Drake Maye has turned a shaky start into the kind of stretch that changes how a season feels. Over the past three weeks, he has thrown 10 touchdowns and one interception, and the New England Patriots have won three straight games.
That run is why Jarvis Landry is being searched now. He called Maye a fluke after the recent surge, saying, "Drake Maye is a fluke. These last two games has been a fluke," and arguing that the quarterback has done it against the bottom half of pass defense in the NFL. He pointed to the Patriots' middle stretch of the schedule as one of the weakest he has ever seen.
The numbers are hard to brush aside. One of those wins came against the Buffalo Bills, another against the New York Jets, and the Patriots also beat the Las Vegas Raiders 45-17. After struggling earlier in the season, Maye has looked more like the quarterback the Patriots expected, which is why his recent production has carried so much weight inside a three-game winning streak.
Landry's case is not really about whether Maye has played well. It is about when he played well. He said Maye got to the Super Bowl and played against a real defense in Seattle, then opened the year against Seattle, using those matchups to argue that the stronger test will tell the real story. The contradiction is plain: Maye has produced like a rising starter, but the criticism hangs on whether those defenses gave him enough resistance to make the numbers matter.
For now, the Patriots have the results and Maye has the production. The next time he faces a stronger defense, the debate over whether this was a real breakout or just a soft spot in the schedule will get a clearer answer.
