The New England Patriots are back in the Super Bowl for the first time without Tom Brady. His spiritual successor, Drake Maye, will line up under center. The Patriots went 14-3 in what is just Maye's second NFL season. He's a two-time Pro Bowler out of the gate, and there's a nonzero chance he takes home the MVP award.
It's hard not to compare Brady and Maye given the early timeline similarities and the overwhelming narrative thrust behind the Patriots organization. It's so rare to see a quarterback as great as Brady leave, only for his former team to find such a sensational replacement within a few years. So let's dive into what connects — and what separates — New England's last two franchise QBs.
When did Tom Brady win his first Super Bowl?
The Patriots won their first-ever Super Bowl back in 2002, with Brady at the helm. It was the Michigan product's second season — and his first as a primary starter, after he replaced injured veteran Eric Bledsoe two games into the campaign.
New England beat the then-St. Louis Rams at the Superdome in New Orleans. Brady only threw for 145 yards and one touchdown, but he was gifted MVP honors after he led a field goal drive with 81 seconds left in the fourth quarter to break a 17-17 tie and push New England over the top. It was a magical moment and the beginning of a long, productive partnership with head coach Bill Belichick.
He became the youngest quarterback in NFL history to win the Super Bowl at 24 years old.
Rams quarterback Kurt Warner won the statistical battle that day, but Brady came up in the clutch to stave off an impressive St. Louis comeback. While not necessarily a passing of the torch — Warner never quite reached the heights Brady did, ultimately — it was a remarkable feat for Brady at such a young age. He entered the season as a backup and left as a champion, with the Patriots QB job under wraps for another two decades.
Drake Maye has a chance to beat Brady's record. He will start in Super Bowl LX at the ripe age of 23. He, too, will face a staunch NFC West opponent with a seasoned Pro Bowl quarterback. Sam Darnold is not Kurt Warner, granted, but this Seahawks defense grades out as the best in the NFL this season. If Maye can overcome it at 23, with the hand he was dealt after a three-win 2024 season, it will qualify as one of the all-time great individual (and collective) accomplishments.
How many Super Bowls did Tom Brady win?
Brady would go on to have the greatest career in NFL history. The counterargument does not really exist. He won seven Super Bowls in total — six with the Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers later in his career, after his high-profile breakup with Belichick. He won five Super Bowl MVP trophies. He is the all-time leader for both.
Year | Team | Opponent | Super Bowl MVP |
|---|---|---|---|
2002 | New England Patriots | St. Louis Rams | Yes |
2004 | New England Patriots | Carolina Panthers | Yes |
2005 | New England Patriots | Philadelphia Eagles | No |
2015 | New England Patriots | Seattle Seahawks | Yes |
2017 | New England Patriots | Atlanta Falcons | Yes |
2019 | New England Patriots | Los Angeles Rams | No |
2021 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Kansas City Chiefs | Yes |
Brady is also the all-time leader in Super Bowl appearances with 10. He lost the Eli Manning and the New York Giants twice in a five-year stretch — in 2008 and 2012. That more or less wrapped up Manning's Hall of Fame case. He also lost in 2018 to the Philadelphia Eagles and their backup quarterback, Nick Foles, which became one of the sport's greatest underdog stories.
Brady went a decade between Super Bowl wins from 2005 and 2015, the longest drought of his storied career. It's a credit to him (and Belichick) that New England rallied so effectively in the 2010s, showcasing Brady's impressive longevity, as well as Belichick's ability to grow with the times and keep putting his team in a position to win. Side note: Belichick not being a first-ballot Hall of Famer is laughable.
Why it's unfair to compare Drake Maye to Tom Brady
Drake Maye is on a historic arc of his own. He was a Pro Bowler in his first season after taking over for Jacoby Brissett midway through. Now, in his second season, he's an MVP candidate, an AFC Champion, and potentially a Super Bowl champ. The dust has not settled there, of course, and Seattle is 4.5-point favorites in Las Vegas. That said, with how the arc of sports history tends to bend toward Boston in one way or another, a Patriots victory would feel quite fitting.
If Maye can pull it off, he will have captured his first Super Bowl in his second season, much like Brady. He will have also done so at 23, a year younger than Brady — setting the new NFL record. Frankly, he will have done it with a far weaker supporting cast. You could argue Mike Vrabel is a less established coach, but it's worth remembering that Belichick was once a great defensive mind with a checkered head coaching past before Brady came along and the Patriots launched into the stratosphere. Vrabel, very much a disciple of Belichick, does know what it takes to win on this stage.
And yet, despite the undeniable parallels and the remarkable feat a Drake Maye Super Bowl win would entail, he's a long way from being even remotely comparable to Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. That is just an incredibly unfair bar to set, for obvious reasons based on all the information set out above.
Brady stands alone in NFL history. He's the greatest quarterback, the greatest player, the sport has ever seen. Patrick Mahomes has made his run at Brady's legacy in recent years, but even he remains far off. Not only did Brady reach incredible heights at his peak, but he played for 23 years — and won football games, and Super Bowls, all the way through.
Maye is very much positioned to contend at the top of the AFC for a long, long time. But as Josh Allen, Maye's most common modern-day player comp, proves, talent does not guarantee winning. You need a quality supporting cast, a great coach, stability, injury luck. Maye has a great coach, an okay-ish supporting cast that's bound to improve, and an organization that has been nothing if not consistent over the last 30 years. But even so, it's impossible to guarantee much of anything at this point. So man can go sideways. Even if Maye lives up to every expectation and takes on the mantle of "NFL's best quarterback," winning seven of 10 Super Bowls is a damn near impossible bar.
That's not to say he can't do it, but like... he probably can't. And even when he inevitably falls short of Brady's unrivaled list of accomplishments, that will not mean Maye has failed, or that he can't become one of the greatest players in Patriots history. We need to appreciate Maye on his own terms, without lording the specter of Tom Brady, the literal G.O.A.T., over him.