Drake Maye’s impressive rookie season has put him in the same conversation as the potential league MVP.

The New England Patriots quarterback has drawn comparisons to Buffalo Bills signal-caller Josh Allen with big arm and dual-threat ability. He showed off his Allen-like talents with his shovel-pass touchdown in Sunday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

While it’s been a rough season in Foxboro, Pats fans can take solace in their first-round quarterback looking like a future star. On Wednesday’s Early Edition, NBC Sports Boston’s Patriots insider Tom E. Curran and Boston Sports Journal’s Mike Giardi discussed whether Maye is on a trajectory to soon join Allen as a top-five NFL QB.

“Josh Allen’s improvement has been so drastic from his first year, but I’ll say this: I think Drake Maye is starting at a higher point than Josh Allen was,” Curran said. “He’s not faster, he’s not bigger, but the plays that Drake Maye is making this year and the lack of just utter stupidity that Josh Allen would routinely exhibit even in 2021 was knee buckling and it’s kind of gone away.

“So can Maye be in the class? I’m not going to go into he could be better. Maye could probably be a top-five, top-eight quarterback, and we used to say the same thing about Mac Jones but we’d stop around 12, best case. This guy could be top-three, top-six, best case.”