On Thursday, Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt met with the media before his team’s practice at Gillette Stadium, and discussed his plans for rookie quarterback Drake Maye in Week 18 against the Bills (13-3).
“Drake looked good yesterday, he’s ready to go,” said Van Pelt. “So, he’ll be starting the game, for sure. Excited to get another opportunity. Again, we talked about more opportunities for him to just continue to grow. This gives him an opportunity to go out and play a team he just played two weeks ago, have a good understanding of what they did in our game, and see how well we respond in this game.”
Normally, this would be great news for Patriots fans heading into their team’s season finale, as they’ll get another chance to watch their exciting young QB against a division rival, attempting to build some momentum as the team heads into the offseason with one of the worst records in the NFL.
But with a loss on Sunday guaranteeing the franchise the No. 1 pick in April’s NFL Draft, the consensus among fans and media is that sitting Maye in Week 18 is the smart decision to make for a team that has routinely made the wrong ones all season long.
Regardless of that consensus opinion, Van Pelt was steadfast on Thursday that his team is “playing to win” against Buffalo - a team they blew a 14-0 lead against in a loss just two weeks prior.
Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston asked Van Pelt, “You mentioned that Drake would be ‘starting, for sure.’ Is the plan for him to play the whole game?”
“We’re playing the game to win the game, for sure,” said Van Pelt. “We’ll see how it goes from that point. But yes, that’s the intent.”
These sentiments from Van Pelt on Thursday echo what head coach Jerod Mayo told the media on Wednesday, saying that Maye will play “if he’s healthy and ready to go.”
Even before practice started on Wednesday, Mayo’s mention of Maye’s health made sense, given that the QB exited Saturday’s loss to the Chargers for one series in the first quarter with a head injury. Despite the rookie returning to the game, having a heightened sense of caution around the mobile QB’s well-being in a game you don’t necessarily need to win makes a lot of sense.
But after practice on Wednesday, the mention of Maye’s health made even more sense, as his name popped up on the team’s practice report.
Maye was listed as having limited participation with a “right hand” injury, and NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport later posted on X.com that the UNC-product “suffered a finger injury during Sunday’s game.”
With no specific moment in Sunday’s loss jumping out as a point where Maye would have injured his finger, it begs the question if the organization is leaving themselves an out for Week 18 - giving themselves the option of using this phantom “finger injury” as an excuse to sit Maye at the 11th hour.
Was Mayo's mention of Maye's health on Wednesday more strategic than sincere?
Have the coach, quarterback and offensive coordinator say all the right things throughout the week, then at the last second say, “His finger was too injured for him to go, you’ll see him again in September.”
My antennas are officially up.
Stay locked in to WEEI and WEEI.com throughout the week as this story continues to develop.