{"id":738590,"date":"2026-02-08T18:32:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/738590\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T18:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:32:22","slug":"newly-inducted-hall-of-famer-praises-patriots-drake-maye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/738590\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly Inducted Hall Of Famer Praises Patriots’ Drake Maye"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recently selected Pro Football Hall of Famer gushed over New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye before Super Bowl LX.<\/p>\n

Luke Kuechly joined Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Roger Craig and former Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri among the 2026 Hall of Fame class<\/a> revealed Thursday night. Shortly after, the former Carolina Panthers linebacker commended Maye to the Charlotte Observer\u2019s Scott Fowler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is just a great dude,\u201d Kuechly said of Maye. \u201cTough. He\u2019s not a \u2018me\u2019 guy. He\u2019s a \u2018we\u2019 guy. And all he\u2019s done this year is win games. I think people are starting to recognize that this dude is a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuechly doesn\u2019t think Maye has \u201ca selfish bone in his body.\u201d While ex-Panthers teammate Cam Newton hasn\u2019t always touted a Charlotte native who grew up idolizing him, Kuechly is cheering for Maye.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a better guy to root for in the NFL than a guy like Drake Maye,\u201d Kuechly said. \u201cPlus he\u2019s a Charlotte kid, and a great story. That\u2019s my favorite thing \u2014 when really good players are great people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Maye has earned adoration on and off the field during a breakout second season. The 23-year-old finished one first-place vote<\/a> behind Matthew Stafford in the MVP race after completing 72 percent of his passes with a 113.5 quarterback rating.<\/p>\n

Maye will look to accomplish a goal that eluded Kuechly by winning a Super Bowl on Sunday. The game starts at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recently selected Pro Football Hall of Famer gushed over New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye before Super…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[833,7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-738590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-drake-maye","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116036445716226465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738590","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=738590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}