Does Devin McCourty think Drake Maye is MVP frontrunner?

After serving to lead the Patriots to a hard-fought highway win over the Buccaneers on Sunday, Patriots QB Drake Maye has held court docket because the frontrunner for NFL MVP across several oddsmakers. 

Rely former Patriots security and present NBC broadcaster Devin McCourty amongst those that have been impressed with the play of the second-year QB. However McCourty believes that Maye isn’t essentially the frontrunner — a minimum of not at this stage of the season.

“I feel while you’re a quarterback on this league, and your workforce’s successful and also you’re enjoying at a excessive degree, that makes you the man to speak about,” McCourty said Thursday on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show”. “Whether or not it was Jayden Daniels final yr as a rookie, C.J. Stroud when he was a rookie, Matthew Stafford proper now, even at his older age — while you’re quarterbacking a top-level workforce that’s going on the market executing, you need to be spoken about in a excessive regard.”

“Like Jonathan Taylor and Matthew Stafford, to me, would have a leg up,” McCourty continued. “However I feel it’s loopy — if anyone would have mentioned two years in the past, ‘We’re going to get a quarterback in Drake Maye, and in his second yr, he’s going to be high 5 in MVP talks.’ Like, I’d have mentioned, ‘Hey, give me that proper now, that’s ridiculous.’ I feel that’s what he’s performed his means into.”

Coming into Thursday’s primetime matchup towards the Jets, Maye is finishing 71.7 p.c of his throws for two,555 yards, 19 touchdowns and simply 5 interceptions. He has additionally rushed for 283 yards and a further two touchdowns. 

Taylor has been a power within the trenches for the Colts up to now this season, dashing for 1,139 yards and 15 touchdowns via 10 video games for Indy, whereas the 37-year-old Stafford is placing collectively a renaissance season on the West Coast with a league-leading 25 touchdowns and simply two interceptions. 

Even when Maye does come up brief within the MVP race this winter, the 23-year-old QB’s ascension as one of many high playmakers within the league has Patriots followers relishing the sight of a franchise QB commanding an offense in Foxborough as soon as once more.

However McCourty additionally needed no a part of any discourse concerning Maye drawing comparisons to his former QB in Tom Brady. 

“Manner too early,” McCourty mentioned of these comparisons. “I imply, Drake’s obtained to place collectively quite a lot of seasons for me to even take into consideration uttering him and Tom Brady. I don’t suppose it’s too early to interrupt down the early a part of Tom Brady’s profession and evaluate, as a result of while you work in media, that’s what you do. You need to, it’s enjoyable to do. 

“However I feel total, to say him and point out Brady, and what Brady was in a position to do in New England, is simply too quickly. However you enter these conversations in the event you get to the Tremendous Bowl. You win a Tremendous Bowl, you enter the dialog to be spoken about with anyone. However I nonetheless suppose that’s a time away earlier than we are able to enter Drake Maye into there.”

 

Conor Ryan is a workers author protecting the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Purple Sox for Boston.com, a task he has held since 2023.