The New England Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills 24-21 in Week 16. While it was a crushing loss for New England, they saw plenty of positives from Drake Maye in the first quarter.

The Pats were up 14-0 but allowed 24 consecutive points to let it slip away. The Ringer’s founder Bill Simmons is a noted Patriots fan and professed his love for Drake Maye on his podcast.

“I’ll go further, my favorite Boston rookie of the 21st century. I’m all in, I’ll be happy to be haunted by this clip forever. Drake Maye is a sure thing.

All the Pats fans are nodding now, we’ve been watching. He’s f—-ing incredible, our team sucks,” Simmons said.

His co-host “Cousin” Sal Iacono mentioned that Simmons also loved Mac Jones when he finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2021 before this comment. Simmons goes on to say he likes Maye as a rookie more than Mookie Betts or Jayson Tatum.

He says that he has no receivers or protection and that is why they are losing games.

Maye has started and finished one win in nine attempts this season. He gets credit for a win over the Jets that Jacoby Brissett played most of. But Patriots fans, like Simmons, are sold on the North Carolina product.

The Patriots picked a quarterback in the right year

The Patriots won four games last season and picked third because of it.

While they lost out on Caleb Williams, that meant they would get one of the quarterbacks everyone was talking about before the draft.

The Commanders surprised many people by picking Jayden Daniels, leaving the Pats with Drake Maye.

Simmons does say that Maye may not even be the best quarterback in the class. He gave flowers to Washington’s quarterback.

“The funniest thing is he might not even be the best quarterback in his class because Daniels is also amazing. If you gave Caleb vs. Drake Maye it’s no contest.”

And this is not even a three-quarterback class. Bo Nix has the Broncos on the doorstep of the playoffs and has a bright future in the league.

No matter who the Patriots took, there would be fans declaring him the next Tom Brady, to Iacono’s point. But Maye has made some special plays that have fans believing in the Patriots for the first time since Brady left.

Maye can end his season strong with games against the Chargers and Bills and play playoff spoiler down the stretch.