Win or lose, making it this far will be huge for Maye’s career going forward.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is living the life Bears quarterback Caleb Williams imagined. Well before the Bears drafted Williams first overall in 2024, with Maye going two picks later, he talked openly about taking the NFL by storm and eventually winning more Super Bowls than Tom Brady.
But while Williams went first in the draft, Maye is the first to reach the highest level of the league by leading his team to a Super Bowl. The Patriots, who were worse than the Bears last season, and Maye, who was behind Williams as a rookie, will face the Seahawks for the championship Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.
Williams still has a chance to catch up, and there certainly were signs this season that he’ll make a run at that. But winning trumps all, and Maye has made it deeper into the playoffs than the other five first-rounders that year.
“Being able to experience what everybody in this league works for, at such a young age, is a blessing,” Maye said Monday. “There are guys on this team that have played 10-14 years and never made it, and [I know] how much of an opportunity we have this week. Getting a chance to go win the Super Bowl? That sounds pretty good.”
Maye was the center of attention during the Patriots’ hour of the annual media night to kick off Super Bowl week. The massive crowd around his podium alternated between football questions and asking him to rank his wife’s baked goods and give a shoutout to Patriots superfan Matt Damon.
That’s what it’s like at the top. Maye can tell the other quarterbacks from that class stories about it next time he sees them.
Williams is friends with Maye and described the group of six quarterbacks who went in the top 12 picks as “a pretty badass class” that will be competing against each other for years.
