After taking a pain-killing injection for his injured right throwing shoulder prior to Super Bowl LX, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye said Tuesday he will not require offseason surgery.
“Just get some time off. Time’s the best healer, and definitely just need time off,” Maye said before the team broke for the offseason. “Nothing that needs anything to be done. Just some time away, time to get some rest and just time away from football.”
Maye pointed to the 13-yard scramble in the AFC Championship Game
as the moment his shoulder was injured, as Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga landed hard on top of him driving his right arm into the ground.
“I feel like my arm was feeling great all year. I don’t think throwing, really, was the instance for my arm. I think it’s the case of having one hit in the AFC Championship game that was just kind of unfortunate, unfortunate timing,” Maye said. “The two weeks were great to have off to have a chance to be out there and be out there for my guys.
“I mean, you can’t blame things on injuries. Things like this happen all the time in the league. I was blessed this year. What a year of health and blessings for me this year. You can’t throw it on one little thing on the shoulder. So, it’s just unfortunate it happened to the throwing one, but at the same time, I could have prevented it or made more plays. I was feeling like I was able to make throws in the game and was myself.”
Despite not saying the shoulder impacted his performance, Maye went on to struggle in his Super Bowl debut against a top ranked Seattle defense.
Largely behind 20-plus fourth quarter drop backs in a multi-score deficit, Maye finished the game 27-of-43 for 295 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also lost a fumble on a strip sack as he was brought down six times.
“It’s going to sting for a while, and I know it’s what makes this sport special. You come back, get a chance to take some time away, but not take too much time away because we were close, and you’ve got to try to find that extra edge. I know those guys in the locker room are going to try to find that,” Maye said.
“I know I didn’t play as well as I would have liked down the stretch, and I’m going to promise to do my best to work hard and get us back to those moments in those games.”
