Drake Maye and the New England Patriots' fairy-tale campaign came to a screeching halt in Super Bowl LX. The young star quarterback was no match for a Seattle Seahawks defense that delivered a performance for the ages on football's grandest stage.
Maye wants a do-over, and understandably so, because he was at the forefront of the Patriots' 29-13 loss to the Seahawks. His efforts, or lack thereof, effectively took away any chance New England had of upsetting a Seattle squad that was widely considered a sizable favorite.
It's worth mentioning that Maye was listed on the Patriots' injury report with a right (throwing) shoulder issue heading into the showdown with Seattle. He ultimately had no designation, though, and ex-NFL signal-caller Kurt Benkert seemingly isn't cutting the 2025 MVP runner-up any slack.
Ex-NFL QB Kurt Benkert didn't sugarcoat Drake Maye's performance in the Patriots' Super Bowl LX loss
Benkert shared his assessment of Maye's forgetful outing against the Seahawks. The former believes that the numbers and basic eye don't properly summarize the latter's struggles, but the film very clearly does.
"This Drake Maye tape is worse than I thought," Benkert wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). "There were wide open guys everywhere even when he had time he just wasn't seeing it. It was the definition of seeing ghosts game."
Of course, the Seahawks deserve credit for rattling Maye's cage early and often. Nevertheless, there were "opportunities everywhere" to exploit Seattle's aggressiveness, but he repeatedly failed to take advantage of. Benkert highlighted this with photo evidence and a 10-minute deep dive on his YouTube page.
From missing layups that could've kept the Patriots within striking distance to trying to do too much and taking sacks or committing turnovers, Maye's youth showed. His propensity to play hero ball had been a superpower all season long and got New England one win away from a title.
Yet, it also cost them when they needed him most, as Benkert expressed.
An undrafted free agent out of Virginia, Benkert signed with the Atlanta Falcons in 2018. He spent most of his three seasons with the club on their practice squad before getting waived in 2021. Briefer stints with the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers, respectively, followed a similar path to what we saw when we last saw him in 2022.