Drake Maye and Josh McDaniels have sparked Patriots' playoff resurgence

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- When Drake Maye met Josh McDaniels for the first time, they were in different countries.

Maye had just proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Ann Michael Hudson, on the sandy beaches of Mexico. McDaniels was moving back into a familiar space as New England Patriots offensive coordinator for the third time in his NFL coaching career.

"He was in the office, obviously, like he always is, probably watching film or something," Maye recalled of the January video call with a smile.

"It had nothing to do with football, that's what I remember," McDaniels said.

It wouldn't be about football for a while. Before Maye and McDaniels shared X's and O's that have made them one of the NFL's most explosive QB-coordinator duos this season, they played pickleball together and dined at McDaniels' home, with quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant joining them. Maye and Ann Michael later bought a home around the corner from McDaniels.

"Gaining that trust and getting to know who they were as people was the first thing," said Grant, who is 30. He has had the most intimate behind-the-scenes viewpoint of how Maye, 23, and McDaniels, 49, have united.

Who won those pickleball games remains top secret. Nonetheless, the "thwack!" was symbolic in the sense they had both taken hits and were motivated, after being on divergent paths last season, to reignite their careers together. Maye was coming off a 4-13 season as a rookie that led to a coaching change in New England, and McDaniels found his "peace and joy" before returning to the NFL for the first time since being fired as Las Vegas Raiders head coach in October 2023.

The AFC East-division champion Patriots host the Los Angeles Chargers in the first round of the AFC playoffs on Sunday (8 p.m. ET, NBC) after completing a 14-3 regular season under coach Mike Vrabel, which ties the 1999 Indianapolis Colts and 2008 Miami Dolphins for the best turnaround in NFL history.

There are myriad reasons sparking the once-proud franchise's resurgence. One of the most important began on that video call.

"I was just looking forward to meeting him and thankful to get the opportunity to play for him," Maye said of his mindset at the time. "Obviously, I heard about him, saw all the old Patriot tapes and old videos, and what he's done here as a coordinator before. It's come true of what I thought."

McDaniels' comeback

THERE WERE NO guarantees McDaniels would be back in the NFL in 2025. He wasn't going to force it after doing important self-improvement work in his first season out of the league since being hired by Bill Belichick in 2001 as a Patriots coaching assistant.

He fell in love with pickleball. Lost weight. Drove his youngest daughters, Livi and Neenah, to school. Watched his son, Jack, play football at John Carroll University, his alma mater. Took his daughter Maddie on college visits.

Coaching can be a rewarding profession, but also stress-filled, especially when losses outnumber wins as they did in Las Vegas.

"The first thing I was doing was trying to get healthy," McDaniels said of his 14 months out of the NFL. "You put yourself on the back burner a little bit when you're doing this thing, grinding at both ends."

McDaniels and his wife, Laura, had kept their home in suburban Boston when McDaniels was hired as Raiders head coach in January 2022. So that brought him back to Massachusetts in November 2023 when his tenure ended with a 9-16 record. A lot of things would have had to fall in place for him to leave his family for another NFL job, even though his acumen as one of the NFL's top playcallers made him a candidate for vacant offensive coordinator jobs. He previously guided the Patriots to eight top-10 rankings in his 13 seasons, including the No. 1 ranking in 2007, 2012 and 2017 with quarterback Tom Brady.

Then the unexpected unfolded in New England.

Jerod Mayo, whom owner Robert Kraft had identified years earlier as his choice to succeed Bill Belichick, was fired after one season. Kraft took the blame for putting Mayo in an unwinnable situation, before quickly hiring Mike Vrabel as the franchise's 16th head coach.

"By this time last year, I had a peace and joy about myself ... I re-gained it and had a different perspective on life and what I was looking for." McDaniels said on the "Schrager Hour" with ESPN's Peter Schrager

As Vrabel began putting a staff together, he started with the core of coaches who had been with him in Tennessee. He had never coached with McDaniels before but had a connection with him from his playing career in New England; McDaniels, then a coaching assistant, picked Vrabel up from the airport on his free agent visit in 2001.

