ClutchPoints
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is discouraged over Drake Maye and the New England Patriots’ 20-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 1. It wasn’t the kind of start to the 2025 NFL season that Simmons had anticipated for Maye. He revealed the kind of quarterback he wanted to see were shades of Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Perhaps the version of Allen who approached his second season in the NFL.
As one of the new faces of the Boston sports scene, Maye’s rough outing that kicked off his second season with the Patriots, isn’t sitting well with Simmons, who broke it down through the lenses of a Boston sports fan, per the Bill Simmons Podcast.
“The Drake Maye thing bummed me out. It’s a tough one because we had Jayson Tatum, Drake Maye, and Roman Anthony were the trifecta for us,” Simmons said. “And Tatum got hurt. Roman Anthony, he was Ted Williams for two months, and then he hurts his oblique. And then Drake Maye, who we had all these hopes for.”
He’s supported Maye from the beginning. Since the day he was drafted, Simmons approved the pick.
Bill Simmons, November 2021:
“Mac Jones was the best pick in the draft. If we have a redraft he goes first or second”
Bill Simmons, December 2024:
“Mac Jones was always a game manager” pic.twitter.com/ULY6P11HzE
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast (@rBillSimmonsPod) December 23, 2024
“His stats were okay today,” Simmons said of the Patriots’ Week 1 loss. “But I did not think he was that good that day.”
Maye’s hectic approach has Simmons worried about his future with the Patriots.
“He was sailing balls. He seemed skittish in the first drive of the first half and first drive of the second half,” Simmons added. “It just wasn’t a great Drake Maye game. He wasn’t running the ball. He just didn’t seem like young Josh Allen. I didn’t like it.”
Cousin Sal, Simmons’ guest, immediately dismissed comparing Maye to a young Allen, which he didn’t think was ever a thing.
“That’s what I want him to be,” Simmons replied. “I want him to be a young Josh Allen.”
However, given that Allen was on the wrong end of a 40-25 deficit, Sal added, “I think he could do that.”
One game into the 2025 NFL season and the Patriots are reminding fans of last year’s finish. While Simmons was confident that the Patriots could build off last year’s four wins, he’s having second thoughts.
“Being bullish on the Pats and gradually coming off of it the last two or three weeks, as a couple of injuries and just some of the feedback coming out of camp and the coaching staff,” Simmons said.
Simmons, the Massachusetts native, was so frustrated with his Patriots that he didn’t even want to recap their Week 1 loss to the Raiders.
The post [Bill Simmons...
