{"id":727488,"date":"2026-02-04T00:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/727488\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T00:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:17:12","slug":"what-sparked-patriots-wideouts-career-best-season-drake-maye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/727488\/","title":{"rendered":"What sparked Patriots wideout’s career-best season? ‘Drake Maye’"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA, Calif. \u2014 Kayshon Boutte put together the best season of his NFL career in 2025.<\/p>\n

For that, he credits his quarterback.<\/p>\n

Asked Tuesday what led to his statistical improvement, the third-year Patriots wide receiver replied: \u201cDrake Maye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boutte undoubtedly benefited from playing with an NFL MVP candidate behind center. Though his reception and yardage totals (33 for 551) decreased from their 2024 marks, he caught twice as many touchdowns (six) and substantially improved his catch rate (71.7%) and yards-per-target average (12.0).<\/p>\n

The LSU product leads all New England pass-catchers in receiving yards this postseason (147 on eight catches), and he made one of the greatest catches in Patriots playoff history<\/a> in the divisional round, beating Houston Texans All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. for a one-handed touchdown.<\/p>\n

Maye, meanwhile, emerged as one of the NFL\u2019s premier QBs in his second season, leading the league in completion percentage, yards per attempt, passer rating, QBR and a slew of other categories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew Drake was that guy,\u201d Boutte said. \u201cI always did believe in him, believe in what he could do. When you practice with a guy every day, you see his ability, what he\u2019s able to do, so I\u2019ve always been a Drake Maye believer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks largely to Maye\u2019s ascension and the influence of head coach Mike Vrabel, the Patriots followed up back-to-back four-win seasons by going 14-3, then dispatching the Chargers, Texans and Broncos to reach their first Super Bowl since the 2018 season.<\/p>\n

For players like Boutte and slot receiver DeMario Douglas, 2023 draftees who were around for both of New England\u2019s 4-13 clunkers, this run has been especially rewarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome days, we\u2019ll be sitting there and be like, \u2018Damn,\u2019\u201d Boutte said. \u201cWe went through the tough times, so now it feels like everything\u2019s finally paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA, Calif. \u2014 Kayshon Boutte put together the best season of his NFL career in 2025. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[833,60956,7,6306,104998,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,95742,505,23840],"class_list":["post-727488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-drake-maye","tag-drake-maye-patriots","tag-football","tag-kayshon-boutte","tag-kayshon-boutte-stats","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots","tag-patriots-super-bowl","tag-super-bowl","tag-super-bowl-60"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116009490655270601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727488","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=727488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}