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Drake Maye and Evan Williams win October Player of the Month awards days before Packers-Patriots, with Malik Nabers, Alex Singleton, two perfect kickers and two rookies also honored

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Drake Maye and Evan Williams won October Player of the Month awards before Packers-Patriots. Malik Nabers, Alex Singleton, Ka'imi Fairbairn and Chase McLaughlin also won, and Carnell Tate and Brandon Cisse are the Rookies of the Month.

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Drake Maye in a white New England Patriots uniform holding the ball in the pocket at Nissan Stadium
Drake Maye against the Tennessee Titans in November 2024. Image from Tennessee Titans video, CC-BY-3.0, resized.

The NFL handed out its October awards on Thursday, and two of them went to players who will be on the same field on Sunday. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is the AFC Offensive Player of the Month, and Packers safety Evan Williams is the NFC Defensive Player of the Month, three days before Green Bay visits Foxborough. Giants receiver Malik Nabers took the NFC offensive award, and Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton won on the AFC defensive side.

AFC: Maye, Singleton and Fairbairn

Maye led New England to a 3-1 record in October, starting with a 29-26 win at Buffalo. He completed 90 of 134 passes for 1,199 yards, led the league with 12 touchdown passes and had a 119.0 passer rating, the best in the NFL for the month. He threw at least three touchdown passes in all four games, and accounted for five scores, four passing and one rushing, in a 45-17 win over the Raiders. The Patriots said it is the club’s first Offensive Player of the Month award since Tom Brady won it for November 2017. He has kept it going since: Maye accounted for three more touchdowns in the comeback win over Miami.

The Broncos linebacker had 68 tackles, five tackles for loss and two sacks in the month, including a 19-tackle game against the Cardinals that was the highest single-game total in the league this season. He became the first player to reach 100 tackles after Week 8.

Houston kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn is the AFC Special Teams Player of the Month after making all 11 of his field goal attempts, five of them from 50 yards or longer, and all 10 extra points. His 43 points led the NFL in October, and his 49-yarder won the game at Jacksonville. It is the second time he has won the award, after December 2018.

NFC: Nabers, Williams and McLaughlin

Nabers led the NFL in receiving yards across October, with 36 catches for 509 yards and two touchdowns in four games. He had four straight 100-yard games, and his eight catches of 25 yards or more and 22 receiving first downs both led the league for the month. The Giants said he is the first wide receiver in franchise history to win the award and the club’s first offensive winner since Eli Manning in November 2008. He has done it with three starting quarterbacks this season, Jaxson Dart, Jameis Winston and J.J. McCarthy, and the 4-2-1 Giants lead the NFC East going into Sunday’s game in Philadelphia.

Williams, a third-year safety and a 2024 fourth-round pick, had 41 tackles, a sack, three quarterback hits, two interceptions, four passes defensed and a fumble recovery in five games as Green Bay went 4-1. It is the third straight year a Packer has won the NFC defensive award for October, after Xavier McKinney in 2024 and Micah Parsons in 2025.

Tampa Bay kicker Chase McLaughlin won the NFC special teams award. He made all seven field goal tries, with a long of 53, and all 11 extra points in October, and he has not missed a kick all season: 19 of 19 on field goals and 17 of 17 on extra points. His 74 points lead the league.

Rookies: Tate and Cisse

Titans receiver Carnell Tate, the fourth pick in the 2026 draft, is the Offensive Rookie of the Month after 21 catches for 290 yards and a touchdown, including nine catches for 145 yards at Baltimore. With linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. winning the defensive award for September, Tennessee is the first Titans team with two Rookie of the Month winners in the same season. Tate missed the Week 8 game with a shoulder injury, and the 1-7 Titans are on their bye this week.

Packers cornerback Brandon Cisse, a second-round pick from South Carolina, is the Defensive Rookie of the Month. He had 21 tackles, two for loss, a sack, an interception of Dak Prescott and seven passes defensed, and he has broken up two passes in each of his last three games.

What to watch

Packers at Patriots on Sunday puts the month’s top AFC quarterback against the NFC’s top defender. Jonathan Gannon called Maye’s Patriots “Super Bowl caliber” this week, and Williams and Cisse are two of the players Green Bay will need to slow him down. The November awards will be announced in early December.

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