After a magical 2025 run, the start of 2026 was not a great one for the New England Patriots. The Pats went 1-2 to open the season and scored a combined 16 points in their two losses. Using the trained eye of a football fan, it’s easy to immediately put the blame on quarterback play. In this case, you wouldn’t be wrong.
Through Week 3, Drake Maye had thrown for one touchdown and six interceptions — not very good. But since then, Maye has turned his season around, and so have the Patriots. In the last three games, Maye has thrown for 10 touchdowns and one interception, leading his team to three straight wins.
Yes, New England’s last three opponents were less menacing defensively than the first three, but that doesn’t tell the full story.
No RB to lean on
It wasn’t just Maye who struggled to start the year; New England’s run game was also rough. The Patriots had a moderate 328 rush yards through three games, with 82 of those yards coming from Maye himself. Add in just one rushing touchdown from the offense during this time, and the rush yards look a lot less impressive.
Despite many expecting TreVeyon Henderson to command the lead role in a backfield that includes Rhamondre Stevenson, Henderson’s ankle troubles and poor performances have hampered his role as the lead back. In fact, Stevenson has led the Patriots in carries in the last two weeks with a total of 71, compared to Henderson’s 49 on the season, per Next Gen Stats.
Either way, the run game started to do a lot better after Week 3, adding 456 rush yards and three touchdowns through the last three games, opening up the passing game for Maye.
Gone blue tent camping
Unfortunately for the Pats’ signal-caller, the injury bug hasn’t been too gracious this year. On top of Henderson, many key offensive players like receiver A.J. Brown and guards Mike Onwenu, Ben Brown and Greg Van Roten have all missed time this year. Guard Alijah Vera-Tucker not practicing on Monday and Tuesday throws another wrench in New England’s plans.
Despite this, the Patriots offense has held its own and improved significantly from the first few weeks, especially the o-line. New England allowed three sacks in each of its first three games in 2026. Since then, it has allowed just two, even pitching a shutout vs. a feisty Jets defense in Week 6.
With a banged-up o-line keeping its QB off the ground the last few games, Maye has had the opportunity to show just how well he can operate from a clean pocket.
Self-improvement
While the team stepping up has been huge, Maye himself has had quite the turnaround. Despite the surface-level stats mentioned before, the UNC product has made a leap in a few other categories, too.
For example, Maye’s passer rating under pressure rose from an abysmal 45.3 in weeks 1-3 to 83.7 in weeks 4-6, per NGS. While still not at the elite 102.3 mark he had in 2025, Maye has improved drastically in a short amount of time.
The third-year man is still working through some completion problems, however, as he completed only 56.2% of his passes this past week.
Maye will face a Bears defense that led the NFL in QB pressure rate in Week 6 (46.2%), per NGS. With Chicago finally having one of its players back in Kyler Gordon, it will be interesting to see if an ever-improving Maye can stand the test of the Kyler-Man and Co.