Sports nicknames should be short, snappy and fun. Maybe throw in an autobiographical or descriptive element.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye’s moniker fits the bill when it comes to those qualifications, but is also equal parts bizarre and confusing.
How else do you describe it when a player is referred to as the head-scratching and simplistic Drake “Drake Maye” Maye?
It’s enough to befuddle his own teammates, as wide receiver Kayshon Boutte was caught on the sidelines mid-game trying to decipher the sobriquet shouted by fans, worn on t-shirts and posted on social media, first as a joke and then as something befitting a rising MVP candidate facing the Seahawks in Super Bowl 2026 on Feb. 8.
“Do anybody know what they mean when they be like Drake ‘Drake Maye’ Maye?,” Boutte asked his teammates during the Patriots’ Week 13 win over the Giants. “Like, what the hell does that mean? They giving him a middle name, I guess.”
The 23-year-old wideout, in his third pro season — second with Maye throwing him the ball — quickly found the answer.
“So I think I seen somebody on Instagram said Drake ‘Drake Maye’ Maye means like he got his nickname as his name,” Boutte told team writer Alex Francisco on “Patriots Unfiltered” about the viral clip. “Which means he’s in his own category.”
There’s no arguing the No. 3 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft was dynamic in in just his second NFL season: He completed an NFL-best 72% of his 492 passing attempts for 4,394 yards (fourth in the league), finished third in touchdown passes (31), tossed just eight interceptions and led all QBs with a 113.5 passer rating and 77.1 QB rating. His 450 rushing yards ranked fourth-best while adding four scores on the ground.
Maye narrowly finished second behind Matthew Stafford in the MVP vote.
His ascension — helming a turnaround from a 4-13 rookie season to a 14-3 regular-season finish — has already earned him a pair of Pro Bowl nods and the 2026 Pro Football Writers Association Most Improved Player award.
His coaches agree he’s entering his own echelon at just 23 years old.
New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels told Fox Sports that while Maye could learn some things from franchise icon Tom Brady, the North Carolina product is doing something Brady — he of the TB12, Tom Terrific, Touchdown Tom and other nicknames listed on his Pro Football Reference page — didn’t do during his storied six Super Bowl run with the Patriots: running his own designed plays.
“We never did that with Tom,” McDaniels said. “Why? Because Drake can do it. Drake’s version of this [offense] is completely his own and we’re still, I would say, in the infancy stages of that. We’re still in our first year.”
Maye already separated himself from the pack, in the eyes of one former Patriots QB, who spent 15 years in the NFL — five of them backing up Brady.
“You can’t compare him to anyone,” Brian Hoyer told Fox Sports. “That’s the greatest compliment you can give.”
A unique nickname to match doesn’t hurt, either.
