It Is Great to Have Potentially Found an Absolute Stud in Drake Maye

My hands were up on Sunday night, not solely because of celebrations, but because I was guilty as charged. I have no problem admitting that I was wrong about this football team. I did think we would see a significant improvement but I didn't think we'd be a potential contender for the division. The win on the road in Buffalo was made more sweeter because of the fact that the Bills didn't play poorly, they were just outsmarted and out played tactically by a Patriots team many thought had no right to be in the same conversation as them.  

Drake Maye is the real deal and is in flying form and is silencing any critics to the point where even talk about him being compared to other QBs taken in his draft class is laughable, he's streets ahead of those guys. I thought teams would begin to notice quirks and tendencies in the second year and he would struggle if he didn't refrain from continuing but he's seemingly capable of raising the level again and again. The tape of second year QBs sometimes catches them but he's performing at a high level consistently. There was a little bit of a worry after week one but the evidence suggests that was simply a blip and not a common theme. In fairness, it wouldn't be fair of me to single out Drake after the Vegas game when there weren't many players on the team that performed well, especially on the offensive side of the ball.  

I wasn't as big on the Stefon Diggs transaction as most Patriots fans were but I was wrong about that too. I said it during the Bills game that it was refreshing to have a receiver that could play competently again. Something the team has lacked since Julian Edelman was a Patriot. It's not just Diggs either, we are getting contributions from Boutte, Hollins, and Henry also.  

Campbell and Bradbury have made our offensive line pretty reliable, Drake is not getting a tonne of time but he's getting enough to get rid of the ball without being forced into mistakes or sacks, obviously his running ability helps here too but he's been helped by the big guys up top to stay in the pocket most of the time. 

It's not all positive, however, the running back room is weak and now with Gibson out for the season, they'll have to strengthen that unit. The Stevenson fumbling situation shows no sign of abetting any time soon. Henderson doesn't look like he's ready to take over as the first choice back either, although I'd still be happy to give him more and more snaps. The penalties are disappointing also, which I'm surprised about because I thought Vrabel would clean up the indiscipline.  

All in all it's very positive and I'm feeling very good about the team again which is great. Hopefully we can keep trending upwards and return to our rightful ownership of the division. Probably not this season but I would be expecting it to return in the next few seasons. Go Pats!