{"id":709890,"date":"2026-01-27T21:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/709890\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T21:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:52:20","slug":"rumored-drake-maye-injury-blown-out-of-proportion-says-mike-vrabel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/709890\/","title":{"rendered":"Rumored Drake Maye injury blown out of proportion, says Mike Vrabel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 1\/27\/2026: Rumored Drake Maye injury blown out of proportion, says Mike Vrabel<\/p>\n

After not directly addressing his quarterback\u2019s injury status on Tuesday morning, Mike Vrabel had a chance to clarify his comments during a press conference at Gillette Stadium later that day. He did remain somewhat vague, but did acknowledge that the story about Drake Maye\u2019s injured shoulder was \u201cprobably\u201d blown out of proportion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that everybody, including Drake, is not 100% at this part of the year. We\u2019ll do everything that we can to help our players be prepared and get ready for this game,\u201d Vrabel said.<\/p>\n

When asked in a follow-up whether or not Maye did hurt his shoulder, the Patriots\u2019 first-year head coach claimed that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t say that anybody hurt anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, this is a sport where there\u2019s going to be things that come up, but I don\u2019t think that there\u2019s a \u2014 we\u2019ll talk about whatever status each player has for the game once we\u2019re required to. We understand that. But we were able to function offensively, throw the football, run the football. So, that\u2019s kind of where everybody\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Original story 1\/27\/2026: Mike Vrabel sidesteps Drake Maye injury questions ahead of Super Bowl<\/p>\n

At first glance, the New England Patriots appeared to have escaped the AFC Championship Game against the Denver Broncos without any major injury issues. However, on Monday, speculation started to make the rounds online about quarterback Drake Maye potentially having injured his right throwing shoulder<\/a> on a scramble play in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Maye himself did not show any limitations after the play, but did acknowledge some \u201cbumps and bruises\u201d during his press conference after the 10-7 victory spoke. Are they a valid reason for concern, though? That remains to be seen, especially with Mike Vrabel opting not to directly address the rumors on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Appearing on WEEI\u2019s The Greg Hill Show, the Patriots\u2019 head coach channeled his inner Bill Belichick when asked about Maye\u2019s supposed shoulder ailment:<\/p>\n

Q: Is he a 100% healthy today as you guys get ready?<\/p>\n

Vrabel: There\u2019s not a player on our team that\u2019s 100% healthy.<\/p>\n

Q: Is he healthy enough to play at a high level?<\/p>\n

Vrabel: I would imagine we will go through the injury report, and whenever we have to turn that in, we\u2019ll turn it in. But nobody is 100%. This will be our 21st game.<\/p>\n

Maye finished the game without missing any time, and did not look particularly bothered by his shoulder or any other injuries during and after the contest. He completed his longest pass of the day, a 31-yarder to Mack Hollins, two plays after the scramble in question and was quick to pop up again following a sack in the fourth quarter that saw him land on that very same right shoulder.<\/p>\n

As Vrabel noted, though, his team will share all the necessary information as part of its injury report. The first of those leading up to Super Bowl LX against the Seattle Seahawks will be released next Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Before flying to California, the Patriots are scheduled to hit the practice fields on Thursday and Friday this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Update 1\/27\/2026: Rumored Drake Maye injury blown out of proportion, says Mike Vrabel After not directly addressing his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,52113,12136,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-709890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","10":"tag-new-england-patriots-injuries","11":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115969284836536878","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}