Drake Maye looked like a franchise quarterback last season. Through three games in 2026, he looks like a different player entirely. The New England Patriots quarterback has delivered three poor performances to start the year, and the question facing Patriots fans is a simple one: which version of Drake Maye is real?

The concerning part is that this isn’t a single bad game or an isolated rough stretch. This is a pattern. Three consecutive weeks of regression from a quarterback many expected to return to his MVP-caliber form.

All the mistakes are piling up, the production is lacking, and the excuses are running thin. These issues began during last year’s NFL playoffs.

The uncharacteristic errors

What stands out most is the nature of Drake Maye’s struggles. These aren’t the typical growing pains of a young quarterback adjusting to a new scheme or new weapons. These are uncharacteristic mistakes from a player who showed almost none of this last season.

The fumble against the Jacksonville Jaguars was a prime example. It was the kind of turnover you rarely see from a starting NFL quarterback.

Maye addressed it in his postgame press conference and owned up to the play, but his explanation raised eyebrows. He said there was blood on the football from the center. That’s why it potentially slipped out of his hand.

That’s a bold claim, and frankly, a difficult one to buy. Whether it’s true or not, fumbles like that one simply cannot happen from a quarterback the Patriots are building around.

Beyond the turnovers, Maye’s decision-making has been questionable. The types of throws he’s attempting, the lapses in judgment, and the overall inconsistency are all things that were absent during his 17 regular season games last year.

Something is different, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what changed.

The talent around him has improved

What makes Maye’s regression even more puzzling is that the Patriots invested heavily in upgrading his supporting cast. The Romeo Doubs acquisition was supposed to elevate the passing attack.

AJ Brown, before going down, provided a legitimate No. 1 target. The receiving corps on paper is a clear upgrade over what Maye had to work with last season when veteran Stefon Diggs was on the back end of his career.

Add in a second-year TreyVeon Henderson at running back, and the offensive talent around Maye should be producing better results. Instead, the opposite is happening.

The run game has been equally disappointing. New England averaged just 3.2 yards per carry as a team against the Jaguars, and that number is actually inflated by Maye himself averaging over four yards per carry on his own rushing attempts.

When the ground game can’t function and the passing attack is sputtering, the offense becomes one-dimensional in the worst possible way.

Is this a short-term funk or a long-term problem?

There is a case to be made that last season’s success came against a weaker schedule. Maye earned the nickname Drake “the Schedule” Maye for a reason. The competition level has ramped up, and the results have followed accordingly.

That said, 17 games of solid quarterback play is a large enough sample size to suggest the talent is real. The more likely explanation is that Maye is stuck in a funk, pressing too hard to make plays and compounding his mistakes as a result.

The short-term concern is legitimate. The Patriots’ record is already in trouble, and every week without AJ Brown makes the hill steeper to climb.

Once Brown returns and Maye finds a rhythm, a better version of the quarterback should emerge. The real question is whether that turnaround comes soon enough to salvage the season or if the damage is already done.

Three games is early. It’s not time to panic about Drake Maye’s long-term future as a franchise quarterback. It is time to acknowledge that what the Patriots are getting right now is nowhere close to good enough.