Coming off a turbulent 2024 that brought major change to their football operations, the New England Patriots will be hoping for more stability heading into the new year. Whether or not 2025 will indeed bring that remains to be seen, but the organization already has one of its most important pieces in place.
Drake Maye, a first-round pick in 2024, has impressed ever since taking over as Patriots starting quarterback in Week 6. Even though the team won just two of his eleven starts and he experienced his fair share of rookie moments, the 22-year-old also regularly flashed the rare talent that made him come off the board third overall in April.
Although Maye has proven himself worth of franchise quarterback status, one player alone cannot turn a rebuilding into a contending team. From the Patriots’ perspective, there can therefore only be one resolution heading into the new year.
Patriots 2025 New Year’s resolution: Support Drake Maye
Supporting Drake Maye can take many shapes. The most obvious is upgrading his supporting cast in both free agency and the draft, and maybe even on the trade market. New England looking at its current talent both at the skill positions and along the offensive line and thinking it would be fine moving forward would be a gross miscalculation.
Luckily, the Patriots will have the resources to address their current shortcomings. Projected to lead the league in salary cap space in 2025, they can be big spenders in free agency and possibly lure players such as wide receiver Tee Higgins or offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley to New England. Players of that caliber would be instant upgrades, and lift some pressure off the team to land instant-impact players in the draft.
As for the draft, the Patriots currently are the owners of the first overall selection. While Sunday’s regular season finale against the Buffalo Bills will ultimately decide where they end up picking, their pick will be a valuable asset for a team in need of all the help it can get.
How the Patriots will use their guaranteed top-5 pick is anybody’s guess. Picking uber-versatile Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter should be a realistic option, as should be trading down to accumulate more capital; New England has needs across the board and the more darts to be thrown at the board the better the chances of addressing multiple of those needs.
Ultimately, the Patriots need to come away from their offseason with upgraded depth and talent at wide receiver and along the offensive line. That alone would give Maye a better chance to be successful, and lead New England into a better future.
The second way to support him is to properly assess the coaching staff, starting at the very top with Jerod Mayo. While it still seems likely he will be back in 2025, Mayo has yet to show that he can captain a ship through stormy waters. The Patriots need that, however, if they want to maximize their window with Maye on his rookie contract.
The same is true for the rest of the staff, starting on offense. From this perspective, Alex Van Pelt has been good enough as offensive coordinator to earn another year with the Patriots. There are two other arguments in his favor: stability and outward appearance.
Forcing Maye to adapt to possible an entirely new system alongside a new-ish supporting cast might slow his development, which so far appears to have been handled well by Van Pelt. In addition, firing a coordinator who seemingly has done a solid job might send an unintended message to potential outside hires. New England already was no premium destination last coaching cycle, and the outlook would not change with Van Pelt effectively made a scapegoat for the team’s struggles in 2024.
It is on Mayo, Eliot Wolf and the rest of the team’s decision makers to make those calls. At the end of the day, whatever they decide both on and off the field needs to help reach one goal: support Drake Maye by any means necessary.