Drake Maye downplays shoulder issue landing him on Patriots injury report
· Yahoo Sports
The New England Patriots released their first injury report leading up to the Week 4 game with the Buffalo Bills on Wednesday, and besides including multiple starters as absentees it also featured quarterback Drake Maye. The third-year passer was a full practice participant, meaning he took 100% of his typical reps, despite dealing with a right shoulder issue.
After practice, but before the release of the injury report, Maye claimed that the shoulder has not hampered him.
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“No, it hasn’t,” he said. “I felt good out there today.”
The origin of the shoulder injury, which was not mentioned on any of the previous injury reports, is unclear. That said, the 24-year-old did suffer an injury to the exact same shoulder during the AFC Championship Game in January. The ailment plus an illness subsequently limited him in the lead-up to the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
There has been no public acknowledgement of any lingering effects, but the MVP runner-up has had a noticeably underwhelming start to his 2026 season. In three games thus far, Maye has completed only 63.8% of his pass attempts for 585 yards with a touchdown and six interceptions. He also lost a fumble and is currently ranked just 28th among qualifying NFL quarterbacks in expected points added per play (-0.070).
Maye, however, did not blame his shoulder for his struggles on Wednesday.
“I don’t think it impacts my decision-making, and that’s what makes and breaks play for quarterbacks,” he said. “I don’t feel like we’re struggling to move the ball. I think we’re turning the football over, doing things that are preventing us from scoring touchdowns, and I think that’s one of the biggest things for me. We’ve had a history of good football when we don’t turn the football over, playing good football and finding ourselves on the right side of games. So, that’s the biggest thing, and I’m looking forward to another good week of practice.”
For Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, the shoulder has also been a non-issue. At least when talking about it on Monday, he did not anticipate that to change.
“When you go through an NFL game like that, especially as a quarterback, and you get hit — and there was not, to my knowledge, anything that would have put him on the injury report or any sort of treatment — I think every player has normal maintenance and pre-hab that they go through as a warm-up routine,” Vrabel said at the time.
“I know as you go through a game, I’m sure you get hit. I’m sure things will happen. But I don’t anticipate that being any issue going forward.”