Week 7 of the NFL season kicks off with a blockbuster matchup between the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots, one that features two of the best and most exciting young quarterbacks in all of football.
Caleb Williams, save for a few weeks that he missed with a hamstring injury, appears to have taken another step in his development. Williams is still showing off the big-play ability that he has always had since back in his days at USC, but he has also gotten much better at keeping the Chicago offense on schedule and taking the easy yards.
Drake Maye took the NFL by storm in 2025, finishing as the MVP runner-up and leading the Patriots all the way to the Super Bowl. He got off to a very slow start in 2026, as he struggled with turnovers during a 1-2 start.
Since then, however, Maye has been on fire. He has 10 touchdown passes and just one interception in New England's last three games, all wins. Now, the Pats are 4-2 and humming, right in the middle of the AFC playoff race.
That sets up a mouthwatering matchup on Thursday night between Williams and Maye, arguably the two centerpieces of the 2024 NFL Draft class. But can either defense make life tough on them? Let's get into how each likes to attack and how that matches up against the defenses on the other side.
Drake Maye is back to his MVP-level ways
Maye made his mark as one of the best deep passers in all of football last season, and he has finally gotten back into that groove again this season. Over the first three weeks of 2026, Maye was just 4-of-12 with 160 yards and four interceptions on passes of 20 or more air yards, a far cry from his numbers a year ago.
Over the last three games, however, the North Carolina product has been on point when attacking down the field. In those three wins, Maye is 8-of-15 with 279 yards and four touchdowns with no picks on those deep passes. Romeo Doubs has been on the receiving end of a lot of those passes, and he is now out with a shoulder injury, but A.J. Brown is back and should help create even more explosive plays down the field.
The Bears have been frisky on defense this season, but they have been gettable down the field this season. Free-agent addition Coby Bryant hasn't played this season due to injury, and Jaylon Johnson has not lived up to his usual standard at cornerback. So far this season, the Bears have given up the most yards per game and the third-highest EPA per pass on deep passes, according to Next Gen Stats. Expect Maye and the Patriots to attack that area of the field over and over on Thursday night.
But Chicago did get one key piece of their defense back a week ago. Defensive back Kyler Gordon made his season debut in Week 6, and he made an immediate impact on Dennis Allen's unit. Gordon only played 17 snaps on Sunday, but he affected the game as a blitzer getting after the quarterback.
Gordon was targeted one time in coverage and didn't allow a reception, but he also racked up three sacks and two forced fumbles. The Bears also changed their identity on defense with Gordon back in the lineup; their 56.4% blitz rate on Sunday was their highest number of the season so far, per Next Gen Stats.
Maye hasn't necessarily been weak against the blitz this season; he sits on the fringe of the top 10 in most metrics on those snaps this season. But with Doubs sidelined and Brown looking rusty at best in his first game back, Allen could lean into sending pressure as one way to slow Maye down.
Caleb Williams has taken the next step
During Williams' breakout season in 2025, he was a volatile passer who made a ton of big plays down the field but also left a lot of the easy yards on the table. In 2026, he has taken another step and is operating much better from the pocket on a down-to-down basis than he was a season ago.
That makes some of his numbers look a little bit less sexy. His air yards per attempt, 5.8, is tied with Bo Nix for the lowest number in the NFL among qualified passers through six weeks, per Next Gen Stats. Only 4.4% of his attempts are traveling 20 or more air yards, by far the lowest mark in the league.
But that more measured approach has also brought a much more efficient Williams as a passer. His completion percentage is up to 72.5%, the best mark in the NFL. That is more than 14% higher than his completion percentage from a year ago. His EPA per dropback, which sat at a very respectable +0.05 last season, has skyrocketed up to +0.23 in 2026. Of course, the sample size is still very small so far this season, but Williams has proven to be a very effective and looks comfortable in his second season in Ben Johnson's offense.
The Bears, as usual, will rely on the running game to set up the pass even with Kyle Monangai still out. That will open up Johnson's play-action bag, where Williams can attack the intermediate area of the field.
That should be especially fruitful against a Patriots defense that is giving up 0.77 EPA per pass on intermediate throws, the fifth-highest mark in the NFL. Williams might like to live in the underneath areas of the field, but this New England defense will give him chances to find some bigger chunks.