Drake Maye is Now the Leader of the MVP Race After a Huge Statement Win in Tampa

We have a rule in New England: We don't celebrate individual awards. 

OK, it's not a rule as much as it's a guideline. A mild proposal. A recommendation. Or like we say about Stop signs, it's more of a suggestion. 

The fact is, after the last half a decade, we're entitled to be excited about an individual achievement. Since Tom Brady walked, we've only had three guys make the Pro Bowl who weren't special teamers. Until this franchise gets the chance to win a playoff game, we'll take what we can get. And apologize for nothing.

And as celebrating one player's personal accomplishments go, it doesn't get much better than being 10 games into the season and having the league MVP favorite lining up behind your center every snap. The "M!V!P! M!V!P!" chants that broke out in the middle of a road game a 1,000 miles from New England after this gigantic 3rd & 14 completion:

... were only the fans confirming what the oddsmakers had already established: A new power has arrived. The old ways are dying. The reigning MVP just lost to a dreadful Miami team that's about to fire everybody. Another quarterback on this list just lost to the new guy. And a game that could've been lost - the Patriots were getting points for one of the few times this season - was won. 

Under Drake Maye, the Pats have as many wins through 10 games as they've had in the last two seasons combined. They've won seven straight. Opened a two game lead in the division, and are in position to host a playoff game for the first time since 2019. And while there are too many reasons for all of it to shoehorn into this quick post, when you put them altogether they spell M-V-P. Because Maye is the Most Valuable Player in pro football as we sit here today on Veteran's Day Weekend. 

Incredibly, this has all happened on a day when Maye struggled at times. He faced pressure on roughly half his dropbacks. Took shots constantly, including on that have-to-have-it bomb to Mack Hollins. Not the least of which was the killshot Tykee Smith laid into his earhole as Maye was going out of bounds. The subsequent interception he threw to Smith was a bad decision that took 3-points off the board. But given that he was on the field trying to get the ball in the end zone instead of in the blue tarpaulin M*A*S*H* unit behind the bench, I'll take that bad with the good. 

More to the point, even on Maye's "worst" game since Week 1 against Las Vegas, he was still good enough to win a tough road game and keep this streak alive. Good enough to take the lead in an MVP race that used to be wide open, but is getting less so with each passing week. 

Not that he's letting it go to his head:

That's my quarterback.