The New England Patriots are spoiled rotten. They barely had to exist without a top-flight quarterback. New England enjoyed Tom Brady for two decades, and now, it seems Drake Maye has established himself as one of the league’s best QBs.
Heading into Week 9, he’s been the best quarterback.
QB Stock Market isn’t your typical quarterback rankings. I’m focused on monitoring the fluctuations of a QB’s performance throughout the season. No one — not even Patrick Mahomes — is safe at the top. No one — not even Justin Fields — is stuck at the bottom. There is room for quick ascent — and rapid decline. One question holds most important: What have you done for your team lately?
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The Patriots quarterback is making covered receivers look open and open receivers look like they’ve exploited busted coverage.
We all knew Maye had an incredible arm. It was clear at UNC, and it held true in his rookie year.
But Maye has a newfound accuracy and touch that keep the Patriots on schedule. When Mack Hollins or Stefon Diggs run a route that’s supposed to move the chains, Maye puts the ball exactly where it needs to be and with the necessary velocity. Everyone is going to buzz and gush — rightfully so — over the deep game. But even last year, that was a huge part of his toolbox. I’m most impressed with Maye’s mastery of the ho-hum quick game, of the way Maye recognizes, anticipates and attacks holes in zone defenses, and of the way Maye makes sure bad plays don’t get worse.
When you combine that fundamentally strong play with the splash plays, you have one of the NFL’s hardest-to-stop weapons — even on a day when Browns edge Myles Garrett had a franchise-best five sacks.
Simply put, there’s a consistency in Maye’s game that Caleb Williams (and Ben Johnson) could only dream of. But at this point in his career, we can stop comparing Maye to the guys in his draft class (from Williams to Jayden Daniels to Bo Nix). In these eight games, Maye deserves comparison with the league’s best: Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. And since we’re comparing Maye to those guys, let’s point out the obvious. He has played better.
This eight-game run has been comparable in New England’s history only to Brady. Is Maye ready to entrench himself as one of the NFL’s elite QBs? It helps that the Patriots’ schedule in the second half of the season looks just as easy as the first.
Love was not satisfied dinking and dunking in a duel against his former mentor, Aaron Rodgers. Particularly not when the Packers fell behind. Love started the game happy to take what the defense gave him. But there were moments where he pressed. Yes, that sounds totally wild when studying his statistics: 78.4 completion percentage, 360 passing yards, three touchdowns.
The thing about those moments — where he took a risk that his coach wouldn’t have advised — was that he and his teammates converted them. And the Packers probably wouldn’t have won without these plays. In the third quarter, Love and the Packers trailed by nine points and the quarterback took a major risk from his own red zone, heaving the ball downfield to Tucker Kraft … on a prayer. Kraft fought for the ball and turned the play into a conversion and a 59-yard explosive gain. Coaches have told me about the “NONONONONONO—YES!” throws that Love can make. This was one of them.
It started as a terrible idea. And then it finished as the best play of the game. It was also yet another example of Love’s now-patented fadeaway jumper.
Later in the game on third-and-7, Love alerted pre-snap to Christian Watson (probably seeing single-high safety coverage) and the Packers QB wanted Watson the whole way, rolling right until he finally zipped the ball downfield for a 33-yard gain (that was, frankly, in danger of getting picked off by that single-high safety).
Ultimately, Love layered the pass to perfection.
It was yet another outstanding week for Love, who turned big risks into big rewards. He did all that in a high-stakes game against Rodgers. With A-Rod watching from the opposite sideline, Love admitted afterward that there was an “added level of pressure.”
But the young QB stepped up in many of the ways his Packers predecessors Rodgers and Brett Favre once did.
His guys weren’t open — not like they have been.
