Bed Bugs and Belief: Why Ashton Grant is the man to maximize Drake Maye
The voice in the ear of last season's MVP runner-up came a long way. In related news? New England isn't going anywhere any time soon.
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — He looks over his shoulder and nods toward the New England Patriots’ team hotel during Super Bowl Week, a spacious Marriott property with gigantic images of Drake Maye and Christian Gonzalez draped down the side. There’s maid service, a hot breakfast and — each morning — everyone knows they’re one day closer toward competing in the greatest sports event on earth.
A totally different dimension from his life in 2013.
Ashton Grant thinks back to his personal tipping point, back to when he attended a prep school in the deep woods of Great Barrington, Mass.
Those mornings, Grant wasn’t worried about preparing for a championship game. No, he woke up with one concern at the forefront of mind.
Bed bugs.
His arms. His legs. His neck. Small red dots covered his entire body.
“That hotel,” he says, “is way nicer than where we were staying.”
Of course, Super Bowl LX then felt something like a million bed bugs striking at once. The Seattle Seahawks “Dark Side” defense devoured the Patriots, 29-13. A crunching, humiliating defeat that reduced Drake Maye to tears. The quarterback who lost the NFL MVP award by one first-place vote was dazed, confused and shockingly hesitant under game-long assault. He’s only 23 years old. When a quarterback is this good, this fast, we generally view any playoff loss as a learning experience.
Maye could play another two decades. Surely, a young quarterback this supremely talented will be back.
But not exactly.
At 23, Dan Marino set NFL records in passing yards (5,084), touchdowns (48), completions (362) and won MVP. He played another 15 seasons and never reached the Super Bowl again. At 27, Aaron Rodgers sat atop the football world as a Super Bowl champ. It was only his third season as the starter. We all assumed a quarterback knifing daggers so pristine would collect Lombardi Trophies. It’s been 15 years. He hasn’t even been back to the game.
Concern is real for the best today. Joe Burrow, at 25, was one whiffed fourth-and-1 block away from Super Bowl immortality. He has not been back.
Losing on this stage is gut-wrenching. I stood three feet away from Maye during his postgame presser. His voice cracked, his tears flowed, the merciless finality of an NFL season knocked the wind out of Maye more than any of those 11 hits absorbed on the field. The 2025 Patriots were history. The 2026 Patriots would be a completely different team. Maye realized in real time, he was heading back to base camp.
With the new league year beginning next week, it’s a perfect time to note that Drake Maye — that quarterback beaten to a pulp — is positioned to get back to a Super Bowl better than those QBs before him. Use any metric. That shoulder injury was obviously throbbing more than anyone knew. He wasn’t himself all postseason. These Patriots have roughly $39.2 million to spend, per OverTheCap.com. Veterans will climb over each other for the chance to play with Maye.
Mike Vrabel is the coach of the year. Josh McDaniels is the coordinator who worked with Tom Brady for 13 seasons.
And then there’s the quarterbacks coach few know anything about.
Arguably nobody spends more time at 1 Patriot Place with Maye than Ashton Grant.
Go Long sat down with the 30-year-old in Santa Clara during Super Bowl Week to learn more.
It’s easy to see how this turbo-fast riser in the industry has meshed so effortlessly, so naturally with Maye.
Grant starred as a wideout at D-II Assumption University, setting school records in receiving yards (3,204) and touchdown receptions (36). After cups of coffee in camp with the Chicago Bears and Kansas City Chiefs, he latched on as a quality control coach at Holy Cross in 2019, joined the Cleveland Browns staff in 2020 and worked his way up to this opportunity in 2024 with New England. During his sabbatical as a consultant in Cleveland, Vrabel loved what he saw.
All traits any coach could desire in a quarterback were evident in Maye. Immediately. Brains. Athleticism. Natural leadership. Huge arm. T.C. McCartney, his first position coach in New England, saw it all. Grant will never forget three points his college coaches preached: Attitude, attention to detail, urgency.
Words he strives to live by “every single day.” It’s why he insists he’s never had a bad day at work.
This relationship blossomed because, while every coach sings the virtues of “process over results,” it’s a way of life in New England. McDaniels is notoriously tough on players and Grant isn’t afraid to ding Maye for mistakes on what resemble MVP-worthy plays to the naked eye. Take Week 17. In a 42-10 drubbing of the New York Jets, Maye nearly threw a perfect game with 256 yards and five touchdowns on 19-of-21 passing.
One of his best plays was a 31-yard hookup with Stefon Diggs on a scramble drill.
Diggs mosses the ball atop the helmet of Qwan’tez Stiggers.
To all of us, this is the sort of magic that foreshadows greatness.
Inside the film room, however, Maye received no flowers — only scorn — because this play was designed to be a quick pass. He’s got two receivers to the left, two to the right. All four options run five yards and turn for the ball. It’s Maye’s job to pick the correct side of the field pre-snap and spit the ball out on time.
