CHICAGO — “MVP” chants reigned down on New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye on Sunday in Foxborough, Mass. The second-year quarterback later claimed not to hear them.

Maye threw for 282 yards and three touchdowns in a win over the Cleveland Browns. He has the Patriots sitting at 6-2 atop the AFC East Division, ahead of even the high-powered Buffalo Bills.

Maye has quarterbacked the Patriots to five consecutive wins, and in those five games he has thrown for 10 touchdowns and one interception. His MVP odds have surged at most major sportsbooks. He’s currently third — yes, third — behind only Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. The NFL world is taking notice of what Maye is doing.

So, too, is Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.

“He’s been playing well,” Williams said Wednesday at Halas Hall. “The times that I’ve been able to watch them play, whether it’s just me sitting at home and watching them and things like that, he’s been playing on time.”

Williams keeps an eye on all the quarterbacks who were selected in the 2024 draft. Williams, of course, went No. 1. The Washington Commanders selected Jayden Daniel with the second pick, while Maye went third to the Patriots.

All in all, six quarterbacks went in the first 12 picks, the others being the Atlanta Falcons’ Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8, Minnesota Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy at No. 10 and Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix at No. 12. That tied the record (with the 1983 draft) for the most quarterbacks selected in the first round. All six are starting for their teams, although McCarthy has been out since Week 2 with an ankle injury.

Williams has never been afraid to tout what some of his competitors are doing.

“It’s a pretty badass class, right?” Williams said in the lead-up to a Week 6 matchup against Daniels and the Commanders.

Those six quarterbacks will never escape the comparison game. That’s the nature of the beast when they’re all part of the same historic draft class.

Williams isn’t getting caught up in comparisons, whether that’s with Daniels, Maye or anybody else.

“I don’t compare,” Williams said. “It’s just different situations, different coaches, different years, different development, we’re different players, different playing styles and all these different things. So you start trying to compare stats and stuff, and you lose sight of where you’re at, what you’re focused on.”

The reality is they are all on different planes. A year ago, Daniels was stealing the rookie quarterback spotlight as he carried the Commanders to the NFC championship game. Daniels went on to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. This year, Maye is thriving under first-year Patriots coach Mike Vrabel.

Maye has thrown for 2,026 yards with 15 touchdowns and three interceptions. He leads the NFL in completion percentage at 75.2% and is second in passer rating at 118.7. He already has matched his rookie season in touchdown passes (he started 12 games last year). He has completed better than 70% of his passes in all but two games this season.

He told reporters Wednesday in Foxborough, Mass., that a lot of little things are adding up to big success on the field.

“Coach is challenging me to keep on taking that next step and those little things, moving defenders (with my eyes) and using my cadence,” Maye said. “He’s really challenging me and coaching me hard to continue to do those things at a high level and I think I have a long way to go in that category.”

The Patriots put their hopes in a new coaching staff to help elevate Maye’s play, and the early returns appear promising. Coach Ben Johnson is in Chicago to do something similar for the Bears. Both quarterbacks spent the offseason learning new offenses.

Through seven games, Williams has completed 61.9% of his passes for 1,636 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions. Nobody is clamoring for him to be in the MVP discussion, but that’s far from how success is measured in the NFL.

Johnson has put a lot of emphasis on that completion-percentage number, something Maye is doing exceedingly well. Johnson said before the season that 70% is the goal. Williams isn’t hitting that number, but that also wasn’t necessarily a directive for this season. Only five quarterbacks hit that mark over the full season a year ago.

“Each week’s its own story, and to me it’s always been completion-driven for him,” Johnson said. “And if we get that completion percentage (up) and we’re distributing the football to our playmakers — because we got a number of them — then I think the passer rating and the numbers, that they’ll all take care of itself.”

Part of that, too, is about taking the easy ones, such as during his fourth-quarter interception. Johnson would’ve preferred his QB check it down to running back Kyle Monangai underneath. Williams agreed when asked about it Wednesday.

“In that situation, just understand it, go get Kyle the ball as fast as possible and then let him go make a great play for us, 10-plus yards,” Williams said.

Williams knows those little things will add up. Hitting the short ones often enables the offense to take more shots deep.

Interestingly, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff never hit that 70% completion number until last season, his ninth in the league and third with Johnson as his coordinator.

These coach-QB relationships are measured in months and years, not weeks.

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