Don't look now, but the defending AFC champions have started to look more like themselves lately. After a tumultuous first three weeks of the 2026 campaign, where it looked like Mike Vrabel's club was enduring a hangover from the success they had a year ago, they've stabilized over the past two games and sit at 3-2 on the year. More than that, they seem primed to once again vie for the conference crown and make a bid for the Super Bowl.
The biggest change, of course, has been Drake Maye. He was at the crux of New England's early-season struggles and has seen a night-and-day difference in his play over the past two weeks, especially when it comes to the turnover department. He's also coming off his first career back-to-back games with three-plus passing touchdowns.
If you dig a little deeper into what's changed with Maye over these past two games, it's been the return of his deep ball. Last year, Maye was arguably the best deep-ball thrower in the NFL, but that effectively vanished at the start of this season — that sort of bled over from the offense's struggles last postseason. From Week 1-3, Maye was just 9-of-23 passing (39%) on throws of 15-plus air yards with no touchdowns and four interceptions.
More recently (Week 4-5), Maye is 11-of-18 (61%) on those throws with three touchdowns and no interceptions. That efficiency has him right back to the range of where he was during the last regular season, where he completed 58% of such throws. If you remember, Maye finished second in MVP voting largely because of that prolific play down the field.
If he's truly returned to that level, it makes his current odds to win MVP this season at +1700 quite tasty. While Maye is the straw that stirs the drink of the entire organization, the Patriots' climb back up to their ceiling goes beyond his improved play over the past couple of weeks. Coming into the year, the Patriots were facing a gauntlet out of the gate.
New England had the hardest Week 14 strength of schedule by any team entering a season in the last 40 years. When you zoom out and look at it from 10,000 ft., the fact that they emerged from that at 2-2 is pretty solid. Of course, how they played in those games — and losing to a Seattle team that lost Sam Darnold after the opening drive — raised red flags, but from a record standpoint, it could've been much worse.
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