Bill Simmons, Dave Portnoy, others ripped Drake Maye’s ‘nightmare’ performance
New England Patriots
“When it comes to Drake Maye, did it change my perception? No, because my perception is that I’ve never been sold on him.”
Drake Maye had a night to forget on Wednesday in Seattle.
The Patriots QB was seemingly on his way to a scrappy win against an undermanned Seattle team on the road — no small feat, given the Seahawks’ elite defense and the raucous atmosphere at Lumen Field.
But things unraveled in short order for Maye and the Patriots in crunch time, with New England’s 10-0 lead midway through the third quarter falling to the wayside after Seattle scored 13 unanswered points to deliver a stunning loss to New England.
Maye played a key role in New England’s collapse, with last year’s NFL MVP runner-up throwing three egregious interceptions on the Patriots’ final three drives of the night in the fourth quarter.
Those three turnovers directly led to 10 Seattle points, with the final miscue squandering a last-minute chance for New England to either tie the game with a field goal — or outright steal a win with multiple tries at the end zone.
Given the manner of Maye’s collapse — coupled with plenty of eyes being on Wednesday’s Super Bowl LX rematch as the first game of the 2026 NFL season — Maye was the conduit of plenty of criticism from fans, media pundits, and others on Thursday.
Longtime Boston sports scribe and The Ringer founder Bill Simmons took Maye to task — just days after ranking him as the fourth-best QB in the NFL this season.
“He looked healthy in this game. That’s the thing. There are no excuses this time. He was scrambling around. He looked like the Drake Maye from the first four months of last season. There were 3rd-and-1s, controlled draw sweeps for him. That’s what they did last year. And he still sucked,” Simmons said on his podcast Monday morning.
Barstool Sports founder and longtime Patriots supporter Dave Portnoy also had to regretfully call out Maye for his decision-making in the fourth quarter — failing to capitalize in a game where Seattle played most of the night with a backup QB in place in Drew Lock.
“Only the first game of the season, but that was tough to watch. Horrible game from Drake. That last throw, disgusting,” Portnoy said on X. “The game was right there for the taking, obviously. It’s only Week 1, but that was a [expletive] way to start the season. Got to be a lot better than that.”
Former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson also called out Maye’s decision to try and open things up and beat a stout Seattle defense down the field — especially when New England was seemingly in the driver’s seat of a rock-fight of a game.
“It looked like that first interception; he was just kind of getting bored,” Johnson said of Maye on Patriots Postgame Live. “You know, no A.J. Brown in the game [due to injury], so really the field was really condensed, and so it was really just dump-offs is all that he had.
“And he just kind of got bored, I think, doing that. And so he took a shot down the field to Romeo Doubs into a team meeting, and you saw what happened there. That was a terrible throw to DeMario Douglas down the middle of the field. It’s just the gunslinger mentality came back in this game.”
ESPN pundit and former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky — who tabbed Maye as the NFL MVP last October – was blunt in his criticism of the 24-year-old QB on Thursday.
“Nightmare. It was a nightmare ending for Drake Maye and that offense,” Orlovsky said on ESPN’s “Get Up”. That’s the worst game he’s had as a pro. And it’s about as immature as a performance that you could have as a third-year quarterback.
“You are lobbed a softball in the reality of the game of football. … The only way that you even come remotely close to losing that game is to make bad decision after bad decision after bad decision and breathe life into Seattle. And that’s exactly what Drake Maye did.”
As expected, Orlovsky was not the only talking head on ESPN to call out Maye for his performance — with Stephen A. Smith placing the loss squarely on New England’s QB.
“All of it was on him last night,” Smith said on ESPN’s First Take. “Three interceptions on your last three drives. Three interceptions in the fourth quarter. 55 percent completion. Sacked three times. Three interceptions.
“You look at some of the stuff he was doing. He tried to force one downfield to Romeo Doubs — that didn’t work. He tried to force one down the middle — that didn’t work. He throws off his back foot in the last minute of the game; you’re already in field goal range, and you throw that pass. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking.”
Even though Maye played a key role in New England’s unexpected run to Super Bowl LX, Smith said he still has doubts about whether Maye and this Patriots roster are poised to hold court as one of the true contenders in the AFC moving forward.
“When it comes to Drake Maye, did it change my perception? No, because my perception is that I’ve never been sold on him.”
“He’s not a scrub. He’s somebody that can play. … It doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to be a starting quarterback in the National Football League. … But when we talk about greatness, I’m not sold yet.”
Get the latest Boston sports news
Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.