New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is facing a difficult stretch after his breakout 2025 season. Now, questions over his confidence have brought an unexpected suggestion from an NFL legend.

Speaking on NFL on FOX on October 4, NFL legend and former quarterback Terry Bradshaw suggested the Patriots may need to sit Drake Maye down if he has lost confidence, while stressing it would not mean giving up on him as their No. 1 quarterback.

“Sometimes you get into such a rut and you lose your confidence, which is what's happening. Sometimes you have to bench him. You just sit him down,” Terry Bradshaw said.

Drake Maye’s 2025 season explains why Bradshaw’s suggestion is such a harsh verdict. The Patriots quarterback started all 17 regular-season games and completed 72% of his passes for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns and just eight interceptions, as discussed on the NFL ON FOX YouTube video.

The numbers changed sharply at the start of the 2026 season. Through New England’s first three games, Maye had completed 63% of his passes for 585 yards, with one touchdown and six interceptions.

Maye’s struggles were particularly visible in the Patriots’ Week 3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. He completed 14 of 25 passes for 199 yards, threw two interceptions and had no passing touchdowns, finishing with a 48.6 passer rating. He also lost a fumble in the game. 

Bradshaw’s “sit him down” verdict gives the Patriots a difficult option to consider as Maye struggles to regain his form. The decision would focus on helping the quarterback reset rather than removing him from the No. 1 role permanently.

While Bradshaw called for a Week 4 reset, voices like Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy had already offered a different approach a week earlier. 

A Different Approach: Portnoy Backs Maye to Play Through Slump

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy also addressed Drake Maye’s struggles on X, calling for an “intervention” while backing the Patriots quarterback to keep playing through his difficult stretch.

Portnoy shared his take from his X account, @stoolpresidente, during the Patriots’ game, pointing to Maye’s missed opportunities, turnovers and poor throws while arguing that the quarterback should continue throwing his way out of the slump.

“Drake Maye needs an intervention at halftime. You can't win in the NFL when your QB is playing like he is right now. Missing wide-open guys for easy Td's, dropping the ball, throwing horrible Int's. I'm holding my breath every time he throws the ball...work out of this slump,” Dave Portnoy shared on X.

With Portnoy backing Maye to keep playing, his view offers a different response to the quarterback’s current struggles than Bradshaw’s call to sit him down.

Written by

Divyanshi Raj