Drake Maye and head coach Mike Vrabel had done what many thought was impossible after the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick tenures. Seeing the New England Patriots charge through the season was a pleasant surprise, and people want to see Maye do it all over again. But having learned the hard way, former quarterback Drew Bledsoe cautioned fans who remain starry-eyed about the still-young QB.

“I would say to people out there, temper your expectations just a little bit if your expectations are MVP and win the Super Bowl. That’s really, really hard,” Bledsoe said on Up & Adams. “… They put you up on this incredible pedestal that’s almost unattainable, and then from there they just shoot at you. I knew that going in. I knew what it was; I wasn’t afraid of it.

“There is a thing where sometimes, these expectations can outpace reality. There are so many different things that go into the success or failure of a team.”

In 1994, his second season in the league, Bledsoe went to the playoffs and was able to finish 10-6, leading the league with 4,555 yards. But the next year, the Patriots could only put together a 6-10 season. Perhaps the exact result may be waiting for Drake Maye, who is only in his third season in the league.

There are reasons to be excited about the QB this year. An NFL MVP finalist, the young QB threw for 4,394 passing yards and scored 31 passing touchdowns. He enters this season having finished with the highest QB rating in the league last year, ahead of veterans Matthew Stafford and Dak Prescott. But at the same time, Maye is only in his third season in the league; there’s still so much he has to experience.

He’s lost a Super Bowl, but has that thickened his skin enough?

This year, the Patriots’ schedule will be an uphill climb for Maye. Per the NFL, they have the fifth-toughest schedule. They begin their season by opening on the road, against the Seattle Seahawks. Their next two games are with the Jacksonville Jaguars, followed by the Buffalo Bills. The opponents on this season’s schedule had a .531 winning percentage last year. Maye has his work cut out for him if he wants to win the Super Bowl.

Maye is already using Super Bowl loss as motivation for the Seahawks rematch

A Super Bowl loss in many ways can be a career-defining loss for an NFL quarterback. But the good thing for Maye is that he will get a chance to redeem that loss quite soon. The Patriots and the Seahawks face each other in the opening kickoff game of the season. And that opportunity is not lost on Maye.

“I think it’s a chance for us to get some extra motivation during training camp,” Maye said. “You know, starting off with a bang like that, a chance to get an opponent that left a bad taste in our mouth. So, I think it’s something for us that’s going to really make us work. We’ve got to bring it Week 1 on the road in a tough environment. They’re going to be hanging their banner, and that’s the part of it. So, I think it’s going to be interesting. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a tough task.”

While Maye seems to be saying all the right things and taking the right approach entering his third season, Bledsoe’s comments still make a ton of sense. Maye also needs to prepare himself mentally and emotionally for the increased pressure of expectations this season.