There is a myriad of ways to motivate athletes, from inspirational sports movies to bulletin board material. The Patriots, however, have found a unique way to motivate quarterback Drake Maye. Ashton Grant, the Patriots quarterbacks coach, recently acknowledged that Drake is his own biggest critic.
But while that might be true, Grant has found a creative metaphor that has further helped Maye in his pursuit of excellence — chicken wings. "He's someone that wants to chase perfection, and I think that is good," Grant said. "And try to feed into that a little bit because there's always a little bit more meat on the bone.
"You know, we joke around with like chicken wings, and if you guys ever eat wings ... people throw them away, and there's a little bit of meat left. I try to show pictures of bare bones of the meat just to be like, there's always more for us to do. You know, whether it be with our details, techniques, our fundamentals, our communication, our operation.
We're constantly chasing the best version of ourselves, and I'm happy that he's someone that likes to do that." Maye is coming off a 2025 campaign that saw a Super Bowl appearance and a runner-up finish in the NFL MVP race. However, his 2026 start has been much slower. He has just one touchdown and 386 passing yards to go along with four interceptions.
Those four turnovers rank 31st in the league, while he ranks 25th in passing yards. He and the Patriots face the Jacksonville Jaguars in Florida this weekend. Anyone who has eaten a chicken wing knows exactly what Grant is talking about.
While it's relatively easy to get most of the meat off the bone, it takes a little more time and effort to polish it off. Because of that, most people tend to leave some meat on the bone (which is crazy given how much chicken wings can cost these days). While you might not think so at first, a chicken wing is a pretty good metaphor for playing quarterback at a high level.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
