Drake Maye was just five years old when Matthew Stafford was drafted No. 1 overall by the Detroit Lions in 2008, but their two paths are converging in the 2025 NFL MVP race.
Stafford has spent much of the season as the frontrunner, piling up touchdown passes and avoiding turnovers about as well as any other quarterback in the NFL, but another surge by Maye and the Los Angeles Rams’ drift away from the top of the NFC West made the race tighter than ever.
Both Stafford and Maye are hoping their paths cross in February, as both the Rams and New England Patriots have hopes that go far beyond individual awards, but their legacies could be transformed by an MVP award at very different points in their careers.
Here’s a closer look at the stats that could define the MVP race between Stafford and Maye.
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Matthew Stafford vs. Drake Maye stats
| Matthew Stafford | Stat | Drake Maye |
| 17 | Starts | 17 |
| 12-5 | Record | 14-3 |
| 65.0% | Completion rate | 72.0% |
| 4,707 | Passing yards | 4,394 |
| 46 | Passing TD | 31 |
| 8 | INT | 8 |
| 109.2 | Passer rating | 113.5 |
| 1 | Rushing yards | 450 |
| 0 | Rushing TD | 4 |
| 1 | Game-winning drives | 2 |
Stafford easily leads the NFL in touchdown passes with 46, but the young Patriots quarterback is right there with him in many categories.
Maye has a higher completion percentage, finished well beyond 4,000 yards and posted a better passer rating. Maye is also led the Patriots to an AFC East title with less offensive talent around him, while the Rams came up short in the NFC West. Both players are also tied with eight interceptions.
On the ground, Stafford was a non-factor at his age, with one rushing yard this season. Maye isn’t necessarily known as a dual-threat quarterback, but he has four touchdowns and more than 450 yards on the ground.
A 46:8 touchdown-to-interception ratio is nothing to scoff at. Stafford’s ability to get the ball to the end zone and take care of the ball culminated in a streak of 28 consecutive touchdown passes without an interception this season, and it could still give him his first MVP award.
Here’s a look at how Stafford and Maye stacked up against common opponents in 2025:
Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford vs. common opponents this season (CAR, NO, TEN, TB, BAL, ATL):
Maye:6-0 record117/170 (69%)1,495 passing yards13 TD3 INT259 rushing yards, 1 TD
Stafford:4-2 record129/182 (71%)1,544 yards14 TD6 INT-10 rushing yards, 0 TD pic.twitter.com/QqSqTbPGr2
— Mike Kadlick (@mikekadlick) December 30, 2025
Matthew Stafford vs. Drake Maye career stats
| Matthew Stafford | Stat | Drake Maye |
| 239 | Starts | 29 |
| 120-118-1 | Record | 17-12 |
| 63.5% | Completion rate | 69.8% |
| 64,516 | Passing yards | 6,670 |
| 423 | Passing TD | 46 |
| 196 | INT | 18 |
| 92.4 | Passer rating | 103.1 |
| 1,357 | Rushing yards | 871 |
| 15 | Rushing TD | 6 |
Stafford has 16 additional years of experience on Maye, so his career numbers are on a totally different level than the 23-year-old. Stafford will be sixth all-time in passing yards when the season ends, and is is ninth all-time in touchdown passes with only a few more needed to jump to sixth on the list.
For Maye, it’s hard to ask for a more promising first two NFL seasons. Maye wasn’t immune to mistakes as a rookie, doing plenty of losing in a less than ideal situation, but the Patriots surrounded him with better pieces in 2025 and have seen him blossom. Maye has a passer rating north of 100 through his first 29 career starts and is completing nearly 70 percent of his passes.
Has Matthew Stafford ever won MVP?
Stafford has been in the NFL for 18 seasons and has a Super Bowl ring, but he has never won an MVP award.
Until 2023, Stafford had never received an MVP vote, with the caveat that ballots only included first-place votes until the AP changed its process in 2023. As a result, Stafford’s eighth-place finish in the 2023 voting is as close as he has come. Win or lose, that is set to change in 2025.
Youngest NFL MVPs
| Player | Age | Team | Season |
| Jim Brown | 21 | Browns | 1957 |
| Lamar Jackson | 22 | Ravens | 2019 |
| Jim Brown | 22 | Browns | 1958 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 23 | Chiefs | 2018 |
| Dan Marino | 23 | Dolphins | 1984 |
| Walter Payton | 23 | Bears | 1977 |
Maye would be the sixth-youngest MVP in NFL history, as he turned 23 in the days leading up to the 2025 season.
Jim Brown won back-to-back MVP awards at age 21 and 22 in 1957 and 1958, respectively, and the only other player to win MVP at 22 or younger is Lamar Jackson, who didn’t turn 23 until shortly after the 2019 regular season ended.
Patrick Mahomes (2018) and Dan Marino (1984) both turned 23 in the early weeks of their first MVP campaigns, while Walter Payton turned 23 nearly two months before the start of his MVP season in 1977.
