- - After Super Bowl beatdown, Patriots and QB Drake Maye must avoid the trap that befell other sophomore starters on this stage

Charles RobinsonFebruary 9, 2026 at 6:02 AM

0

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — About 10 minutes into a despondent postgame sigh, the reality settled in for Drake Maye. The one that drops into the stomach for many quarterbacks who crumble into the negative side of the ledger in the biggest game of their lives. The one where you’ve lost a Super Bowl, and next comes losing part of the team that helped deliver it.

One question after another, the New England Patriots quarterback stared just over the top of the microphone in front of him, but just below the gaze of the reporters encircling him. Eventually, his eyes began to well and his voice cracked.

“I’m so proud,” he said, contemplating the Patriots’ unlikely run to Sunday’s Super Bowl. “That’s probably the reason I’m choked up the most.”

He took a beat between his words, trying to hold his composure.

“This team is uh … ”

“Something that uh … ”

“I’m just glad to be part of.”

This moment hurt. Understandably. There are many ways to lose a Super Bowl. And New England’s 29-13 defeat to the Seattle Seahawks was not remotely pretty. The offense was suffocated, overwhelmed and often bullied. The defense, while stout much of the night, couldn’t carry the load alone. And the magical season — which saw New England go from last place in the AFC East in 2024 to this Super Bowl stage — felt like it was fighting off a closing curtain at halftime, despite facing only a 9-0 deficit.

It was the kind of loss that sets the offseason in motion with the burden of knowing the roster, coaching staff and personnel department all have an uphill hike ahead. The kind of journey where you have to work hard and smart to anchor the franchise to this 2025 success, lest it become a cautionary tale of arriving too early with an overall team that is still too fragile to establish consistency into 2026 and beyond. The Washington Commanders were that kind of franchise in 2024, storming into the NFC championship game with rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and a roster that was nowhere ready to backstop elite success in the event of health issues at the quarterback spot. And when that quarterback spot went sideways in 2025, so did the feel-good story of 2024 Commanders.

That could be these Patriots. That’s why the next 307 days of head coach Mike Vrabel will matter as much as the previous 307 days.

The saving grace — once the hurt of Sunday’s loss subsides, if it ever really does — is that Maye is experiencing this defeat at 23 years old and in his second year as an NFL starter. As historical quarterback continuums go, he resides in an impressive fraternity of Super Bowl starters who experienced this stage ahead of the curve, joining eight others who managed to play in a Super Bowl as NFL sophomores. Among them: Pro Football Hall of Famers Dan Marino and Kurt Warner; expected future Hall of Famers in Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson; still-in-motion starters Joe Burrow and Brock Purdy; and the lost career (or however you wish to view it) of Colin Kaepernick.

That group is an interesting NFL mashup of success and failure sprawled across decades, showcasing that while some quarterbacks are destined for more Super Bowl opportunities — Brady, Warner, Roethlisberger and Wilson — others either never again stepped on the biggest stage (Marino and Kaepernick) or are still trying to find their way back (Burrow and Purdy). The direction of Maye? It now depends on both his own progression and the strides of virtually everything around him in the Patriots organization.

That thought should have represented the undercurrent in the minds of New England fans when Vrabel opened his Sunday night remarks intent on reminding everyone that all of this is just beginning.

Asked what he told his team after Sunday’s loss, Vrabel replied, “That I’m proud of everything they did. That I’m disappointed just like they are.”

“I reminded them that we’re 307 days into what is hopefully a long, successful relationship and program,” Vrabel said. “And that it’s OK to be disappointed. We have to be disappointed and upset together. Like I always do, I [told] them I’m appreciative and thankful and grateful that I get to coach them. Part of our identity not being a frontrunner. Just like every year, somebody is going to lose this game and we have to remember what it feels like and make sure it’s not repeated.”

Of course, reaching another Super Bowl and making sure past mistakes aren’t repeated, is more than just remembering a feeling, especially when a franchise is still a significant work in progress. For all the well-built dynasty-era Patriots rosters that found consistent success like winding a clock each season, you have something different in this New England team that will spend this offseason trying to reconfigure a dozen components inside a Swiss watch containing 200 parts. There’s meticulous work ahead here. And even in the midst of Maye’s sudden rise to a near-MVP level in 2025, the raising of his ceiling has to be one of the cogs within it.

That includes all the euphoria of winning that accompanied the 14-3 regular season. And now it includes all the losing Sunday, a rebuke that delivers New England back to a 2026 starting line with little more than the stinging reminder of missed opportunity in the form of an AFC championship trophy.

It’s a haunting hurt that Maye seemed to understand clearly in defeat.

“That’s what fuels you,” Maye said of the emotional low taken from the Seahawks loss. “I think that’s the biggest thing about life. It’s gonna have times like this. It’s how you bounce back. All the guys in that locker room are gonna use this as fuel. I’d go to war with those guys anytime, any day, anywhere. That’s motivation to get back here and not have this feeling. … I told those guys in the locker room, this is fuel. If it’s not, then I don’t know what this feeling can do for you, because this is tough.”

It’s fuel for the coaching staff, too. While the exact responsibilities for a litany of Super Bowl breakdowns will be unraveled over the next few hours, days and weeks, there’s little hiding that offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels didn’t have his best performance. Or that Seattle’s ability to disguise some pressure looks weren’t always recognized by Maye. Or that the offensive line — most especially left tackle Will Campbell — has an absolutely vital offseason ahead.

New England’s $35 million to $40 million in 2026 salary cap space — while an above-average margin — will have to be spent very wisely this offseason. The skill position pieces around Maye (most especially at wide receiver) will require a lot of attention. His line will need additions, and possibly even some reshuffling. The defense will require depth and extensions, most notably with cornerback Christian Gonzalez. And the well of 11 draft picks will have to produce some players capable of stepping in and having an impact as rookies.

For any franchise, that’s a lot of work. For a team that just lost in the Super Bowl, it’s a surprising amount of heavy earth that still has to be moved. But there’s also one significant step forward that appears to finally be out of the way: Even in a postseason when he accounted for only six touchdowns against four interceptions, seven fumbles and was sacked 21 times — even when he made several costly mistakes in the biggest game of his life — New England’s quarterback sounded resolute in the desolation of his first title shot.

“There’s plays I’ll think about for the next probably seven months, until we’re back in September playing the first one [of the season],” Maye said Sunday night. “That’s the nature of it.”

On some days, in the absolute biggest game, so is losing. And Maye didn’t know that a year ago.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Sports”