Halfway through the season, let’s hand out some hardware.
The Patriots are among the biggest surprises and best teams in the NFL through Week 8, a time when contenders and pretenders tend to reveal themselves. The Pats already stand among the contenders, despite the fact they are actively rebuilding under Mike Vrabel. How?
Start with Drake Maye, then a bevy of impressive veterans, like Stefon Diggs, who have fit perfectly around him. No team can surprise without a supporting case exceeding expectations, which is exactly what’s happened in New England. That goes for the coaches, too.
From the Patriots’ MVP to best assistant, it’s time for the Herald’s midseason awards.
MVP
QB Drake Maye
Who else?
Maye is the most accurate quarterback in football by completion percentage and advanced metrics. He ranks second by EPA per play and passer rating, third in touchdown passes and fifth in passing yards. Maye is also beating defenses with his legs, rushing for 250 yards to defeat sticky man-to-man coverage.
There is no solving him. No perfect call. Maye can thread deep passes and extend perfectly defended plays until a receiver pops free, or a rushing lane appears. The rookie seen scrambling for his life last year is gone. This is a quarterback in control and in command.
When you consider the Pats’ bottom-10 run game, no one is doing more with less across the entire league. Maye is not just the Patriots’ midseason MVP. He’s the NFL’s, too.
Honorable mentions: N/A
Best offensive player
WR Stefon Diggs
The days when Diggs was limited and, at times, invisible during Patriots training camp practices seem like forever ago.
Diggs is tracking for the seventh 1,000-yard season of his career, and leading the Pats in all major receiving categories except touchdowns. He may not be the prototypical No. 1 receiver he once was, but Diggs is the best receiver to call Foxboro home since at least prime Julian Edelman. His feel for finding holes in zone coverage helped him rapidly develop chemistry with Maye, and his versatility makes him a threat both outside and in the slot.
He played his best when his best was required during a Week 5 trip to Buffalo, where he posted season highs with 10 catches and 146 receiving yards. The Patriots’ younger receivers have also touted Diggs’ leadership and presence, something Vrabel also mentioned after the team’s latest win when the 31-year-old scored his first touchdown this season.
“He’s vocal, he cares, he’s a great teammate,” Vrabel said. “He’s been really good for that position and some of the younger guys’ development. So, I’m happy to be able to get him in the end zone. It was long overdue.”
Honorable mentions: WR Kayshon Boutte, C Garrett Bradbury
Best defensive player
CB Marcus Jones
The AFC’s Defensive Player of the Month for October isn’t getting slighted here.
Jones has been everywhere, tallying 36 tackles, two interceptions, seven pass deflections and a sack. He is one of eight players in the NFL with two picks and a sack, and among that group — which includes Patriots inside linebacker Robert Spillane and safety Jaylinn Hawkins — Jones leads in both pass breakups and tackles for loss.
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Through eight games, he’s played 76% of the Patriots’ defensive snaps, most of which have come at nickelback. He intercepted Josh Allen in the second half of a crucial win at Buffalo, and has gotten his hands on the ball in every game since. It’s unlikely Jones will finish the season as the Patriots’ most impactful defender, but right now, there’s no contest.
That’s why, among a few other reasons, the Patriots signed him to a fresh contract extension this week.
“I think he embodies everything that we’re looking for here in a player, in a teammate, on the field, in the community,” Vrabel said. “It’s something that we were excited about doing and glad that he wanted to get that done and be with us moving forward.”
Honorable mentions: DL Milton Williams, Spillane
Best rookie
LT Will Campbell
Who saw this coming?
Campbell not only ranks among the league’s most effective pass-protectors at his position, he’s been one of the better offensive tackles in the NFL. He ranks in the top 30 among offensive tackles, per PFF grades, and has logged multiple games without allowing a single pressure. Campbell’s athleticism has also shone through on some perimeter runs, where he’s served as a pulling lead blocker for fellow rookie TreVeyon Henderson.
Without Campbell measuring up to at least replacement level, the Patriots would field one of the least imposing left tackle-left guard combinations in football; a real risk to Maye’s protection. Instead, the 21-year-old has not only carried his own weight, he’s thrown his weight around.
Honorable mentions: S Craig Woodson, K Andres Borregales
Best play
Antonio Gibson’s kickoff return TD at Miami
Imagine where the Patriots would be without this play.
