Drake Maye Hit QB8 in ESPN’s Rankings. The Patriots QB Isn’t Done Climbing.

The New England Patriots went from laughingstock to AFC East champs in one season. And the quarterback who dragged them there just landed at No. 8 in ESPN’s latest NFL quarterback rankings.

Jeremy Fowler polled executives, coaches and scouts around the league. The verdict on Drake Maye? He’s knocking on the door of the elite but not quite through it yet. He landed ahead of Jared Goff and Caleb Williams, right behind Justin Herbert and Dak Prescott. MVP runner-up status will do that.

Let’s talk about what Maye actually did last season. The 23-year-old completed an NFL-best 72 percent of his passes. He threw for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns. Play action? Lethal. Blitz pickup? Handled it. Deep ball? One of the best in the league. And oh yeah, he ended Buffalo’s five-year grip on the division and led New England to the Super Bowl. That’s a one-year turnaround that felt impossible going into the season.

But here’s the thing about rankings. They’re snapshots, not predictions. Voters want to see Maye do it again before they put him in the Mahomes-Allen-Jackson tier. And the playoffs gave them reason to pause. Maye’s completion percentage dropped to 58.3 in the postseason. His QBR was 40.0. The Super Bowl loss stung. It was a rough stretch at the worst possible time.

The question now is how he responds. Head coach Mike Vrabel’s job security is already a talking point around the league. That puts more pressure on Maye to be the steadying force in the building. He needs to shake off the playoff struggles, build chemistry with new wide receiver AJ Brown and prove the 2025 season wasn’t a one-hit wonder.

If he can do that? Top five in next year’s rankings isn’t crazy. The talent is clearly there. The arm, the legs, the feel for the game. Now it’s about consistency and the ability to handle a target on his back. Teams will study the playoff tape and try to expose weaknesses. Maye will have to evolve.

For now, he’s a top-10 quarterback in a league that didn’t know what to make of him 12 months ago. That’s a big step. The next one is bigger.