The New England Patriots’ dropped their second straight home game to begin the 2025 season. Five turnovers, two of which came from second year gun slinger Drake Maye, was too much to overcome as the Pittsburgh Steelers walked out with a win after throwing for just 139 yards.
Turnover troubles are unfortunately nothing new for the quarterback who threw double digit interceptions in his rookie year.
It is perhaps for this reason that comedian “Cousin Sal” debuted his nickname for the Patriots‘ lead man.
“He’s not too young for me to give him a nickname that you’re not gonna love,” Cousin Sal told popular personality Bill Simmons on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “You ready? Drake ‘Maybe’. You gotta say like, Drake ‘Maybe’, right? He may be good… I don’t know, is this an even week?”
Simmons in a known devout Patriots fan. The former ESPN personality and current CEO of the one of the world’s biggest podcast networks, The Ringer, couldn’t help but laugh at the uncomplimentary alias.
“That’s so good,” Simmons replied laughing. “I’m never gonna call him that, but that’s really good. It’s just a good nickname… I feel like that might stick unless he can shake it.”
Drake Maye’s ‘One Terrible Play’
As the conversation continued, Simmons continued his criticism of the young passer who has shown outstanding streaks out brilliance. The electric play maker has fallen victim to what he calls “his one terrible play.”
“Just don’t have your one terrible play (per) half,” Simmons continued. “I’m a complete believer. I have an incredible amount of Drake Maye stock, but he just can’t help it.”
The thing about this analysis, is it’s absolutely true. Things go well 90% of the time. Maye is progressing through his reads, he runs when there’s nothing there, he’s making the right checks. But it does feel like once every quarter his feet get active in the pocket, he scrambles around trying to make the big play, and puts the ball in a terrible place.
The Patriots‘ inability to run the ball so far this season has not helped Maye. Maye is one of only 10 quarterbacks in the league to have attempted more than 100 passes through the first three weeks. He sits one above Patrick Mahomes on the leader board.
He has been asked to play super hero in September, and his stats reflect that.
🔹5 Passing Touchdowns (T-4th) 🔹785 Passing Yards (5th) 🔹81.1% Catchable Throw Rate (3rd) 🔹72.6% Completion Rate (2nd) 🔹83.8% Adjusted Completion Rate (2nd) 🔹9.4% Completion Over Expectation (1st)
The future.
Second Most Sacked Quarterback In The NFL
Speaking of not not putting their quarterback in a position to succeed, Maye is the second most sacked quarterback in the league. Cam Ward, the rookie first overall selection of the Tennessee Titans, has a commanding league on the category being brought to the turf 15 times already.
Some say sacks are a quarterback stat, and while that is certainly true to an extent, this speaks more to what the Patriots have demanded from their quarterback. If you factor in the pass attempts, with the amount of sacks, and the number of times he has scrambled on the season, Maye has a total of 131 drop backs in three games.
That is more than 43 times per game.
You can decide how much grace this provides to the young quarterback, but objectively speaking, two interceptions on 131 drop backs doesn’t sound as bad.
Bill Simmons Debuts Patriots’ Quarterback Unflattering Nickname, ‘Drake Maybe’