Trailing 27-23 midway through the fourth quarter after taking a gut punch on Malik Washington’s punt return touchdown, Gibson scored what remains the only kickoff return touchdown in the NFL. That play hoisted the Patriots back into the lead, a lead they kept for their first win under Vrabel, first win in South Florida since 2019 and the beginning of a special start to the season. Gibson later won AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
The Patriots have made splashier plays since, and Maye nailed two impressive completions on his game-winning drive at Buffalo, but arguably none of those moments would have been as meaningful had the team not won first at Miami.
Honorable mentions: Borregales’ game-winning 52-yard field goal at Buffalo, Maye’s 53-yard touchdown to DeMario Douglas at New Orleans
Biggest surprise
WR Kayshon Boutte
Even the optimist’s optimist couldn’t have expected this from Boutte.
The third-year receiver has done a 180 from where his NFL career started as a professional healthy scratch. He’s a couple of games away from setting a new career high for receiving yards in a season, and already past that mark in touchdowns scored. Boutte is more mature, consistent, productive and downright dangerous on deep routes.
He ranks third in the NFL at 18.7 yards per catch, having piled up 431 yards on 23 catches. He leads the Patriots in receiving touchdowns. Maye loves targeting Boutte any time he’s 1-on-1 down the field, explaining this week the two built chemistry by beating star cornerback Christian Gonzalez in practice last season.
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The stats bear that out: Boutte has scored four touchdowns in the last three weeks, all on deep throws.
“Everybody just assumes all receivers can track the ball the same,” Pats offensive coordinator Josj McDaniels began this week, “Some of them can, some of them do it a little bit better than others, but (Boutte) certainly has had an opportunity to make some catches where the ball’s going a different direction, different angle. … And to run full speed with a defender near you, look back for the ball, have to adjust to it, and then have strong enough hands to complete the play, I think that speaks to why he’s been so successful.”
Honorable mentions: Campbell, OLB K’Lavon Chaisson
Biggest disappointment
RB TreVeyon Henderson
A victim of his own summer success, Henderson has underwhelmed in just about every sense.
He’s struggled mightily in blitz pickup, despite thriving as a pass-protector in college. He’s breaking roughly one tackle per game. And he’s leaving rushing yards on the field, per Next Gen Stats, which ranks Henderson as a bottom-5 runner relative to expectation; meaning he’s gaining 0.64 yards fewer per rush than an average rusher based on the number and proximity of his blockers and box defenders.
Henderson, nonetheless, remains one of the Patriots’ most gifted weapons. His 4.3 speed finally popped last Sunday in a win over the Browns, when he pocketed a season-high 75 rushing yards. Then again, he also fumbled at the end, which leaves some uncertainty about how he’ll perform as the team’s No. 1 back this Sunday versus Atlanta; an unexpected development for a player many regarded as the Patriots’ best offensive performer in training camp.
Honorable mentions: RB Rhamondre Stevenson, CB Alex Austin
Best assistant coach
Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels
It’s hard to ask much more from an offensive coordinator.
Elite offensive production? Check.
The Patriots rank eighth in scoring and sixth by offensive EPA.
Development of a young quarterback? Check.
Maye owns the third-best odds of becoming the next NFL MVP, according to most sportsbooks, where he trails only the reigning MVP, Josh Allen, and two-time MVP Patrick Mahomes.
Problem-solving with mid-game adjustments? Check.
McDaniels orchestrated three straight touchdown drives in the second half of last Sunday’s win over the Browns, when the Patriots broke from a 9-7 game at halftime and pulled away with a blowout win. As much as those series may have impressed fans, McDaniels’ No. 1 fan was taking orders and working with him on every drive en route to a fifth straight win.
“He’s just dialing it up multiple times and getting guys open and really making it easy for me,” Maye said after last Sunday’s win. “He’s done it his whole life, and I feel like he was put on this earth to be an offensive coordinator. It was fun to be in the headset with him.”
Honorable mentions: Wide receivers coach Todd Downing, offensive line coach Doug Marrone
Quote of the Week
“I remember in high school, we had big crowds at high school back in – I went to Myers Park [High School] in Charlotte – and I just remember throwing deep balls and the crowd would gasp. Just hearing that gasp was pretty cool. Whether it’s incomplete or not – hopefully we completed more than we didn’t – but I think hearing the crowd get into it, I think you always get excited. Coach (McDaniels) was talking about how you can hear kind of the gasp – on the trick plays too, you always hear it.” — Patriots quarterback Drake Maye on his deep passing
