At the surface level, a great passer is a great quarterback, and a great quarterback is a great passer. Yet when it comes to a player’s standing in the NFL, there’s a bit more nuance to the discussion.

Patriots insider Tom E. Curran posited on the latest Patriots Talk Podcast that while Maye has made major strides as a passer, he still has a ways to go as a quarterback.

“He’s probably a top-eight passer, even a top-five if you look statistically right now. But he’s still a top-15 quarterback, because quarterback is about decision-making, taking care of the ball, game management, blitz understanding, all that stuff,” Curran said. “I’m splitting hairs, but I’m just trying to temper expectations.

“He’s not a top-five quarterback. He’s a top-10 passer though, already.”

While Maye has had continued issues with turnovers, Phil Perry argued that Maye has been better than he’s gotten credit for in some areas.

“I think we’re seeing it fall into place,” Perry said. “Passer vs. quarterback? I think he’s already doing some quarterbacky things that maybe we haven’t given him a ton of credit for. One of the things that is really interesting to me, he leads the league in a lot of these categories, he’s top five in a lot of categories. They almost never throw down the field. Almost never. Because they don’t have the personnel to do it.”

Perry noted that the fourth-and-3 back-shoulder throw to Stefon Diggs was a rare exception to that general rule for the 2025 Patriots.

“He’s accumulating these statistics in somewhat of a dink-and-dunk fashion. That’s the kind of quarterback play that we used to revere around here,” Perry said. “So to me has had his brain-fart moments, but he’s also been very accurate, he’s gotten the ball out of his hands quickly, I think he understands what defenses are doing to him, I think he understands what Josh McDaniels has given to him.

“There has not been a lot of — while there has been movement and outside-the-pocket play, I would still say that’s been in structure, for the most part. It’s not an, ‘I’m under pressure, let me bail, run left 20 yards, run right 15 yards and make a throw on the run because we’re executing a scramble drill’ situation. It really hasn’t been that.”

While there may be some disagreement, Curran offered some perspective on the state of the Patriots’ quarterback play.

“I’m thinking of how in 2021 and 2022, we here in New England … were watching Mac Jones throw back-shoulder throws to DeVante Parker,” Curran said. “Isn’t it a lot better to watch Drake Maye throw back-shoulder throws to a-returning-from-an-ACL Stefon Diggs? It’s a lot better.”

Also in this episode:

Are the Patriots better than what their record shows? 

How does Drake Maye compare to Josh Allen in year two? 

Previewing the upcoming Patriots-Bills matchup.