{"id":653934,"date":"2026-01-04T19:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T19:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/653934\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T19:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T19:03:12","slug":"cam-newton-patriots-qb-drake-maye-is-a-game-manager-not-a-game-changer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/653934\/","title":{"rendered":"Cam Newton: Patriots QB Drake Maye is a game manager, not a game-changer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cam Newton has not been shy<\/a> about not giving the Patriots<\/a> and Drake Maye<\/a> their flowers this season. And the former NFL MVP continued that trend on his \u201c4th & 1<\/a>\u2033 podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrake Maye is well and capable, has all the upside, and skillset. But last year, under his player\u2019s status, a head coach was fired,\u201d Newton said<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s not to say, \u2018Aw, man, you can\u2019t say that. That wasn\u2019t all Drake Maye, he was a young quarterback.\u2019 But, does Jerod Mayo have a job right now? Offensive coordinator was Alex Van Pelt. Is he an offensive coordinator anywhere in this league?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayo and Van Pelt both lasted one season in New England.<\/a> Despite the team\u2019s struggles, Maye still showed flashes of what he could bring to the Patriots and showed continuous growth each week.<\/p>\n

Now with Mike Vrabel as coach and Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator, Maye has reached another level in Year 2. The 23-year-old has put himself in the MVP conversation, but Newton believes it has more to do with the coaching staff than Maye himself. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow insert Mike Vrabel. Now insert a dynamic play-caller in Josh McDaniels. The system is right,\u201d Newton said<\/a>. \u201cSo I can\u2019t just sit up here and say Drake Maye is a game-changer right now because we\u2019ve only had one season of dynamic play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m telling you is the truth. The person that\u2019s delivering the truth, you may not like,\u201d he added<\/a>. \u201cDrake Maye is a game manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newton called<\/a> the Patriots\u2019 success \u201cfool\u2019s gold<\/a>\u201d twice due to their schedule. Maye brushed off the criticism<\/a> and said Newton gets paid to make such comments, and he wasn\u2019t even sure what show Newton was on. Stephen A. Smith<\/a> inserted himself into the drama, calling Maye a liar<\/a> because of the ratings \u201cFirst Take\u201d draws. <\/p>\n

Going into Week 18, Maye has 4,203 yards, 30 touchdowns and eight interceptions, and has a chance. He\u2019s helped the Patriots to their first AFC East title since 2019, first playoff appearance since 2021 and can earn his first MVP award. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cam Newton has not been shy about not giving the Patriots and Drake Maye their flowers this season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,31185,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-653934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-newengland","12":"tag-newenglandpatriots","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nflraw25","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115838386681003305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}