New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has had a very busy start to his 2025 year, and it doesn’t appear it’ll slow up anytime soon. On Sunday, after just one year serving as the team’s head coach, Jerod Mayo was fired from the team after an embarrassing (4-13) season that will be tough to forget.
The Patriots will now add HC to their long list of things that they need to go out and get this offseason. Despite needing to upgrade at what feels like every position on the football field and now the most important one on the sideline, quarterback seems to be the one spot that the Patriots are comfortable. Kraft took a moment to acknowledge the Pats’ QB room.
Robert Kraft Admits Luck With Drake Maye, Joe Milton III
Kraft went as far to insinuate that the Patriots may have multiple quarterbacks on their roster that they are fans of. That’s right — a team that was in the running for the No. 1 draft pick has their owner make a bold statement regarding the depth chart for the QB position.
Wrapping up his presser, #Patriots owner Robert Kraft answers a question about the front office and roster by smirking as he says: "It looks like we lucked out — we maybe have two quarterbacks."
Drake Maye and Joe Milton III, in their own ways, made quite a first impression.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 6, 2025
Tom Pelissero reported that as Kraft was wrapping up his presser on Monday, the owner stated, “It looks like we lucked out — we maybe have two quarterbacks.”
Joe Milton III played in his first-ever NFL game on Sunday for the New England Patriots, leading the team to just their fourth win of the season in their season finale against the Buffalo Bills. Milton was impressive, completing his first pass to WR DeMario Douglas for a 12-yard gain. He scored his first NFL touchdown on a 1-yard run to culminate a 13-play, 55-yard drive in the first quarter.
His first career touchdown pass came on a 48-yarder to WR Kayshon Boutte in the second quarter. Milton finished 22/29 for 241 passing yards and two touchdowns (one rushing).
Milton Grades Well in Week 18
Milton ranked seventh out of all 31 qualified QBs for Week 18 with a B- (80.8) in QB+, PFN’s proprietary QB metric. That was the second-best QB+ of the season for the Patriots (behind Maye from Week 16 against the Bills), and it was the 14th-best Patriots single game QB+ since the start of 2019. Kraft clearly liked what he saw out of the young QB making his NFL debut on Sunday.
Drake Maye finished the season ranked 19th in QB+ with a grade of 74.7, good for a C performance.
Kraft has been doing this a long time. Just hours after firing head coach Jerod Mayo, Kraft is looking to find any and all selling points for the next head coach of the Patriots. The possibility of the team stumbling upon a second franchise QB on Sunday in their win over the Bills is a good place to start.
Fans may shake their head at Kraft and his comments on two QBs after Milton’s performance on Sunday. And maybe there is nothing to it. However, is there any human being on the planet that has seen crazier things happen under center than Robert Kraft?