Using Pro Scout Insights to Help Patriots' Drake Maye Improve in 2026
If you're reading this, you're already aware that Drake Maye and the New England Patriots won the AFC championship against the Denver Broncos last January.
You already know that Maye, an MVP candidate a year ago, rushed in for the team's only touchdown and sealed the win with a third-down scramble on the final drive.
"We were in big personnel running the same deal to the right, little stretch play," Maye said after the game. "At some point they get lackadaisical and you got a chance to get around the edge. I thought he was going to track me and hawk me down but we got enough to pick up the first. Coach (Mike Vrabel) would probably get mad about running out of bounds but at that point it doesn't matter when you get the first down."
But what you might now know was how the Broncos -- the AFC's top seed in 2025 -- game planned for the 23-year-old Maye before the game.
In a recent story from ESPN's Seth Wickersham that dives deep into Denver head coach Sean Payton's preparation for the game, we got some clues about how the AFC West winners viewed Maye in the postseason. A Broncos pro scout attended the Patriots' home playoff win against the Los Angeles Chargers two rounds earlier, and detailed his scouting report on the young quarterback in a staff meeting.
What did the scout have to say about Maye? Did it come back to haunt the Broncos in the end? Did Denver fail to stop any of Maye's flaws in the snowy weather?
Here's what stood out, and how Maye can improve on some of last season's pitfalls.
ESPN Dives Deep Into Broncos' Scouting Report On Maye
According to Wickersham, the Broncos had a scout look at Maye and find some of his strengths and weaknesses ahead of their matchup. What stuck out?
The data compiled in the scouting report included his numbers from all 17 regular season games, and the Patriots' AFC Wild Card victory. It didn't take into account any two-minute, four-minute or garbage time plays, though the Broncos did note that Maye "isn't excellent in game-winning-drive situations."
So what does stand out is how Maye can create plays with both his arm and his legs.
"Maye has been one of the most productive QBs in the NFL, he ranks in the top two in Expected Points Added, success rate, yards per attempt, and explosive rate on standard drop backs," Wickersham wrote, detailing the scouting report. "Maye has scrambled at the second highest rate in the NFL. Maye has been aggressive pushing the ball downfield, he has the fourth highest average depth of target in the NFL.
"Maye's only slight negative is that he has taken sacks at a slightly higher than average rate. Some situations where Maye has been less effective: against drop eight, against sim pressure, and against two high/MOFO with no rotation (show two-high and play two-high)."
It went deeper into Maye's ability to throw against blitzes and pressures, where he'll typically leave the pocket. He'll tend to keep it himself if he scrambles to the left, and it was noted that he is "dangerous" when he's on the move.
That has always been something that Maye has used as a calling card. Coming out of college, he was a versatile player with the ball in his hands, and it's why he's gotten comparisons to Josh Allen at this stage in his career. Denver got to see it first hand, as Maye rushed for 65 yards in their postseason battle.
Payton summed it up perfectly, and really predicted how the game would end up going: "If Maye slips free all afternoon, we will lose."
How Maye Can Improve This Season:
So what can we take from that scouting report?
It's clear that Maye's athleticism -- the one that helped guide the Patriots to their first Super Bowl in years -- is well respected across the league. He doesn't really need to fix anything in that department.
But it's the negative plays (sacks and fumbles) that came back to bite him in the Super Bowl and something the Broncos clearly pinpointed in their report. Maye was sacked an NFL-record 21 times in the playoffs last year, and fumbled the ball 15 times, the most in the league.
That's where Maye needs to clean up his game. Adding A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs to the passing attack should help Maye find some added juice. Beefing up the offensive line will open up running lanes for the running backs. But what Maye does with the ball in his hands, especially as a vulnerable ballcarrier, will be paramount to New England's success.
He'll need to know when to take sacks, and when to throw the ball away. Tucking the football in and taking a sack is far better than risk getting it poked loose, and sailing the ball out of bounds is better than both of those options.
It's something that Maye is aware of and something he's actively trying to work on.
"I'm just focused day-to-day and really not trying to pinpoint an area," Maye said at mandatory minicamp. "I'm trying to get better in all areas. I think it's hard to pinpoint that. I think one thing is just making the right decision in the first few seconds I have the ball in my hand.
"Making the right decision, knowing sometimes incompletions are the best plays, not trying to hold the ball too long and get out of the habit of really trying to extend plays just because I feel like I haven't extended a play in a while."
For now, the sky remains the limit for Maye in New England's offense.
But if he can tone down some of the mistakes that the Broncos scouting department keyed in on, the young quarterback can get a hell of a lot better. That should be a scary sight for teams in 2026, including Denver, who's set to travel to New England late in December.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/patriots/onsi as Using Pro Scout Insights to Help Patriots' Drake Maye Improve in 2026.
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This story was originally published July 10, 2026 at 5:00 AM.