Drake Maye gets real with NFL insider about narrative the Patriots have totally dismantled during the playoffs
The Patriots’ star quarterback made one thing very clear after beating the Texans.
The New England Patriots won 14 games and paved the way toward the AFC’s No. 2 seed after an incredible first season under Mike Vrabel.
Plenty of people outside of New England had their doubts about the Patriots; however, it all came down to one simple talking point: their schedule.
The Patriots ended up with the NFL’s easiest strength of schedule at .391 and fifth-lowest strength of victory at .370. Meaning they played a bunch of bad teams and beat a bunch of them, too. This placed a big question mark over Drake Maye and Co. heading into the postseason.
Well, that’s no longer a talking point after the Patriots’ second playoff win in as many weeks, and Maye made sure to put that narrative to bed when he spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer after the game.
Drake Maye and the Patriots don’t care about outside noise
“We don’t listen to the outside noise” is one of the most overused cliches in football, and it’s one of the most inaccurate ones. It’s impossible for players to avoid the chatter with social media and everything else at their disposal.
Maye took a different approach after leading the Patriots to a win over the Houston Texans. He didn’t deny the noise – he took it head-on and made it clear where he and his teammates stand on the matter.
“We’re not trying to prove anybody wrong or anybody right,” Maye told Breer. “And when we’re in games, we’re playing good defense, trying to show good teams that we can play with them. I think we’ve done that all year. I don’t think we’ve shied away yet.
“We haven’t really gotten our butts kicked by anybody.”
Maye is absolutely right. Of the Patriots’ three losses, none were by more than seven points. The Patriots also finished the 2025 regular season with a +170 point differential, which was third-best. Only the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams fared better.
So, yeah. No one kicked the Patriots’ butts, but they’ve kicked plenty of it themselves.
Did the Patriots have an easy schedule? Sure. However, the defining line is the fact they beat the crap out of the bad teams on said schedule. Case in point: Seven of said 14 wins came by multiple scores.
That’s what good teams are supposed to do. If the Pats went out and struggled on an every-other-week, or week-to-week, basis, then that’s a whole different story. That kind of inconsistency would certainly raise more, and bigger, red flags.
Regardless, it’s time to bury all this because the Patriots have proven they can beat good teams and beat them on a big stage.
And now it’s time to do it one more time before taking their talents to the biggest stage of them all.
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