‘Drake Maye is a sure thing’: Bill Simmons offered a strong take on the Patriots’ rookie QB

Bill Simmons has a strong take on Drake Maye: As a Patriots fan with a large platform, sports media executive and podcaster Bill Simmons often touches on some of the local talking points during his weekly show.

Having been sharply critical of first-year Patriots coach Jerod Mayo on several occasions earlier in the season (as well as the team’s front office), Simmons was equally committed in his take about Drake Maye, albeit in a very different manner.

Assessing Sunday’s loss to the Bills, Simmons claimed that he refused to believe the Patriots could win even when up 14-0 in the first half.

“Never, ever did I think we were going to win that game,” Simmons said of New England. Still, losing was not the worst outcome in his view.

“It was the perfect game,” Simmons asserted, highlighting the loss as a long-term positive considering its draft pick implications. “Drake Maye, he knows the program. Do just enough, get everyone excited. He’s going to have a couple dumb, 21-year-old plays he has every game because he’s 21 years old. But I love him.”

He then launched into a strong endorsement of Maye that was a correspondingly tough assessment of the rest of the team’s roster.

“Drake Maye’s good. We have nobody. We have no receivers. We can’t block. We have a running back that has seven fumbles this year. There hasn’t been a seven-fumble player since 2020.”

“I’ll go further: My favorite Boston rookie of the 21st century,” Simmons told his incredulous co-host, “Cousin Sal.”

“I’m all in,” Simmons added of Maye. He seemed to realize that his stance might be used against him in future years depending on how the rookie QB develops.

“I’m happy to be haunted by this clip forever,” he added. “Drake Maye is a sure thing. All the Pats fans are nodding now. We’ve been watching. He’s f****** incredible. The team sucks.”

Asked to compare Maye as a rookie with another former notable Boston athlete, Mookie Betts, Simmons elaborated.

“I have [Maye] above Mookie Betts, and I loved Mookie Betts.”

“It’s so hard to get a quarterback,” Simmons explained. “You could go decades without one. I really thought after [Tom] Brady we’d have no chance to ever have one again, and now we have this f****** guy who fell out of the sky. It’s amazing.”

Despite the roundly positive remarks, Simmons acknowledged that Maye “sucked in the second half” against Buffalo.

Yet even with that in mind, Simmons quickly returned to his original message, calling Maye “shockingly good.”

“I loved [Jayson] Tatum. Tatum [in his] first year, I was like, ‘This guy’s got it, we got somebody, this guy’s like a special guy,’” Simmons concluded. “I feel the same way about Drake Maye. Felt the same way about Ray Bourque in 1979.”

Despite his optimism, Simmons ultimately closed with a line that will likely accompany every analysis of Maye until probably his third season in the NFL.

“We’ll see.”

Trivia: Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, the Patriots have only chosen two quarterbacks higher in the draft than Drake Maye. Can you name both of them?

(Answer at the bottom.)

Hint: The years that they were drafted were 1993 and 1971.

Scores and schedules:

The Bruins defeated the Capitals 4-1 on Monday, though star David Pastrnak left the game with an upper-body injury.

Also from Monday, the Celtics lost to the Magic 108-104. Boston will regroup and take the court on Christmas Day for a home matchup with the 76ers at 5 p.m.

More from Boston.com:

Celtics analysis: Eddie House and the NBC Sports Boston crew shared their takes after a disappointing loss for the Celtics.

On this day: In 1960, the Celtics played what remains the team’s only Christmas Eve game in its storied history, routing the Pistons at the Boston Garden, 150-106.

Red Auerbach took issue with referee Sid Borgia and was promptly ejected, though it mattered little in the final outcome of the game. Seven Celtics ended up in double-digit scoring figures, with Bill Russell (15 points, 29 rebounds) and Bob Cousy (a game-high 25 points, seven assists) leading the way.

Daily highlight: Ja Morant continues to make outrageous plays look routine, though the Grizzlies lost in the end to the Clippers on Monday night.

JA MORANT 360 LAY 😱🌀 pic.twitter.com/wMb2ClWhN4

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 24, 2024

Trivia answer: Drew Bledsoe, Jim Plunkett