How Serious Should We Take Drake Maye’s Injury

By Steve Atkinson 

After the Patriots beat the Broncos on Sunday to advance to the Super Bowl, online rumors began that Drake Maye had injured his right AC joint in his throwing shoulder. It’s no different than Tom Brady ripping his hand open days leading up to the 2017 AFC Championship game.  Then, Bill Belichick said, “This isn’t open-heart surgery.” The Patriots won that game and lost the Super Bowl. A sprained AC joint for Drake Maye seems to have been something he’s been dealing with for some time.  He may have aggravated it when he was hit in the game on Sunday. But according to Vrabel, everyone is not 100% this time of year. Here is Vrabel in his WEEI interview.

Drake Maye Shoulder Injury

“There’s not a player on our team that’s 100% healthy,” Vrabel quickly responded.

“Is he healthy enough to play at a high level?” Curtis followed up.“I would imagine we’ll go through the injury report, and whenever we have to turn that in, we’ll turn it in,” said Vrabel. “But nobody’s 100%. This will be our 21st game.”

According to Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston, Drake Maye has been dealing with a right shoulder injury for some time.  It’s really not a big deal.

The issue has not been significant enough that it’s limited him in practices or games, which is why we haven’t seen it on the injury report, but it’s not perfect,” Perry said Tuesday night on Early Edition. “As Drake Maye mention in his radio interview (on WEEI Afternoons), (it’s a) long season, 30 weeks of throwing, I’m sure there’s some level of wear and tear there.

He’s obviously dealing with something because he really hasn’t had the best playoff run. He’s had some great throws, but Maye hasn’t been great this postseason. Who knows?  We may find out after the Super Bowl that Drake Maye was playing with a sprained AC joint.

“I think that everybody, including Drake, is not 100 percent at this part of the year,” Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said at a press conference Tuesday morning. “We’ll do everything that we can to help our players be prepared and get ready for this game

Drake Maye is hurt like everyone else this time of year, but will it affect him in the Super Bowl? Probably not because he has had some good throws when he needed to. The throw to Boutte against Houston was good, and the throw on the flea flicker to Mack Hollins was also good against Denver. Having it be warmer, probably, out in San Francisco, Drake shouldn’t have a problem in the Super Bowl.