He gave the New England Patriots a winning gift-wrapped start to the 2026 season. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold missed just six games with a hip injury.And New England held the Seahawks scoreless until the third quarter waned.
Despite facing backup quarterback Drew Lock and holding a 10-point second-half lead, the Patriots’ own quarterback consistently gave the Seahawks chances to get back into the game, allowing Seattle to score 13 unanswered points and escape with a Week 1 win in a Super Bowl LX rematch.
Drake May finished the season opener going 23-of-33 for 178 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions, all coming in the fourth quarter.
While Maye’s first interception of the night came when he hit a deep jump ball to Romeo Dobbs and into the hands of Nehemiah Pritchett, the latter two were inexcusable throws, especially for a quarterback who was just seven months away from being the league’s MVP.
With 9:25 left in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 10 on 3rd-and-14, Maye threw a hot air balloon over the middle that could have consumed an hourglass before finally landing in the hands of Seahawks safety Julian Love. The Seahawks scored 13 unanswered points over the final 19 minutes of the game to turn the game over.
Maye still had a chance to make amends, leading the Patriots to a game-winning drive or at least a field goal that would have sent the game into overtime. With 1st-and-20 and a pair of fourth downs amid a 15-game drive, the third-year quarterback looks poised to do just that. Unfortunately, on the 15th play, Maye makes a terrible decision to pass (within the end zone) to Josh Jobe for a one-on-one pass in the end zone to seal a 13-10 victory in Seattle. Our Mark Schofield He wrote that the fans of the Patriots should be worried about Maye’s returnAnd he was not wrong.
This was a continuation of a worrying trend for May. He hasn’t thrown a complete game since Week 17 of the 2025 season, when he threw five fumbles in a 42-10 thrashing of the New York Jets. In four postseason games against the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos and Seahawks — all of whom scored defenses that finished in the top eight in defensive EPA per game — Maye struggled.
Later Posting a 77.1 QBR During the regular season, that number dropped to 40 in the playoffs. He averaged less than seven yards per attempt, completed just under 60 percent of his passes and posted a 6-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
May’s efficiency has also been a huge success to keep up with. Later Leading all quarterbacks (150 plays per minute) in adjusted EPA per game (0.322); Maye posted a terrifying -0.105 number in the same metric in the postseason, ranking 11th out of 16 quarterbacks in rushing in the playoffs. For reference, that -0.105 number would be sandwiched between Cam Ward and Dillon Gabriel and would rank 43rd in the NFL in regular season numbers.
After his terrible performance in Week 1, the former third overall pick has now thrown the same number of interceptions as touchdowns in his last five combined starts. His yards per attempt in those games sat at just 6.4, which put him in the same range as Bo Nick and Kirk Cousins for the lowest in the league a season ago.
While Maye had an impressive 2025 season, the common problem with him was that he did so mostly against lesser competition and weaker defenses. In his five games, he faced some of the league’s best defenses and looked like a completely different quarterback.
It is a one time event. Twice is a coincidence. It is a triple pattern. And that’s a worrisome trend for veterans and young quarterbacks who will need it if they want to reach the heights they achieved in 2025.
