Drake Maye refused to make excuses, but after rewatching the Super Bowl, it’s clear he played hurt and it affected him

New England Patriots

The youngest son of a quarterback did exactly what a quarterback is supposed to do: He took one more for the team. But after rewatching the Super Bowl this week, I’m convinced Maye was hurt — and it affected him greatly.

By Chad Finn

February 18, 2026 | 7:38 AM

4 minutes to read

In the aftermath of playing arguably his worst game as a professional in inarguably his biggest, Drake Maye stayed true to the text from The Quarterback’s Guide To Graciousness In Defeat.

Immediately after the Patriots’ suspense-free 29-13 loss to the Seahawks in the Super Bowl Feb. 8, and again in his final meeting with the media two days later, Maye said and did all the right things, just as one has come to expect for the immensely likable kid QB, who presumably/hopefully is immune from ever veering into Tom Brady levels of weirdness.

Maye was candid about his own subpar performance and blamed only himself. He teared up when talking about how much his teammates meant to him. And he refused to use an injury to his shoulder, suffered against the Broncos in the AFC Championship game, as any kind of excuse.

“You can’t zone in on one little thing on the shoulder,” he said, verbally rubbing some dirt on the ailment.

Maye, the youngest son of a quarterback, did exactly what a quarterback is supposed to do; he took one more for the team. His grace after the most disappointing outcome of his young career is further confirmation that the Patriots have the right guy, as if his runner-up in the NFL Most Valuable Player balloting wasn’t confirmation enough.

And yet, after finally watching the NBC broadcast this week, I’m not buying Maye’s dismissal of the injury. I’m convinced he was hurt, and it affected him greatly.

Oh, he has to say it didn’t affect him, because it’s what quarterbacks must do, not to mention that our current sports-media culture habitually dismisses any potential reason for a disappointing performance as an excuse.

We know he did something to his throwing shoulder — reportedly an injury to his AC joint — against the Broncos, apparently in the third quarter when he took a hard hit from safety Talanoa Hufanga and crumbled briefly. We know that Maye missed one practice and part of another during the two weeks between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. We know that he received a pain-killing injection in the shoulder before the game.

And we know that he didn’t look right, at all.

Of course, of course, the Seahawks’ hellacious defense had much to do with that. Seattle’s four-man rush overwhelmed the Patriots offensive line. Rookie left tackle Will Campbell played like he was wearing roller skates left over from a “Xanadu” audition, allowing a staggering 14 pressures per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats data.

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald brilliantly added a wrinkle rarely used in the regular season, sending safety Devon Witherspoon on frequent blitzes from all over the alignment. Maye knew pressure was coming in a hurry, and from multiple angles, blue-green colors flashing all around him. The Seahawks roughed him up like an honorary Carr brother, hitting him 11 times and sacking him six.

The common perception afterward is that the Seahawks made it look like the moment was too big for Maye. In some ways, maybe it was. He made an extraordinary leap forward this season — really, he packed in multiple seasons’ worth of progress into one year — while throwing for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns, completing a league-best 72 percent of his passes, and leading the Patriots to a 14-3 regular-season record.

But the Super Bowl was just his 33rd career start. Growing pains are still going to happen. It’s a bummer when they show up one victory from what would have been one of the most improbable championships in NFL lore.

The Seahawks and their dastardly defensive scheme were the biggest reason for Maye’s struggles, without a doubt. But he didn’t look right, and I don’t believe that’s anywhere near entirely because of what the Seahawks unleashed.

Maye is used to being hit — he was sacked 47 times in the regular season and a staggering 21 more in the playoffs — and it’s not as if the Seahawks turned him into some Tony Eason/Mac Jones hybrid, coming out of the huddle anticipating pain and already halfway into the fetal position.

Perhaps it wasn’t so clear in the heat of the moment, but it was on the rewatch: Maye — who finished 27 of 43 for 295 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 bad interceptions — missed a bunch of throws that he made all season.

The most egregious occurred early in the fourth quarter when he essentially chucked an airball in the general direction of a wide-open Austin Hooper down the left side. I’ll spare you a full rehash of the others, except to say that on throws where the timing was off — including a ball that he threw behind Hunter Henry, getting him blown up over the middle — it was often apparent that Maye did not have his best fastball.

Even some throws that he completed — such as a 24-yard alley-oop to Mack Hollins that preceded their 35-yard touchdown connection early in the fourth — didn’t have his usual touch or velocity.

I just do not believe he was right. Maye spent the season elevating the players around him. He had to be super-precise all season. He did it over and over and over again, with his three exceptional touchdown passes in the divisional-round win over a tough Texans defense flashing to mind. He was not able to be that player in the Super Bowl.

The Seahawks put a hurting on him, and they have a hard-earned Lombardi Trophy to show for it. But I believe he was already hurting before Witherspoon and his rowdy friends ever put a finger on him.

Maye’s nature won’t allow him to make an excuse. I wonder if someday he will acknowledge it was a reason.

Chad Finn

Sports columnist

Chad Finn is a sports columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favorite Sports Writer in Boston in the annual Channel Media Market and Research Poll for the past four years. He also writes a weekly sports media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Magazine.