Credit where it’s due, the New England Patriots did on Sunday what the Buffalo Bills have been longing to do for more than 30 years now, and that’s simply playing in the Super Bowl. Of course, no one wants to play in the game and get thumped quite like Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was.
Maye didn’t get much help from his offensive line in Super Bowl LX, getting hit 11 times and sacked six times. The Patriots had no answers for the Seattle Seahawks’ impressive defense, appearing completely outmatched on the sport’s biggest stage, practically from the opening kickoff.
Just 24 hours ago, Patriots fans had a ton of confidence in the future of the AFC East. They were in the Super Bowl, while the Bills are resetting their window with a new head coach, and the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets look as inept as ever. But through the course of 60 minutes of football in Santa Clara, it was Bills Mafia who came away with a clearer picture of what the future of the AFC East holds.
Drake Maye’s postseason flop reframes Buffalo Bills’ AFC East outlook heading into 2026
Make no mistake, everything Bills fans can spout at Patriots fans the day after Super Bowl LX is punching up. While every Bills fan can look at what unfolded on Super Sunday and contend that, at the very least, Josh Allen and the Bills would have been more competitive, it doesn’t change the fact that Maye and the Patriots reached the pinnacle of NFL football that has eluded Buffalo for decades.
But the Patriots’ confidence boost going forward after snatching back their first AFC East title since the Tom Brady era nonetheless took a significant hit, and it’s because Maye was embarrassed so thoroughly on the national stage. And it wasn’t just in the Super Bowl, it was consistent across the entire postseason.
As The Athletic’s Mike Silver pointed out in his Super Bowl story on Maye, the 23-year-old quarterback faced arguably the best three defenses in the NFL in quick succession: the Houston Texans, Denver Broncos and Seahawks. He was flustered and turnover-prone in each contest. Against Houston and Denver, the Patriots’ own defense was able to find its advantages against weaker offenses, but came up short against the clean play of Sam Darnold, who, in stark contrast, went the entire postseason without a turnover.
Throughout the postseason, Maye threw six interceptions, fumbled seven times and was sacked 21 times.
Naturally, now the Patriots head into the offseason with some level of concern about the performance of their young quarterback, who looked far removed from what earned him competitive votes in the MVP race against Matthew Stafford. Some of that concern is wrapped up in the offensive line and rookie left tackle Will Campbell, but it’s not as though Maye offered much reinforcement that he can overcome such issues on his own.
And that’s the difference between the AFC East’s top teams heading into 2026. The Bills have Allen, who put up his first MVP season without a No. 1 receiver and then challenged those statistics in 2025 with a regressed receiving corps. There’s a reason Patriots fans were concerned about potentially meeting the Bills in the postseason for a third matchup. And the Patriots justified those fears with their performances in the AFC Championship despite their win and certainly in their disastrous Super Bowl outing.
Granted, Buffalo has to learn from their own shortcomings and figure out how to get to the Super Bowl. New England still has that to hang over the Mafia’s head for the next seven months. But any notion that the Patriots are set to dominate the AFC East for years to come was snuffed out before Bad Bunny even took the stage for his halftime show.