On this play, he picked the wrong side and was forced to improvise.
“Now, he’s running for his life when he necessarily doesn’t have to,” Grant explains. “He makes a wild play and the whole world is like ‘MVP!’ Me and McDaniels are talking to each other on the headset: ‘What the hell is this guy doing?’ So it’s little things like that where you can teach him, ‘Why did you pick that side as opposed to this side? And the reason you’re running for your life is because we didn’t execute pre-snap.’”
All season, Grant panned a magnifying glass over footwork, pocket movement, ball placement, all minute nuances to Maye’s game to push him. Bad shoulder or not, Seattle exposed a hole in Maye’s game. Mic’d up safety Julian Love was caught on the sideline describing Maye as a typical young quarterback who takes an extra split-second to make sure his receiver’s open before throwing the ball — unlike Matthew Stafford.
All parties know there’s another level to reach this offseason.
“He’s focused on being the best version of himself,” Grant says, “and competing with himself as opposed to competing with other teams around the league. … Chasing perfection. The chase is what he’s bought into.”
Grant’s the man to accelerate this chase, too.
To other coaches around the NFL, he’s somewhat of a mystery man on a meteoric rise.
This is a dream opportunity in Foxborough, one that could lead to a head-coaching job in the future.
Dig into his roots and you can see why. Grant’s rise is strikingly similar to Joe Burrow’s right-hand man in Cincinnati: Dan Pitcher. Neither played pro quarterback. Neither even played Division I football. But their ultra-humble roots help them connect with prodigies at the position. A Connecticut native, Grant played football at Manchester (Conn.) High School but was never a big-time recruit. He didn’t hit his growth spurt until his junior year of high school. Grant, a receiver, stood only 5 feet, 8 inches tall.
Friends received offer after offer. Grant was forgotten.
“I was a tiny kid,” he says. “I just realized complaining about things doesn’t get anything done. Dominating the hand you’re dealt and playing the cards you’re dealt is ultimately what’s going to get you to where you want.”
He still remembers the day everything clicked.
He was present in the school’s auditorium when one of his best friends signed a letter of intent to play at the University of Maryland and another signed to play at Boston College. Grant cheered them on… and Grant also had zero clue where he was heading to college. So, right then, he made a vow to earn a college football scholarship. By any means.
His only option was to attended a prep school, physically develop as a wide receiver and hope a D-I or D-II coach out there discovered him.
That’s when Grant headed to East Coast Prep School in Great Barrington.
It was no joy ride.
Ten boys crammed into one cabin with two bathrooms. They didn’t have hot water or phones. Kids were shut off from the outside world until the opening week of that football season. They did, however, have bed bugs. So many bed bugs that’d eat him alive. Red markings clustered all the way up his neck.
It got so bad that Grant started studying up on bed bugs online. (“I wanted to know what the hell was happening.”) He learned that these parasitic insects that feed on blood are incredibly smart. Bed bugs apparently know when you’re in Stage 4 sleep, the deepest state of non-REM sleep, and crawl on you to bite your neck, wrist, ankles. When they sense you’re about to wake up, they scurry back into little cuts in the bed.
The location of this school in mountainous Berkshires of Western Massachusetts made their cabins a hotbed for these annoying creatures. The school served as a day camp for kids and they were essentially renting it out for a semester.
When Mom finally saw Grant that first game of the season, she nearly pulled Grant right out of the prep school. This was absurd.
Grant refused. Grant needed to stay. He had no clue destiny awaited 230 miles east one day. Simply, Grant wanted all of this to become part of his story. One day, he’d be able to tell people what he was willing to put himself through.
At heart, he loved the experience. The school consisted of a bunch of pent-up 17- and 18-year-old boys “filled with testosterone” who weren’t allowed to leave campus. When the lights went out at 10 p.m. — and coaches headed to the other side of campus — they always found new ways to raise cain on-site. Marathon games of “Man Hunt” were common. They’d jump off roofs, get into fights, wrestle, create all sorts of crazy new games.
It’s not easy to go several months without seeing a female. Those bed bugs were a pain. And the pressure of this season serving as a last chance in the sport heightened pressure for all. So these boys becoming men figured they’d make the best of it.
“It was probably the most fun time of my life,” Grant says, “because we were 17 with no parents and playing football during the day and acting a fool at night.”
Grant knew both of his parents took out loans to pay for his tuition. They sacrificed thousands of dollars. He told his father that if they could get him through prep school, he’d take care of the rest. Neither Mom nor Dad would need to pay a dime of college tuition.
One set of eyes was all Grant needed to change everyone’s life.
That fall, he caught 20 passes for 511 yards with four touchdowns, good for a 25.6 average per catch that did grab the attention of a man named Bob Chesney. On-hand to scout East Coast Prep’s game vs. Bridgton Academy, the D-II Assumption College coach couldn’t take his eyes off No. 82. This was no SEC goliath — Grant needed to pay for his own cleats and gloves. But, again, he maximized every day. “He ended up with us,” Chesney told ESPN, “and was an unstoppable force out on the field.”