McDaniels was among a handful of candidates interviewed for offensive coordinator -- a group including former Panthers and Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown -- and Vrabel ultimately hired them both with McDaniels as OC and Brown as tight ends coach/passing game coordinator.

McDaniels' affinity for the Patriots, which includes close ties with owner Robert Kraft, was among the reasons the timing was right for his return to coaching. So too was the chance to work under Vrabel, an already-proven head coach with whom he had a prior connection and admiration for his vision of installing a winning culture.

"Beyond grateful," McDaniels said. "This has been a really special place in my professional career, but not just that, in my personal life. My kids, my wife, my family has really grown up and been raised here in New England. To have this opportunity to be with Mike in this place, and to be around this group of people every day, there's a lot of joy in it."

Players have seen it firsthand, noting how often McDaniels talks about Laura and their kids.

"Sometimes he'll FaceTime with the fam, we're in the room, and everyone will say hello," third-string quarterback Tommy DeVito said.

"It seems like it's been good to him," added veteran No. 2 quarterback Joshua Dobbs. "Watching him after a game, he's with his daughters and they have their friends and they're hanging out. His son has been able to come to practice. I can imagine a unique sense of peace -- doing what you love, close to the people you love, and they get to see you do it from the convenience of your own home and not a rental. There's a lot that goes into it outside the [team] complex."

Maye's continued development

WHEN THE PATRIOTS mapped out a plan for Maye's hopeful development in his second NFL season, Vrabel essentially said it had two parallel tracks. The first: Leadership, command and connection that resonates throughout the entire team. Then, mastery of an offense coordinated by McDaniels and supported by a talented, experienced staff of assistants. Putting those together would make Maye, in Vrabel's view, the "conductor" of the Patriots.

Vrabel, as the culture-setting head coach, has worked closely with Maye on the first part -- especially in voluntary spring practices and training camp. He said he was intentional in putting Maye in situations to lead with authenticity, which included supporting his plan to host teammates in his native North Carolina for pre-training camp throwing and bonding sessions. Vrabel also called it a "unique" role for a player who was turning 23 in August, with room to grow.

As this was unfolding, the X's and O's marriage between Maye and McDaniels was also taking shape behind the scenes.

"You have an experienced coach who has done it at the highest level, who has seen the progression of [Tom Brady] come in and become the greatest ever. And you have a curious and wide-eyed young player who's very talented at football coming off a year where you don't win a lot, so you're like 'I'll do whatever if it means we'll be good.' I think that's a good combination," Dobbs, 30, observed.

"The biggest way to grow in life in anything is curiosity, and I think Drake has great curiosity in how to become a great football player, great quarterback. Not just throwing the ball, but managing the game, understanding the offense, leading men."

Leadership was a significant change from 2024. Maye had been more deferential after arriving as the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, careful not to infringe on veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett's turf. Their lockers were side by side. Brissett had a "C" on his jersey as a captain. Maye also was part of a rookie class with sixth-round pick Joe Milton III, who had his own hopes of being the starter.

In 12 starts, but only 10 in which he played all four quarters, Maye totaled 10 interceptions and completed 66.6% of his passes.

"Vrabes calls him the conductor. The train, the show, whatever it is - everything literally goes through the quarterback." Patriots backup QB Tommy DeVito on Drake Maye

In hopes of sparking Maye's growth in 2025, the Patriots altered the quarterbacks room dynamic by signing Dobbs (with his eighth NFL team) early in free agency, trading Milton to the Dallas Cowboys before the first day of voluntary offseason workouts and claiming DeVito on waivers from the New York Giants at the end of the preseason. Vrabel also hired Grant, whom he views as a rising star after getting to know him as part of the Cleveland Browns staff in 2024, as quarterbacks coach.

