NFL stats and records, Week 17: Patriots QB Drake Maye makes case for MVP

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NFL Research spotlights the best nuggets from each slate of games. Here are the most eye-popping statistical accomplishments from Week 17 of the 2025 season.

Drake Maye threw his fifth touchdown pass in Sunday’s game against the Jets with 8:16 left in the third quarter and didn’t play another snap. He had just two incomplete passes (19-for-21) to go alongside those five scoring strikes in Week 17. He converted a couple of third downs with his legs. Did we mention that he had five TD passes?

The Patriots are 13-3 and have clinched the AFC East (thanks in part to the Bills’ loss to the Eagles). Maye currently leads all qualified quarterbacks in completion percentage (71.7 percent), average yards per pass attempt (8.9) and passer rating (112.9). His MVP case has been made.

But in Week 17, albeit against a Jets defense that is still without an interception, Maye was (nearly) perfect. He completed over 90 percent of his passes, threw for 256 yards and five touchdowns and led the Patriots to a 42-10 win. In doing so, Maye became the first player in the history of the NFL to complete over 90 percent of his passes while throwing for at least 250 yards and five touchdowns in a game. One of one. Lowering those statistical thresholds, it was Maye’s seventh game of 2025 in which he completed at least 75 percent of his passes while throwing for at least 200 yards and two touchdowns. The only QB in NFL history with more such games in a season? Tom Brady in the Patriots’ perfect 2007 regular season. Brady became the first player in Patriots history to be named NFL MVP that season.

Maye (23 years old) currently has 30 passing touchdowns against just eight interceptions on the season, putting him on pace to become just the second player with 30-plus TD passes and fewer than 10 picks in a season before age 25, joining Lamar Jackson (age 22) in his Lamarvelous 2019 MVP campaign.

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Ja’Marr Chase went seven straight games without scoring a touchdown. That is unheard of for the 2024 receiving triple crown winner. (Chase previously had never gone four straight games in a season without a touchdown in his NFL career.)

That streak came to an end in Week 17 against the Cardinals. The first score of the game was a 13-yard touchdown to Chase from Joe Burrow. Chase would add another before the half, raising his season total to seven touchdowns, a number Chase has reached (or surpassed) every season since being drafted fifth overall in 2021. Chase joined Randy Moss as the only players in NFL history with at least seven receiving TDs in each of their first five seasons. Chase is the only player in the history of the league to catch at least 80 passes and score seven touchdowns in each of his first five seasons.

Week 17 was the 13th game of Chase’s young career in which he scored multiple receiving touchdowns — trailing only Hall of Famer Jerry Rice (17) for the most such games in a player’s first five seasons.

3) Ford makes historic catch vs. Cardinals

The Bengals are known for having one of the most dynamic pairs of receivers in the NFL. In Week 17, that duo looked a little different — with Ja’Marr Chase catching two touchdowns passes and Cody Ford making history with a 21-yard catch-and-run.

Yes, Ford the backup offensive lineman.

While he’s not the heaviest Ford you’ll ever see (most pickups weigh a couple of tons), Cincy’s Ford, at 345 pounds, is the heaviest player in NFL history to have a 20-yard play from scrimmage.

Cody Ford, listed at 345 pounds, is the heaviest player in NFL history to have a 20+ yard play from scrimmage https://t.co/9mc250wrEa

— Dante Koplowitz-Fleming (@DanteKopFlem) December 28, 2025

Disregarding the yardage, Ford is the heaviest offensive lineman with a reception since Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Boller against the Rams in 2003.

One more aspect of Ford’s catch that makes it unique: He was split out wide. According to Next Gen Stats, Joe Burrow’s pass to Ford traveled 26 yards through the air as the crow flies — the third-longest completed pass to an offensive lineman in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).

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