The New England Patriots had one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in NFL history from 2024 to 2025.
The Patriots went from a 4-win team to a 14-win team under a new coach, playing in the Super Bowl. While New England didn’t complete the season with a Super Bowl ring, it was something to be proud of regardless. However, there’s now an expectation moving forward, and one Patriots legend wants to see something specific from quarterback Drake Maye.
Julian Edelman Identifies Area of Drake Maye’s Game He Wants To See Growth
After taking over for veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett, Maye played 13 games in his rookie season.
While the young quarterback won just three games in his rookie season, he showed strong potential on a team with a horrendous offensive line and a poor supporting cast.
With a revamped team in 2025 and a new coach in Mike Vrabel, there was excitement about what New England could do, but few expected the Patriots to exceed expectations as they did.
Maye was nearly perfect in the regular season, throwing for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns. The second-year quarterback won 14 games and had a 72% completion percentage. According to PFSN’s QB Impact Metric, he was the second-best quarterback in the league last season with an impact score of 91.1.
Maye finished second in MVP voting and fifth in Offensive Player of the Year voting, and made the Pro Bowl in his first year with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
So, what is the expectation for 2026, the second season under Vrabel, Maye’s third year in the NFL, and his second with McDaniels?
Patriots legend Julian Edelman has one area in particular he’d like to see Maye succeed in this coming season. “Year three, I want to see how he deals with the offensive line when they are not performing at their best,” Edelman told Patriotswire. “There’s going to be times where you can’t get them blocked, but we still got to produce. And I think that’s going to be the natural progression in his progression.”
Edelman added that another year in McDaniels’ system should allow them to naturally grow together.
“I think they’re naturally going to get better together the longer they play together. Seeing him being able to handle those types of situations,” He said. “We saw him explosive down the field. We saw him dink and dunk with the completion percentage. That was elite.”
“We need to see him when (expletive) hits the fan. That’s what I want to see him, when it’s gritty time,” Edelman continued. “Like we saw all Super Bowl. It was tough to block those guys, but we still got to find a way.”
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Maye was sacked six times in the Super Bowl, which was tied for the most in his career. It happened twice in 2025, against the Cleveland Browns and the Atlanta Falcons. However, the Super Bowl wasn’t a one-off in the playoffs as Maye was sacked at least five times in all four of New England’s playoff games.
