Despite all the struggles that the Patriots have had this season, they do appear to have their franchise quarterback in Drake Maye. The third overall pick in the draft, Maye has demonstrated some playmaking ability with his legs when the play isn’t there to be made within the structure of the New England offense.

Maye is averaging 8.5 yards per carry on his 42 rushing attempts this season, which have gone for a total of 359 yards. The highest rushing average for an NFL quarterback in a single season is 8.5, set by Michael Vick in 2006 with Atlanta.

Recently, however, Maye has been more decisive passing the ball. In each of his last two games, Maye has completed 80 percent of his passes, finishing 19-for-23 last week at Arizona (82.6%). In the Patriots’ previous game, Maye completed 24-of-30 pass attempts for an 80 percent completion percentage.

“Drake has a lot of great attributes as a quarterback, and you can tell why the New England Patriots are so happy about him,” said Von Miller. “He has a very bright future. He can run the ball. He can throw the ball. The future is bright for Drake. You turn the film, he’s going to take whatever you give him, whether that’s running the ball or it’s throwing the ball deep. He’s very talented. He presents a lot of challenges for a defense.”

Like most rookie quarterbacks, Maye has shown a propensity to throw interceptions. It’s partly due to trying to make things happen in an offense that is starved for points, managing just 17 points per game. The Patriots signal caller has thrown at least one interception in each of his last six games, good for the longest streak in the league.

“He’s very aggressive with the football and confident right now,” said Orlovsky. “So, I think that the ideal situation is you make the Patriots unbelievably one dimensional and neutralize their run game. You make it a game where Drake Maye has to drop back 40 times and throw it.”