Pats Pulpit
Notes and thoughts on the Patriots’ young quarterback, the left guard competition, the schedule, and more.
The New England Patriots and the rest of the NFL continue to take steps toward the 2025 season. A big one came Wednesday, when the league announced its schedule which, naturally, commanded a lot of our attention this week.
As for other stories, thoughts and takeaways from the last few days, here is our weekly notebook clean-up operation. Welcome to the latest edition of the Pats Pulpit Sunday Patriots Notes.
The Patriots have what every rebuilding team in the NFL desires, a young quarterback who has shown plenty of promise. While his first season as a pro overall were a rollercoaster, Drake Maye had some impressive moments that showcased his franchise QB potential — potential the organization is hoping will be unlocked even further with veteran offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels returning into the fold.
The stage is therefore set for Maye to make the famous second-year jump and to further establish himself as one of the best young quarterbacks in the game. What can realistically be expected out of the sophomore passer, though?
In order to answer what question, we took a look at close to 50 starter-level quarterbacks since 2011 — the advent of the rookie wage scale — and compared the statistical development between their rookie and sophomore years. We understand this methodology is not perfect in predicting what Maye’s second season as Patriots QB will look like, but it gives some historical context as to what that Year 2 jump looked like through the years.
With that in mind, here is a projection using averages of the 49 QBs we looked at.
The numbers presented here are, as noted above, along the lines of the average statistical development of our sample size of quarterbacks. Let’s take completion percentage as an example, with the improvement between rookie and sophomore seasons at 1.48 percent.
“Average” is the key word here: some passers did not hit that mark or saw their completion rate drop, while others improved by more than those 1.48 percent. The Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow, for example, increased their completion percentages by 6.0 and 5.1 percent, respectively.
Maye ending up in those spheres would be a pleasant surprise, especially considering that he already completed passes at a fairly high rate in 2024. However, even minor improvement — which seems realistic in a Josh McDaniels offense — might provide a boost to the Patriots’ passing game.
The same is true for other statistics as well. Maye had touchdown and interception percentages of 4.4 and 3.0 percent as a rookie, for example. Interestingly enough, both averages increase with our sample size QBs: 0.73 percent for the TD rate, and 0.01 percent in the INT department. Using those numbers, Maye would finish 2025 with 24 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
The second number in particular seems concerning, but there have been plenty of...