The Denver defense made CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens work much harder than any other team this year. And in turn, Prescott’s day looked ugly. There were spurts of strong play from the Cowboys, where they’d string together a nice drive. But Prescott had interceptions at the end of the second quarter and at the beginning of the fourth quarter that were whiffs on potentially scoring drives. The Broncos, meanwhile, were simply outpacing the Cowboys on the other side of the ball. It served as a reminder to Dallas. If the Cowboys are going to win games, Prescott is going to have to be perfect. His receivers are going to have to be the best tandem in the NFL.
Because it’s a slippery slope for the Cowboys and Prescott. Prescott will spend the whole season trying to win in a shootout — and searching for the line between pressing and generating explosive plays. He couldn’t quite find it against one of the league’s best defenses in Denver.
It might be a delight to watch the Colts’ offense, but it’s not as much fun to watch Daniel Jones.
I don’t mean that as a dig. Or maybe I do. But Indy’s special sauce is the way the skill players complement one other perfectly to do what they’re best at. Jones just needs to stand in the pocket and deliver the football. He’s doing that job admirably. You’d be hard-pressed to see Jones do something special — or make a throw that is specific to skill set. But in this offense and with these skill players, Jones can simply put the ball near the frame of Michael Pittman, Alec Pierce, Tyler Warren … or any of the other pass-catchers. They’ll do the rest.
In turn, Jones is playing quarterback at a high level without having to do a whole lot. And if you looked at his passing chart without knowing it was him, you’d have a mighty hard time understanding how Jones got to 272 passing yards versus the Titans.
The truth is that Jones’ receivers had 126 yards after the catch. And the pass-catchers had countless circus catches downfield, including Pittman’s incredible one-hander.
Stroud had the type of performance that I thought he’d build his career around. On one hand, it’s great to see this version of Stroud. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder why he can’t play like this more often. Regardless, this week, he seemed to have all the answers to the 49ers’ defense.
San Francisco blitzed on 33.3% of Stroud’s dropbacks. The 49ers pressured the Texans QB nine times. And yet he took zero sacks by taking only 2.69 seconds to throw. He finished 30 of 39 for 318 yards and two touchdowns with an interception — the turnover (an overthrow deep near the sideline to end the first half) being his lone error from the game.
My favorite throw was a third-quarter touchdown that proved to be the deciding score. The 49ers brought six rushers. With the pocket collapsing, Stroud found receiver Xavier Hutchinson streaking over the middle. Stroud placed the ball so Hutchinson didn’t have to break stride on his way into the end zone — untouched.
Stroud played with immense poise (knowing where to get the ball despite the rush) and discipline (taking the short, quick passes that the defense was giving him). The game always looked like it was within Stroud’s control.
It was a delight to watch. I just wish it wasn’t such a rare treat.
On this particular Sunday, the Giants were simply no match for the Eagles. Dart didn’t stand a chance.
He gave his pass-catchers several opportunities to make big plays, which they couldn’t convert. Notably, tight end Theo Johnson dropped a target on third-and-six that could’ve gone for 20 yards and put the Giants into the red zone. Dart also tried a deep heave to Darius Slayton on third-and-16 that the two nearly connected on, but Slayton couldn’t quite corral the ball.
That’s the trouble with evaluating Dart. He doesn’t have any playmakers following the injuries to Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo. And at this point in Dart’s young NFL career, he’s not equipped to make many big plays himself. Though there was an exception (in garbage time) when he eluded pass-rushers and peeled out to his left to hit Wandale Robinson for 34 yards. It was Dart’s best play of the day.
Dart’s biggest weakness is that he takes sacks (rather than interceptions and fumbles). The Eagles got to him five different times on Sunday. But even while taking those losses, Dart rarely makes things worse for his offense with turnovers. He threw the ball away when he could and scrambled for short gains. That’s probably how the year will go for him — he’ll spend the year avoiding as many catastrophes as he can.
It’s on the Giants to surround him with better players to see what more Dart can do. But the sad reality is that might not happen until 2026.
The Commanders are one of 12 teams to already start a different QB from their Week 1 option. (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)
Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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