It’s too early for Patriots fans to panic about Drake Maye, but not too early to worry

You know in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark when they open the Well of Souls where the Ark is and there are snakes everywhere? Indy then lies back, exasperated, and goes, “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?” Yeah, so replace “snakes” with “is it time to panic about Drake Maye article after day one” and you got the picture. I can’t believe I have to write this.

Getting this out of the way: I’m a New England Patriots fan, and will remind you that Drake Maye came within one idiotic Justin Herbert voter of winning the MVP award last season … but he also did so on the back of the easiest schedule in 25 years. The Patriots made it to the Super Bowl, exceeding expectations by so much that it made it downright hard to write about. There were metric tons of luck, guys playing way above their heads and a general sense that if you played this season 100 times over the Pats probably don’t win 14 games too many of those times.

Drake Maye singlehandedly lost the game Wednesday night, and I can't defend it

I’m not sure how the rest of the 2026 season will look, but they’re definitely not going to win 14 games if Drake Maye does any more of this kind of thing:

That’s just an unconscionable throw. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. Maye panicked, tried to force an endzone shot where none existed and cost his team a game they had every ability to win and no ability to lose in regulation if they just buckled down and kicked a field goal. It’s the worst kind of loss, one you pluck from the jaws of victory … or least from the jaws of overtime. I was, and am, positively inconsolable. 

Maye threw three interceptions last night, though only two were really his fault. The Patriots were totally unprepared to lose A.J. Brown to a high-ankle sprain so early, and Romeo Doubs killed a drive single-handedly with a disastrous drop. The vibes literally could not be any worse, and I will be staying off social media for the rest of the day to protect myself from emotional harm.

In 2025, Maye cleaned up a lot of the problems that made his rookie season just good rather than great. His biggest issue in year one was dropping his eyes and panicking when the pocket collapsed, something that would be solved by experience and was in year two. He began scrambling to make positive plays out of bad situations and kept his eyes downfield for longer to make big plays with his massive arm. All that was great. 

Maye must improve ball security if he's going to become a top-tier passer

The worst part of the game-killing pick was how well that drive was going. Clutch throws, taking what the defense was giving, but then Maye either just got cocky or lost his head. The Seattle Seahawks defense isn’t staffed by undrafted buffoons who will led hero-ball floaters go over their heads. That was like lobbing a grenade into your living room and expecting the couch to come out undamaged. Zero percent chance of success.

For Maye, ball security is king, it’s queen, it’s knight, bishop and rook. He’s an incredible quarterback talent, one that will be in blue and white for a long time. But he must freeze out these risk-taking behaviors when the rest of his team is playing so well. People forget how close the Super Bowl was before the pick-six. 

I’m not “worried” about Maye, per se, but I can’t defend that throw nor excuse the lack of situational awareness. I’ll file this one away in the “refer to worry committee” folder, though I might forget to actually refer it. In any case, that sucked. I’m going to go … write about tennis, or something.  

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