FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots staff ran out of time.
When they visited North Carolina’s Pro Day in March, Patriots coaches and personnel executives planned to review Drake Maye’s worst game with him and then his best.
Maye, who would become New England’s third overall draft selection within the month, had the pleasure of choosing which film to review.
But as the quarterback dove into a December loss to North Carolina State, he explained miscues in detail.
How did more than a quarter of the game elapse before Maye completed a pass? How did NC State leave the Tar Heels facing four three-and-outs and a lost fumble in their first five drives? Two interceptions would follow in the second half.
Maye delved so deep into the laundry list of lessons he learned that meeting that time ran out before the Patriots could break down his best game. And yet — his future employers had learned plenty.
“Some of the coaches sort of gave him the opportunity a couple different times to not shoulder the blame and to throw somebody under the bus and he just would not do it,” Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf told Yahoo Sports. “It was all, ‘No, this is something I could have done better. That’s on me for not getting him ready.’
“For a 21-year-old kid to be in a room where it’s not like we were bullying him, [but] we were giving him opportunities [to defer blame] and he was good. It was impressive.”
By no means did the Patriots select a quarterback third overall only because he’s accountable when things went wrong. The franchise gravitated toward Maye’s accuracy, athleticism and arm talent atop his leadership skills.
But as the Patriots enter an era in which coaches and general managers alike admit the work ahead, New England needed a quarterback committed to learning from mistakes and elevating a team at any stage of its life cycle, including what some would deem an offensive rebuild. They need a quarterback unafraid to redefine the Patriots in the team’s first season without Bill Belichick this millennium. And they need a quarterback who will grow with the franchise long beyond the 2024 season.
View the Patriots’ decision on Maye’s starting timeline through that prism.
“The Patriots are an up-and-coming team that’s gonna be competitive,” Wolf told Yahoo Sports in a Thursday interview. “I think everyone knows we’re not there yet. We’re not all the way where we need to be and there’s some areas that we need to improve. But I think we’re gonna see some progress. Our defense was good last year, we expect that to continue. Our offense is a new system and a new scheme.
“We’re heading in the right direction.”
Breaking down Maye’s growth since he arrived in New England
Ask a Patriots executive where Maye has most shown growth and get a different answer each time.
Quarterback coach T.C. McCartney appreciated a third-and-5 conversion to Javon Baker in last weekend’s preseason game, Maye hanging in the pocket to find Baker up the middle for 12 yards.
“A play we’ve worked on, repped the footwork, understanding the coverage that he saw,” McCartney told Yahoo Sports.
Maye tied his footwork to his eyes to ensure the rhythm of the pass. The rookie also demonstrated the left-foot-forward mechanics that offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt is shifting Patriots quarterbacks toward for its mechanics.
Van Pelt thinks back to the accuracy Maye showed on a missed third-down conversion to Baker four snaps later, the rookie quarterback demonstrating accuracy and touch as his ball sailed 28 yards in the air even as Baker didn’t come down with it. For a team eager to emphasize the run game in the near future, the Patriots want a quarterback who can take those deep shots.
And then there’s the easy-to-miss 4-yard dump-off in between that spoke to Wolf.
Maye was beginning to set up a bootleg on first-and-10 with 12:55 to play in the second quarter when Philadelphia Eagles edge rusher Nolan Smith simply did not bite. Smith smothered Maye, even drawing a penalty for helmet-to-helmet contact. The pursuit zapped Maye’s time to throw, so he shoveled a pass to tight end Mitchell Wilcox 2 yards behind the play’s initial starting line.
“Drake kind of jumped up in the air to get the ball past him and altered his arm angle and the defender kind of head-butted him in the face,” Wolf said. “It was just kind of a play you can tell where, ‘All right, this guy is playing the game. He’s not doing too much, not overthinking it.’ So it was good.”
Those seemingly ordinary moments have characterized Maye’s progress in training camp. Sure, his big arm is capable of plays that head coach Jerod Mayo says “we haven’t had in a long time.” But moments of growth also include a quicker coverage diagnosis to advance to Maye’s second read as well as more seamless shifting of run plays from one side to the other.
Maye’s verbiage comfort has grown, his response to the inevitable errant throw increasingly calm.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Whoa, this guy has a cannon,’ or ‘This guy is so smart,’” Mayo told Yahoo Sports. “But what can he do when things don’t go right? And how do you pull the nose up on the plane? Drake has the ability to do that for sure.”
When the time comes for him to start, Maye will need that.
But when will that be?
Mayo preaching ‘sense of urgency that someone’s going to take your job’
The Patriots could view their starting decision through three lenses.
They can ask themselves: Which quarterback boasts a higher ceiling? Whose development positions him more comfortable to beat the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 8? Which quarterback is the best on-field choice for the franchise now — with ramifications that will ripple through at least half a decade of the team’s trajectory?
No one in franchise leadership is arguing that veteran Jacoby Brissett, the team’s current starter, projects to reach Maye’s ceiling in areas like improvisation and creative arm angles.
But Brissett has experience in Van Pelt’s system that Maye doesn’t have and experience with the left-foot-forward progressions that the rookie does not. Brissett’s mental bank of NFL defenses, including that of the Week 1 opponent Bengals, is far more complex. Brissett can manipulate cadences in ways Maye cannot yet and arrive at answers to defensive questions more quickly.
“Jacoby right now is more suited with the skill set and his toolbox to be able to handle a lot of the issues that come up and Drake is still learning that,” Van Pelt told Yahoo Sports. “You don’t want to put a guy out there when he doesn’t know exactly how to protect himself from certain looks. So that’s the whole process right now. And I think at some point, if and when that does happen, then it will be obvious to everybody.
“But right now, very comfortable with what Jacoby can do.”
Conversations with several coaches and executives point to Brissett starting the season for a Patriots team whose offensive line and skill players pale in comparison to casts like what first overall pick Caleb Williams arrived to in Chicago.
They point to Brissett starting early games against tough defenses like the San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets, giving Maye more time to learn after a college career featuring just 26 starts. (Consider that fellow rookie Bo Nix started 61 college games and Jayden Daniels 55 before each got the starting nod this week.)
The Patriots will continue to evaluate through the season whether Brissett is still the best man for the job, a decision that will be influenced by the team’s surrounding cast, Brissett’s performance and Maye’s development.
But for now, Van Pelt says Brissett is “way more equipped to handle the opening day.”
A change in philosophy by Week 1 would surprise.
And yet…
“My thing with Drake is: When he’s ready to go, and we talk about competition all the time, if he beats Jacoby out, I mean, there’s nothing else really to be said — and hopefully he continues to get better,” Mayo said. “When I talk about competition, it’s not just in training camp, it’s on a day-to-day basis throughout the season, in the meeting room, during the walkthrough and on the field.
“So you always have to have that sense of urgency that someone’s going to take your job. But I do think that Jacoby has done a fantastic job putting that to the side and just worrying about himself on the field.”
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