Drake Maye says shoulder injury won't require surgery in offseason

Quarterback Drake Maye confirmed during his final news conference of the season that he did injure his throwing shoulder during the AFC Championship Game, but said it won't require surgery in the offseason and wasn't to blame for his Super Bowl performance.

Maye was limited in practice the week after the Patriots beat the Broncos to advance to the Super Bowl. That Friday, he missed practice with the shoulder injury and an illness. He practiced in full once the team arrived in California for the Super Bowl.

After struggling in the Super Bowl loss, Maye was asked about the injury. He said that he received an injection before the game for pain tolerance, saying his shoulder was numb so he didn't feel much.

Drake Maye injury update

On Tuesday during his final news conference of the year, the quarterback said his arm felt great all season, and it was not a case of overuse catching up to him. Instead, he confirmed the injury happened in the third quarter against Denver when he was tackled awkwardly.

"I think it's the case of having one hit in the AFC Championship game that was just kind of unfortunate, unfortunate timing. 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," Maye said. "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. So, nothing that I have much else to say about that."

Despite the injury, Maye said he does not need any sort of surgery or procedure to clean it up.

"Just get some time off. Time is the best healer. Definitely just need time off. Nothing that needs anything to be done. Just need some time away, time to get some rest and time away from football," Maye said.

Patriots offseason

The quarterback said he and his teammates know that going into next season, they'll have to step up their game after such a successful season.

"You've got to elevate. Teams are going to be looking at what we did, how you improved so quickly, how we won the division, we won the AFC and a lot of the great things," Maye said. "So teams are going to have a bullseye on us to try and stop us. So we've got to try to not be complacent and know that teams are going to be chasing us and we've got to chase the Seahawks."

As for his offseason, the rising star said he's looking forward to spending time with his wife, Ann Michael.

"This offseason, I've got a wife now. I've got a beautiful wife, so I don't know. I look forward to spending this offseason with my wife," he said. "Yeah, that's kind of my first thought. That's going to be the highlight of my offseason, I can tell you that."