It's not Drake Maye's fault Patriots are where they are (but it's the thought that counts)

New York Times

24-07-2025

FOXBORO, Mass. — Drake Maye's Wednesday media availability had been lumbering along for about six minutes, with the second-year quarterback of the New England Patriots answering the usual second-rate questions.
This is absolutely no knock on the people who cover the Patriots for a living. It's just that it's hard to ask deep, probing questions at the end of the first practice session of training camp, especially with horns blaring, fans cheering and the noonish sun beating down on everyone's necks. It's not unlike asking the veteran big-league pitcher about his first Grapefruit League appearance and being told, 'Just getting my work in.'
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Heck, what could be more lame than bringing up Maye's first completion to newly minted Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs and then asking, 'What was that like???'
It was I who asked that beauty.
But it was after the media availability was over that Maye swung open the front door to his innermost football feelings and invited everyone to take a peek. All this happened just after Patriots vice president of media relations Stacey James had already said, 'Last question,' and after that last question had already been answered and Maye was now poised to exit, stage right.
Enter Karen Guregian of MassLive, who started covering the Patriots in 1993 for the Boston Herald. How long ago was that? Drew Bledsoe and Bill Parcells were new in town and James Busch Orthwein owned the team. And the team played in a stadium with aluminum benches. That's how long ago.
Maye had already made a couple of remarks attesting to his level of excitement for the 2025 Patriots, but without offering any specifics. But now, in the bonus round, he was being asked for those specifics.
'What excites me most?' Maye asked. 'I think you've got guys around here that are tired of losing around here, and guys that want to win. I think that's what excites me most. Guys want to win around here. I think the past two or three years around here and the past year for me, I can only speak for myself, but I think there's guys around here that are tired of losing and want to win.'
He wasn't chuckling when he answered the question. Nor did he 'Shout It Out,' as though taking on the role of the cleaning product that's said to be tough on stains. But Maye was definitely pensive, as though this was something that had been on his mind for a while.
Before continuing, it's important to restate that this is only Maye's second season with the Patriots. That the Patriots are where they are is not his fault. Yes, he was on the scene in 2024 when the Patriots, with one-and-done Jerod Mayo running the shop, went 4-13. Maye appeared in 13 games in 2024, making 12 starts. But he won only one game in which he quarterbacked the Patriots the entire game. If you want to give Maye a big slice of blame pie for 2024, conveniently leaving out that he was a rookie playing for a team with a coaching staff that was about to be dismantled, go right ahead.
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But Maye wasn't around in 2023, when the Patriots went 4-13 in Bill Belichick's last season as head coach. It was also the season in which the Mac Jones era at quarterback came to an inglorious end. If Maye saw any of that Patriots season, it was probably on a flat screen from his apartment at UNC while eating a slice or two from Italian Pizzeria III.
Nor was Maye on the New England scene in 2022, when the Patriots went 8-9, or in 2021 when they went 10-7 but were handed a 47-17 beating by the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round.
And so on. And yet here's Maye, talking about guys who are 'tired of losing around here.'
Talking about guys 'that want to win,' talking about 'the past two or three years around here.'
Only it certainly didn't sound like Maye was speaking for himself. If you're a Patriots fan looking for signs that this team has an interest in getting back into the winning business, Maye's comments were the biggest news to come out of the first day of training camp. Well, OK, perhaps you're the type who limits optimism to what can be gleaned from X's and O's, in which case Maye's first pass attempt to Stefon Diggs was a much bigger deal. Diggs ran a crossing route and made the catch a step ahead of his defender. Boilerplate stuff, but it was 'Maye to Diggs' for the first time, and that's what the crowd was looking for on Day 1.
The Maye completion to Diggs was real football stuff. As for that close-of-business quote, it's not something you're likely to take into account while mulling the 8.5 over/under win total that's been assigned to the Patriots.
But there was nothing performative or fake about what Maye said. If it were, he'd have found a way to weave it into the discussion earlier in the session.
It's not just that Maye is ready for his close-up as the leader of the 2025 New England Patriots. By talking about the failures of the recent past, and doing so with a sort of melancholy for those who came before him, it's as though he spent the summer reading Bob Hyldburg's 'Total Patriots.'
Maye's job is to make the Patriots a better team. It sounds like he also wants to make them a better organization.