Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye has impressed in the early going. Steven Senne/Associated Press

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Call me crazy.

Short-sighted.

A sucker for believing six games is enough for such a declaration.

Go ahead.

But small sample size be damned, Drake Maye is a franchise quarterback.

I’ve seen enough.

The Patriots found one. Again.

The rarest, most valuable commodity in football resides in Foxborough, Massachusetts. And no matter how this 3-8 team spirals or wherever it might soar, the fact the Patriots can lay their heads down at night and know Maye will be in New England for years to come is what matters.

He is the reason to believe in the franchise’s future.

He is the reason for opponents to take the Patriots seriously in the present.

“He looks like he’s going to be a special player for a long time,” Rams Coach Sean McVay said last week, “and he gave us fits today.”

Maye is the attraction that brings fans to Gillette Stadium and puts New England on the map for future free agents.

Granted, Maye’s raw stats – a 66.7% completion percentage, nine touchdowns and six interceptions – hardly blow anyone away. But consider the circumstances.

The Patriots’ pass protection grades out as the second-worst in the league, per Pro Football Focus. Maye is facing pressure on more than 40% of his dropbacks. By the time his back foot hits the turf on pass plays, the receiving corps he’s staring at downfield is arguably the league’s worst.

And if the anonymous film watchers aren’t enough to sway you, consider this simple stat about the Patriots’ receivers: Kendrick Bourne, benched two weekends ago, returned to have more receiving yards in last Sunday’s loss to the Rams than all other Patriots wideouts combined.

These are the weapons Maye is working with, game after game.

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is a franchise player, says Boston Herald writer Andrew Callahan. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press

Now, it was one thing for Maye to draw comparisons to Justin Herbert as a prospect during the draft process as a tall, strong quarterback with a rocket arm and plus mobility. But it was another thing for one of Herbert’s ex-teammates, Patriots tight end Hunter Henry, to compare Maye to Herbert on Wednesday.

“There’s a lot of similarities in a lot of ways,” he said. “They’re different, but they’re similar in a way, too. So, I mean, Justin’s a special player, but, you know, Drake’s a very special player, too.”

The deeper numbers back this up.

According to FTN Fantasy, Maye is creating plays – defined as offensive snaps where the quarterback leaves the pocket and/or attempts a pass after his first read – at the second-highest rate in the league. Despite shouldering that load by himself, this 22-year-old Atlas is the fifth-most proficient creator in the NFL by Expected Points Added (EPA) per play.

That is astounding.

The only quarterbacks in his neighborhood in this regard are the league’s leading MVP candidates – Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen – and Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts. That’s it.

Two more top-10 quarterbacks aren’t far behind (Patrick Mahomes and Jayden Daniels), but Maye by this measure is ahead of them. Of course, most quarterbacking occurs inside the pocket, and that’s exactly where Maye inspired confidence in his teammates in the first place.

Patriots wideout K.J. Osborn told me Wednesday he saw Maye’s early-career trajectory compare loosely to the track his ex-teammate, All-Pro receiver Justin Jefferson, took in Minnesota. Osborn watched Jefferson stack practice after practice as a rookie in 2020, then finally earn starting snaps during a Week 3 trip to Tennessee.

Jefferson popped off for 175 yards and a touchdown that day, and has since been regarded as one of the best players – let alone receivers – in the entire league. Four years later, Maye was forced to wait until Week 6 to make his season debut, by which point Osborn already believed. Maye’s mastery of the playbook, the huddle, defensive disguises and off-schedule playmaking were enough for him.

“After (Maye) started getting settled with that stuff, in practice you started to be like, ‘Oh. Oh!’” Osborn told me. “Then it was, ‘Whoa, whoa!’ … I think he’s special. I think he’s really special.”

Days before the Patriots faced the Titans earlier this month, Osborn told assistant receivers coach Tiquan Underwood what he saw in the rookie. Even though the Patriots lost that day, thanks to a late Maye pick, Osborn had his position coach sold.

“I was telling (Underwood) that I know of how this league works and records and awards and stuff like that. So I was telling him, if our record was better, Drake would be Rookie of the Year,” Osborn said. “That was the week before Tennessee, and then at Tennessee, he had that last play, and Underwood comes up to me, ‘You told us! You said it!’”

Patriots offensive lineman Mike Onwenu agrees with the veteran receiver. Onwenu held off a little longer, curious how Maye would perform in his start against Houston, one of three top-12 scoring defenses he’s now faced as a pro. By the time Onwenu rewatched the tape of that game, he was more than sold.

“We were just seeing (Maye’s) throws and his decision-making and him getting the ball out his hands and making good reads and breaking off scrambles and getting yards,” Onwenu remembered. “Like, OK, he can throw, he can run, he can get the ball up quick, he can read the defense, and all that.”

I am a Drake Maye believer.

I gave a full endorsement of Maye as the No. 3 overall pick weeks before the Patriots submitted the card. What he has shown since that has only strengthened my belief he will be a top-10 quarterback for years to come.

But this isn’t about belief anymore.

This is about a rookie carrying a team instead of a team carrying him; a 22-year-old acting like the adult in the room and a veteran on the field; a player with power and performance beyond expectation.

This is about a real franchise quarterback.