That infrastructure, along with McDaniels' acumen, contributed to fostering Maye's development when there was inevitable disruption on the railway.

"I missed OTAs and training camp when all that really went down. From what I heard, it was a lot of growing pains from both sides -- all sides -- for the offense in general," DeVito said.

"There is a lot to this offense. When I first got here [at the end of preseason], I was getting frustrated and [they said to me] 'take it easy, we dealt with this all OTAs and training camp.' I know they grinded it out day in and day out a lot to get to the point they are."

That continued into the early part of the regular season. When the Patriots lost to the Raiders 20-13 in the season opener, and Maye looked indecisive at times in finishing 30-of-46 for 287 yards with a touchdown and interception, McDaniels fielded a flurry of questions from the media. One of the most prevalent was if the offense was too complex, and if Maye had "too much on his plate."

McDaniels was calm and decisive in saying they weren't asking too much of Maye.

"It's got to be a long-term vision of where this guy is going to be," he said. "He's going to be a really good player. He's the right guy."

Coming together for an MVP-like season

MCDANIELS REMEMBERS ONE play from training camp providing a glimpse of Maye's promise. It was a broken play. Maye scrambled to his right and looked as if he was going to run out of bounds or throw it away.

Instead, just inches from the sideline, he uncorked a 60-yard bomb down the sideline to receiver DeMario "Pop" Douglas.

"I'm like, 'There's no way he can get the ball to this guy, right?'" McDaniels recalled.

The ball placement was perfect. Douglas, who called it "fastbreak" football, scored. McDaniels' jaw dropped.

"I looked around and was like, 'Did anyone else see this?'" he said.

Coaches had been working with Maye on remaining a thrower for longer instead of taking off to run. The play was one example of how Maye took the coaching to heart.

By season's end, Maye led the NFL in Total QBR (77.2), completion percentage (72%) and yards per attempt (8.9). Since Total QBR was introduced in 2006, the only quarterbacks to lead the NFL in all three of those categories were Tom Brady in 2007 and Tony Romo in 2014.

Maye also became the first quarterback in NFL history to complete at least 71% of his passes and average 8.9 yards per attempt in a season (minimum 100 attempts).

"The questions he asked were questions a guy who has been in the league 4, 5, 6 years would ask. So you knew you were dealing with a guy that could think the game of football." McDaniels on Maye

He entered Week 18 as the favorite to win the NFL's Most Valuable Player award, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. After Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford threw four touchdown passes in a win over the Arizona Cardinals, Stafford became the odds-on favorite (-180) to win MVP ahead of Maye (+150).

"Just the way Josh is wired is good for him. I think they almost counterbalance each other in a way, too," veteran tight end Hunter Henry said. "They've really, really gotten close, seeing things on the same page."

Players say McDaniels' unwavering and relentless attention to detail has been embraced by Maye.

"He's intense in the best way possible -- always firing. Probably one of the more detail-oriented, dialed-in people throughout the day, consistently, I've ever been around," DeVito said of McDaniels.

"Whether it's teams or random companies, if the person leading doesn't have that innate sense of 'I want to get it right, I'm anal about what I do and I take pride in what is being put out there,' usually the results kind of show that," Dobbs added. "I think results have shown success because of his mindset."

As a result, Maye shared he feels well-prepared for the variety of challenges opposing defenses present, which in the playoffs will be among the toughest the Patriots face. New England had an easier schedule -- opponents' final win percentage was .391 -- as a result of its last-place finish in 2024.

"He really takes practice very seriously, and I think that's one of the greatest things about him. He cares so much about practice and getting practice right," Maye said.

In turn, McDaniels has noted Maye's growth-based mindset.

The combination has been at the forefront of the Patriots' stunning turnaround.

"What I'm most impressed and excited about is how much he grows from a good or bad experience," McDaniels said. "I don't know what else you could ask from a player. Some take a little bit longer than others to digest a mistake and learn from it, and then utilize it. Boy, he does that really well."