New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was on a heater on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers at Gillette Stadium. Maye just was hitting receivers left and right, making great plays and putting the Patriots en route to a 42-13 victory.
Maye, though, left the game in the fourth quarter as New England looked to add more to the scoreboard.
What’s Happened to Drake Maye?
As for Maye, well, nothing really happened to him at all. He was on the sidelines sipping a cold drink.
Maye simply left the game, and Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel put backup Josh Dobbs in the game for some garbage time work.
#Patriots QB Drake Maye today vs. the Panthers:
– 14/17
– 203 passing yards
– 3 TDs
– 0 INTs
– 155.6 passer rating pic.twitter.com/dQ6i184Lmh— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 28, 2025
What did Maye do on Sunday? He had a pretty sweet day on the field. Maye was 14-of-17 passing for 203 yards and three touchdowns. He was a first-round draft pick for New England in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Maye has shown himself worthy of that QB1 position at this time. Sunday’s statistics will just go a long way toward securing Maye in that spot for the rest of this season. Maye simply is putting on a clinic these days.
Panthers backup quarterback Andy Dalton threw a meaningless fourth-quarter touchdown for Carolina as their final score on Sunday.
Entering Sunday’s game, Maye had thrown five touchdown passes and two interceptions. Based on PFSN’s Quarterback Impact (QBi) score, the Patriots star was the 11th-best quarterback in the league heading into Week 4. He had a score of 79.7, which will go up after the numbers are crunched after beating the Panthers.
Maye played his college ball at North Carolina and was gone way before Bill Belichick took over as the Tar Heels’ head coach. Maye played under Mack Brown, who was head coach for North Carolina over two stints in his illustrious career.
Maye’s Fantasy Football Outlook
Heading into Sunday’s game, fantasy football players were trying to decide whether Maye was a good get for their teams. PFSN’s Kyle Soppe offered some thoughts on Maye before the Carolina game.
“Drake Maye is averaging seven rush attempts per game this season, not bad for a player who hit that number just once as a rookie,” Soppe wrote.
“The Patriots are clearly interested in unlocking that part of their franchise QB, and who are we to complain? That threat has opened up things a bit as a passer: Maye has multiple passing scores in consecutive games for just the second time in his career (a top-7 QB in each of those weeks),” Soppe wrote.
“The only flaw I guess you could poke in this Week 4 profile is New England’s stated goal of getting their running backs more confidence after a three-fumble game,” Soppe wrote. “If the home team is dominating, could this be a 25-pass, three-rush sort of afternoon from Maye?”
Fantasy players will keep their eyes on Maye as the 2025 NFL season rolls along.
