that mark. Maye’s done it in six of eight games this season, including his last five straight. Sustaining that level, week after week, is the hallmark of a quarterback turning the corner."
According to PFF senior analyst John Kosko, Maye’s second-year surge also stems from both improved rhythm and a clearer command of the offense.
“Maye has cut down on his missed throws significantly and has more confidence in what he’s reading," Kosko said. "He’s throwing in rhythm more often this season, and you can tell he’s trusting what he sees."
The Patriots have also made life easier for their young quarterback.
"They protected him," Kosko added. "Bringing in Morgan Moses and Garrett Bradbury in free agency while drafting the top tackle in the class, Will Campbell, improved what was arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL to a top-eight unit. And that is a huge step forward."
And then there’s the man calling plays.
"The cherry on top is arguably the best offensive coordinator in the NFL calling plays for him in Josh McDaniels," Kosko said. "He makes adjustments and knows how to put plays in position to succeed week in and week out."
Maye’s growth shows up across every metric tied to rhythm, decision-making and ball placement. His PFF grade has climbed from 64.9 to 85.4, while his accuracy rate and accuracy-plus rate have both improved meaningfully. He’s operating more efficiently within structure, throwing in rhythm on 65.5% of his dropbacks (up six points from last season) and delivering to his first read nearly 70% of the time.
The results are cleaner windows and higher-quality throws: his accuracy to open receivers and accuracy when in rhythm each rose by roughly 2 percentage points, while his pressure rate dropped slightly despite his average time to throw increasing from 2.82 seconds to 3.04 seconds.
In short, Maye is playing faster, seeing clearer and missing less.
It’s been almost six years since Brady took his last snap in Foxborough, and in that time, the Patriots’ quarterback carousel has spun through signal-callers and a lot of false hope.
In total, the post-Brady era produced short-lived stretches of competence — the best being four-game runs of 70.0-plus grades from Cam Newton in 2020 and Mac Jones in 2021 — but never the sustained, week-to-week dependability that defined New England’s dynasty years.
Now, with Maye at the controls and Mike Vrabel and McDaniels shaping the operation around him, the Patriots finally have what they’ve been searching for since Brady left.
© 2026 PFF - all rights reserved.