Grant set those receiving records, led Assumption to an 38-11 record and Chesney became the head coach at Holy Cross.
When Grant’s NFL career ran dry, Chesney had a quality control position ready for him.
Chesney went 44-21 at Holy Cross, then 12-2 at James Madison before being named the head coach at UCLA last December.
Things worked out for Grant, too.
In Cleveland, another coach saw something special in his work ethic: Vrabel.
He traces it all back to his attitude in those Massachusetts backwoods.
“I went to prep school with a purpose,” he says. “I was there for a reason. Some kids got in trouble, some kids got kicked out, some kids just fooled around and then I was just determined.”
“Coming from that to this. I can’t imagine coming in here pissed off or not appreciating what’s in front of us.”
Now, he’s the preeminent voice in Drake Maye’s ear.
Grant’s name wasn’t on a Super Bowl marquee. Nor was he embarrassed in front of 125 million. This sport’s beaten him down in other ways. Grant can relate to everything Maye’s going through this offseason.
In Cleveland, Grant had his hands on all positions as a QC (2020- ’21) and offensive assistant/quarterbacks coach (2023- ’24), so he enjoys popping into all position rooms. His receiver background came in handy discussing route concepts with Diggs, Mack Hollins and the Patriots pass catchers. He’d listen to how they like to run certain routes and apply it to his work with the QBs. He talks to running backs about protections and tight ends about specific plays throughout the course of a week.
This is what stands out to Joshua Dobbs, the Patriots’ No. 2 QB who has played for nearly a third of the league.
Also, New England’s offense is much more complex than the mainstream playbook. McDaniels does not merely instruct quarterbacks to follow a basic 1-to-2-to-3-to-4 progression. Maye must thoroughly read coverages in the blink of an eye. The Patriots choose the hard way because they believe the hard way is built to last long term.
If McDaniels is the brainiac devising those intricate gameplans, Grant is the one who helps quarterbacks digest everything in Layman’s terms.
“He is a conveyor of information,” says Dobbs. “Obviously, he’s in the staff meetings and the gameplan meetings. We have him and Josh both in our room, and Ashton does a great job of explaining it in a simple way so we can go out and execute it. Sometimes, it can be a little gibberish-y when it first gets installed. He does a great job of simplifying it to us quarterbacks so we can play football.”
Most importantly, players respect his rise at a deep level.
They know the 17-year-old sleeping with parasites is now a 30-year-old pouring in an obscene number of hours to put them in the best possible position to succeed.
“A lot of respect,” Dobbs says. “He’s gotten it out of the mud. His path to the NFL — and where he is today — he’s done a really good job of maximizing his opportunities. That’ll lead to a very exciting career for him.”
One year in, he’s figuring out what triggers Maye. He knows this is a kid who famously grew up sparring with three older brothers. Grant’s starting to wonder if being the runt of a litter is a prerequisite to starting at quarterback in the pros. When the firstborn son makes varsity, your parents throw a party. By the time the third or fourth son makes the team, it’s expected. That’s the best way he can describe Maye’s mindset. When he officially broke the Patriots record for completion percentage, when his 72 percent shattered Tom Brady’s 68.9 percent in ’07, Maye hardly reacted.
Grant tries to hype him up… to no avail. He even brought up doing something in pregame like Brady with the whole “Let’s go!!” fist pump. It’s not in the young passer’s personality.
“Drake’s like, ‘I’m going to come out and I’m going to run to the goal line and take a snap from the center,’” says Grant.
By season’s end, the coach figured out which buttons to push. Ahead of Super Bowl LX, he told Maye that 48 of 58 prognosticators at ESPN picked Seattle to beat the Patriots. That got the juices flowing. That seemed to piss him off just the right amount.
Of course, those 48 analysts were proven correct.
The Patriots were shellacked.
Back to square one they go.
But everyone can wipe those tears away now. Everyone in Foxborough must realize the championship window is wide open. GM Eliot Wolf and Vrabel have a golden opportunity to get this team right back to the Super Bowl. Trading for a No. 1 wideout is realistic. Multiple new starters on the O-Line would help, too. The Patriots could — and should — make noise in free agency next week. Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson all return with a vengeance.
There’s no guarantee Drake Maye gets back to this game. Ask Marino. Ask Hall of Famers who never sniffed the game like Dan Fouts and Warren Moon.
One major reason to be bullish on these 2026 Patriots won’t be discussed at all as the transactions fly.
It’s Ashton Grant. It’s all those hours away from 60 minutes on a Sunday he’ll exhaust to find Maye’s next level and get him a shot at redemption. If he does? All high school players waking up to red welts all over their body instead of NIL fortunes should take notice.