New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye can’t be this bad, can he?
Maye was tremendous during his second season, throwing for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns and a 113.5 passer rating on his way to a runner-up finish in voting for the 2025 NFL MVP and an appearance in Super Bowl LX.
Maye has been equally as bad during his third season — eight turnovers, one touchdown, and two horrific losses that you can place directly on his shoulders in three games against the Seattle Seahawks, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Jacksonville Jaguars.
It’s like someone stole all his talent, a la Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, or Larry Johnson in “Space Jam.”
Either that or he’s injured…
Maye suffered a shoulder injury last postseason, which many believe played a role in his lackluster performance in the Super Bowl. WEEI’s “Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson” pressed the third-year signal-caller about whether or not there were any lingering effects on Monday, leading to an awkward exchange where he refused to answer any questions directly, as transcribed by Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald:
Q: When you said that you don’t believe there’s a problem with your shoulder, are you saying your right shoulder and throwing arm feel 100% physically the same as they did before the injury with no lingering loss of strength or velocity of range of motion, or is there any difference at all?
A: Yeah, it’s similar question to the way I answered it in the post game. I think we gotta — I don’t think that has anything to do with executing and playing better football and realizing that’s the biggest thing that contributes to winning.
Q: Do you feel the same as you did before your injury, or is there still something that’s lingering?
A: Any time I’m out there, and I’m in uniform on the field, I’m gonna play 100% and give it my all. That’s kind of what I have to say.
Q: Is it something you’re managing every day?
A: I mean, any time that you come out from a game and you’re sore, everybody’s dealing with things from the game. I wouldn’t say that it’s anything in particular. I think it’s getting back out there and realizing it’s getting ready for this week in practice.
New England head coach Mike Vrabel seemed to shoot down the idea of an injury, pointing toward the fact that his quarterback is 24-years old and clearly pressing.
“I think quarterbacks want to make plays,” Vrabel said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. “I think they want to throw touchdowns. I think sometimes when Greg and I go golfing, we really want to make a good score, right? Sometimes we’re so focused on it, we try to choke the life out of the golf club, and we’re squeezing it so damn tight that the ball has no choice but to go sideways. We need to stop trying to choke the life out of every single play. We need to relax. We need to settle in and go play football and not try to force things that aren’t there.”
If that’s the case, the issues are fixable and there’s hope that his extremely experienced coaching staff (Vrabel, Josh McDaniels, Doug Marrone, Thomas Brown) can figure out how to turn things in the right direction. If it isn’t, the club needs to be honest with themselves about whether or not the injury is something he can overcome or if they want to punt on the season in order to get him back to himself.
