- Gridiron Wallet
- Posts
- Drake Maye: The Patriots Franchise QB’s Early Blueprint for Building Wealth
Drake Maye: The Patriots Franchise QB’s Early Blueprint for Building Wealth
Welcome to Gridiron Wallet — where NFL players don’t just chase rings, they chase bags. From million-dollar grills to side hustles that slap, we’re decoding how football’s finest make it, spend it, and sometimes… fumble it. 🏈🔥
The latest edition of our newsletter covers Drake Maye:
NFL Money: Rookie Contract, Spending, and Early Financial Footprint
NIL Earnings and Brand Partnerships
Charity, Foundations, Community Ties, and Long-Term Value
✍️Paper Play
NFL Money: Rookie Contract, Spending, and Early Financial Footprint
Drake Maye has taken a giant leap in just his second NFL season. Many thought it would take a few years under Mike Vrabel for the QB to progress to an elite level. But here he is, halfway into the 2025 season and already an MVP candidate.
Maye’s Patriots sit at 8-2, and he certainly couldn’t be called a passenger or a game manager during this run of seven straight wins. The 23-year-old North Carolina alum leads the NFL in both completion percentage and passing yards.
He’s the engine driving the team to these victories despite seeing near constant pressure and taking some big hits from defensive linemen. Maye has been sacked 36 times this season, second-most in the NFL. And he plays the game tough, too.
Coaches have no doubt had to coach him into sliding more to avoid big hits. Major injuries have surely crossed the QB’s mind as well, and perhaps that’s why he’s started to shrewdly save his money… Just in case a big hit does come that knocks his career off the rails.
Maye’s rookie deal with New England was a standard four-year, $36.6 million contract. But it was also fully guaranteed. Slot structured as the No. 3 overall pick, the deal paid the North Carolina product a $23.5 million signing bonus. His annual cash flow is front-loaded, with most of the signing bonus being paid in Year 1 on the signing bonus schedule.
He also has a standard fifth-year option tagged onto the end of the deal. It will be interesting to see how the team and quarterback deal with that caveat when the time comes. The Pats might want to play Maye one extra season on his little rookie deal before signing him to the inevitable $60 million a year contract. But the quarterback will likely want that contract ASAP.
It’s not like he wants that second contract because he needs the money, far from it. Maye has seemingly been as frugal as any young QB who just became a millionaire could be expected to be. In fact, there have been no reports of major purchases like jewelry or cars, or major partnerships with fad companies.
Maye’s just focused on improving on the football field right now, which is refreshing in a time where every player is not just an athlete but also a brand and a business.
Basically, Maye is being smart with his money: He has partnered with a digital wealth advisory company called Betterment. This helps him push money into charitable purposes but also shows that he is investing through a regulated wealth-management platform rather than hopping on whatever financial or speculative trend that pops up.
Maye is clearly getting good advice on portfolio and risk management, which will serve him even better when he does get that second contract. That deal will make him one of the highest-paid players on the planet for a time, no doubt.
💸 Future Proof
NIL Earnings and Brand Partnerships
According to On3, Maye had an estimated NIL valuation between $1.4M and $1.7M during his first year at UNC. It was a substantial amount for the young QB. And most of that income came from mid-tier partnerships instead of mega national deals. Those early agreements served as the foundation of Maye’s pre-NFL wealth.
Who did Maye partner with back then? He had three notable partnerships with mostly local brands while he was making a mark in North Carolina.
Jimmy’s Famous Seafood
One of Maye’s biggest partnerships in college was with Jimmy’s Famous Seafood. He would sponsor weekly meal deals for the company, and participated in promotional campaigns.
Facilitated by the Heels4Life NIL collective, this collab ended up becoming one of his most visible deals. Maye had signed the deal alongside six of his wide receiving teammates at the time.
Mitchell Heating & Cooling
Maye partnered with Mitchell Heating & Cooling in 2023. They’re a local HVAC company that has served the Raleigh, North Carolina, area for over 50 years. The deal was structured so that multiple of Maye’s teammates could benefit. The QB got his offensive linemen involved, too. This helped strengthen Maye’s ‘team-first’ reputation that he’s known for today.
ZOA Energy
When Dwyane ‘The Rock’ Johnson launched his new Zoa Energy drink in 2023, he made sure Maye was a part of the first promotional campaign. It became the QB’s first wide-reach, national deal. He promoted the energy drink alongside other top collegiate athletes at the time, like Marvin Harrison Jr., Angel Reese, and Brock Bowers.
These NIL partnerships are now all in his rear-view mirror. But they helped Maye build several things for his career. Most notably, a brand image, media training, early liquidity, and discipline. All of which has prepared him for the constraints and expectations of being an NFL QB.
💡 Gridiron Wallet Trivia
Did you know?
🌿 Drake Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, signed a 4-year, $38.5 million fully guaranteed rookie contract with the New England Patriots. That includes a $25 million signing bonus, instantly making Maye one of the highest-paid rookies in franchise history. His deal also carries a fifth-year team option, standard for all first-round picks.
🏈 ✨Dream Scheme
Charity, Foundations, Community Ties, and Long-Term Value
Maye is only halfway into his sophomore NFL season. But his actions convey that he is someone who understands exactly how fortunate he is to be in his position and the responsibility that comes with that. This is evident from all the philanthropic work he has undertaken since joining the league.
The Patriots QB’s charity journey began in November 2024, when he made a $10,000 donation to The Salvation Army for Hurricane Helene relief in his home state of North Carolina. That money ended up directly funding hot meals, cleanup kits, and recovery support for families in places like Asheville and Black Mountain, areas that were hit hard by the storm.
After the funding, The Salvation Army expressed gratitude by stating that the timing mattered because, amid a long recovery period and stretched out resources, Maye’s help was a “blessing.”
Then came another story that really showed the kind of person he is.
In July this year, Maye and his wife, Ann Michael, donated every single wedding gift they received to shelters and youth centers back home. No announcement, no Instagram post, no press release. The only reason anyone even found this out was because former Patriots QB Scott Zolak mentioned it on air:
“They didn’t tell anybody… they took their wedding gifts and sent them to the homeless and help centers down there. Everything that they got, they forwarded it,” Zolak had stated.
In an era where most charitable acts come with PR driven staged photos and some disguised as tax exemption manoeuvres, the quietness of Maye’s donations really speaks volumes about his character.
And then finally, there’s the initiative that may end up defining the star QB’s early legacy. His partnership with Folds of Honor Boston funds seven academic scholarships for the children and spouses of fallen or disabled military members and first responders.
The funding will provide one scholarship for each New England state, plus one for a UNC student. The program, backed by his collaboration with Betterment, began with the 2025–26 academic year.
For a 23-year-old quarterback still in his sophomore year, Drake Maye has already positioned himself as a genuinely cause-aligned athlete. Not because he has to be… but because, so far, every sign suggests he wants to be.
📆 NFL Money Stat of 1970
In 1970, the average NFL player salary was around $23,000, just as the NFL and AFL officially merged into one league. That same year, the newly unified NFL signed a four-year, $156 million TV deal with CBS and NBC—an unprecedented move that began transforming pro football into a billion-dollar entertainment empire.