NFL legend points finger at Josh McDaniels for Drake Maye's struggles

NFL legend and ESPN analyst Steve Smith Sr. offered his view on New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye’s offensive struggles.

It has been a rough start to the season for Maye, who has thrown only one touchdown pass with seven turnovers, including one fumble and six interceptions. Three of those turnovers came in the Patriots‘ 35-6 blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last week.

Many have been quick to lay all of the blame at the feet of the third-year quarterback, but Smith believes the root cause of the issue runs deeper than one player. He sees a problem with the entire offensive operation in New England, starting with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

“The problem is we want to diagnose, and we want to sit there and evaluate Drake Maye, but the offense is sick,” Smith said on ESPN’s Get Up. “We got to get some medicine, some Tussin. We got to get some Tussin to the offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, who I love. But I think they put way too much on his plate, started over and said, ‘Hey, here you go. Get it done.’

“He has to be perfect. It is impossible for a young quarterback to be perfect when you already have changed everything in the offense that he did well last year. You said, ‘Hey, let’s give him a shrink-manageable playbook.’ Now, all of a sudden, ‘Hey, you got all these pages, study up, son. See you on Sunday.'”

“We wanna throw everything on Drake Maye, … I think they put way too much on his plate.”@SteveSmithSr89 weighs in on the Patriots’ struggles 👀 pic.twitter.com/xgzJDBvWAj

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) September 29, 2026

Multiple things can be true.

Yes, Maye has struggled, but the Patriots also haven’t done a great job of helping him. The offensive line is underperforming and banged up, A.J. Brown is out with an injury and Maye’s favorite receiving targets from 2025, Stefon Diggs and Kayshon Boutte, are playing with other teams. Not to mention, the play-calling hasn’t been creative enough to make up for all of the missing pieces.

So far, the offensive operation has been a complete failure.

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This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: NFL legend points finger at Josh McDaniels for Drake Maye’s struggles