Here are More Reasons Drake Maye is Filling the GOAT-Shaped Hole in My Heart
In the spirit of the season, let me begin by quoting the most quotable holiday film ever filmed. In the darkest moment of It's a Wonderful Life, when all the other angels have tortured George Bailey to the breaking point for the crime of just being sad about facing jail time due to his drunk, demented uncle's fuckup, Clarence finally gets to the point of the whole bloody exercise. "Strange, isn't it?" he says. "Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?" Maybe not as strange as psychologically and spiritually abusing a man on Christmas eve just to teach him a lesson he could've learned from a Hallmark card. But still, his point is well taken.
Well the man who touched all the lives in New England from 2001-19 has been gone now for 4 3/4 seasons now. And that awful hole Tom Brady left is finally getting filled. And Drake Maye is the one filling it. Beyond even the wildest expectations of a guy who wanted him as his quarterback since right around this time last year.
Now sure, I can be accused of clinging to false hope. That's not at all uncommon when your team is 3-10. And granted, I've gotten way out over my skis before. Mac Jones. To a lesser extent, Cam Newton. There may have also been some wild, unearned optimism regarding Jarrett Stidham that I'm not proud of and would just as soon forget. But none of that matters now. Because if the Patriots are accomplishing nothing else in this wretched season (Note: They're not), they've the one thing in all of sports that is most important to have and the toughest to find. Not just a franchise quarterback, but a future star.
And you don't have to take my word for it:
Since I posted that three weeks ago, Maye has done nothing but earn that praise. Off the field:
… and on:
Like I've admitted, I was sold on Maye as the answer to our problems long before I knew the Pats would be in a position to draft him. If I had been any more sold, I'd have been parked in a driveway with a red bow on top of me in a Christmas commercial. But not everybody was as infatuated as I was. None other than Patriots media guy Tom E. Curran was a noted Maye skeptic. But he has the integrity to admit that drafting anyone other than him would've been a huge mistake this franchise would've regretted:
And neutral observer Bleacher Report has given a letter grade to every 1st round pick, and he's one of only five A's (Bo Nix, Jared Verse, Brian Thomas, Jr. and Quinyon Mitchell being the others) with just Jayden Daniels and Brock Browers graded higher with A+s.
New England can finally look ahead since this year's No. 3 overall pick, Drake Maye, looks every bit a franchise quarterback.
"Drake brings that swagger. That confidence to the whole offense," wide receiver DeMario Douglas said, per Mass Live's Mark Daniels. "When you know you have somebody like Drake, you know something is liable to happen. We all just got to play together. Play as one."
And yet even I, for all my fanboyism and daydreams about riding shirtless on a horse with him, never imagined he's be this good in the running game. Good, yes. But best in the league good? No. And yet the numbers speak for themselves:
And dare I say, historically good? No way. And yet again, the numbers say otherwise:
Perhaps most surprising of all has been his consistency. It's expected that rookies will have peaks and valleys. Good games and bad. It's a Law of Nature. And yet the analytic data is clear:
And that is how you get through a 3-10 start to a season. By going all in on the fact that you've achieved the critical part of the 2024 mission. Who knows? Maybe the bye week will help the rest of this extremely flawed team sort itself out and finally having a franchise QB will start to show results in the win column. The way it did during Drew Bledsoe's rookie season when 1-11 turned into four straight victories and a playoff team the following year. I'm not optimistic about the short term, just because we've got Buffalo twice, the Chargers, and a borderline playoff team at Arizona. But I can deal with anything from here until January. Just as long as they keep all of Maye's limbs attached to his body and spare no expense to get him some protection and some wideouts, I've got everything I need to finally move on from the GOAT. What more could anyone ask for?