This past weekend, former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady watched from afar as the current QB, Drake Maye, led the team to a dominant 45-17 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Brady, a minority owner of the Raiders, also works as an analyst with Fox Sports, providing coverage of games and thoughts on various media programs. He reveals his top 10 power rankings each week on Fox Sports' YouTube channel, and his former team ranked seventh after the Week 5 win.
Maye completed 26 of 34 passes, throwing for 374 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He was sacked once in the game, but he also scored a rushing touchdown for the Patriots. That win improved the Patriots to 3-2, and they're currently just behind Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills for the division lead.
Brady, who won six Super Bowl rings with the Patriots, weighed in on Maye's performance and turnaround after New England's difficult start to the season.
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"A tale as old as time in New England, I've heard it before. I was there when it happened. The sky's falling in September and the Pats are dead in the water, until they aren't," he said of the team's situation.
"Drake, you've responded so great. There was a first real slump early in the season, but he's throwing the ball with confidence now again, and the whole team is feeding off of it," Brady said, adding, "Relax, everyone. This is a [expletive] good football team."
Maye and the Patriots had a rough start to the season, losing in a Super Bowl rematch with the Seattle Seahawks, 13-10, to backup quarterback Drew Lock. From there, they bounced back with a 20-3 win over Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, before falling to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 35-6.
That left serious questions about whether this Patriots team would be able to beat top contenders in the league, and they seemingly answered that question with a 27-23 win over the Buffalo Bills. They followed that by routing the Raiders, handing Las Vegas a second straight loss.
Regarding the importance of building chemistry with new receivers, Brady said that "quarterback to receiver reps in the game build a lot of trust," and "when you mess up, you learn from it, you move on, and you try not to make the same mistake again."
So far, Maye has racked up 1,228 yards and eight touchdowns, but also has seven interceptions. His QBR is 74.9, which is currently the seventh-best in the NFL. He's also been missing one of the Patriots' biggest offseason acquisitions: AJ Brown.
The Patriots and Maye received positive news on Wednesday, as Brown returned to practice as a limited participant. Brown appears on track to return soon, possibly for the team's Week 6 game against the New York Jets, after being out for over four weeks with an ankle injury.
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