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New England Patriots free agent signing Dre'Mont Jones reflected on competing against Drake Maye during the 2025 season.

When the New England Patriots selected Drake Maye No. 3 overall, they hoped he would develop into one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Almost nobody expected that to come in his second season, but it did, with Maye finishing second in MVP voting.

Maye became a massive problem for opposing defenses, mixing his athleticism with downfield passing. That’s something Patriots newcomer Dre’Mont Jones had to put up with a season ago when he was playing for both the Tennessee Titans and the Baltimore Ravens.

Now that Jones and Maye are on the same side, he can laugh about it. However, there was one 4th and 3 in particular that seems to be haunting him.

“I’m not gonna give any ammo to get in Drake’s head. I mean, Drake is a hell of a quarterback,” Jones said. “He gave us a lot of problems. The memory that burns in my head is when he had him on 4th and 3 and he threw that out route when I was in Baltimore. I thought we had him stopped to ice the game, but that memory is burned in my head about Drake. That just lets you know how talented of a quarterback he is.”

In his two games against Jones’ teams a season ago, Maye and the Patriots earned a pair of wins. That included Jones sacking Maye twice, once in each game. However, Maye also threw for a combined 602 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Drake Maye is Looking to Take Another Step Forward in 2026

If Drake Maye were simply to replicate his 2025 season in 2026, he’d still be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. At the same time, he’d also love to take another step forward in 2026.

Former Patriots star Julian Edelman recently spoke about that leap into next year. After all, given that this will be Maye’s second season with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, he should be even better.

“Another year in the same system,” Edelman said. “This will be Year Two with Josh McDaniels. I think they’re naturally going to get better together the longer they play together. Seeing him being able to handle those types of situations. We saw him explosive down the field. We saw him dink and dunk with the completion percentage. That was elite. We need to see him when (expletive) hits the fan That’s what I want to see him, when it’s gritty time. Like we saw all Super Bowl. It was tough to block those guys, but we still got to find a way.”

That Super Bowl loss was a tough one. It was also an opportunity for Maye to earn some experience, though, and use that to work on 2026.

“It’s humbling,” Maye said. “You got to get back to work. When you’re so close and within reach, you want that feeling. Everybody says you’ll be back. It’s not that easy, so we got to get back to work. And I’m looking forward to try to prove to myself that I can get back.”

Dre’Mont Jones Should Be a Boost to the Patriots Pass Rush

Going into the offseason, the Patriots were focused on addressing the pass rush. Dre’Mont Jones, it turned out, was going to be one of the key additions for New England with the hopes that he’ll bring both leadership and production.

2026 will be Jones’ eighth NFL season, having previously played for four different teams. It also comes after his most productive professional season. That saw him produce 7.0 sacks and recover 2 fumbles. If he repeats that, he can be an effective replacement for K’Lavon Chaisson.