New England Patriots QB Drake Maye has a lot of respect for Los Angeles Chargers strong safety Derwin James.
The New England Patriots host the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card round of the 2026 NFL playoffs.
That means we get to see Drake Maye go up against Derwin James.
Maye and James are two of the best players in the NFL, with the the Patriots QB being a huge fan of the Chargers SS.
"He's relentless," Maye said about James. "He's a great football player. I played him last year and got to know him a little bit at the Pro Bowl. He's a great dude. He flies around. He's got good instincts. He's punching at the ball. He's good in the run game. He's good in the pass game. He plays some man coverage on third down. He's always around the football. He's got a knack for football, and he's had that probably since he started playing.
"He's a great player. A lot of respect for him, and we've got to find out on every play where he's at. They have some really good players. They're physical as a team, and they have some good guys on the edge. They're smart, and they've played together for a little bit, so they've got a good squad."
Both Maye and James made the Pro Bowl this season. It will be James' job to slow down Maye and Maye's job to torch James' defense this weekend.
For the Patriots this season, Maye put up MVP numbers. He finished with 4,394 passing yards and 31 passing touchdowns while leading the NFL in completion percentage (72.0%). New England averaged 28.8 points per game, good for second in the NFL.
Meanwhile, James had three interceptions, two sacks, 50 solo tackles, six tackles for loss and eight QB hits for the Chargers, who were ninth in the league in scoring defense. LAC gave up only 20.0 points per game.
The Patriots are Super Bowl contenders for the first time in the post-Tom Brady era. Maye will make his NFL postseason debut against the Chargers and he's looking forward to it.
"I think the biggest thing is I'm excited, excited to get an opportunity to play home playoff games," Maye said. "That's what we starred at the beginning of the season of things we want to do here and goals we want to accomplish, and we've got our chance and opportunity right here."