If they hope to avoid the league basement in Week 2, the Patriots need to see Drake Maye do a much better job pinning the ball on his teammates when they face Miami.
Maye’s throwing issues were apparent to anyone watching the Raiders game. He sailed passes over his receivers, sometimes on back-to-back snaps.
The numbers tell an equally brutal story. On 46 throws, just 64.4% were on target, and 24.4% were categorized as “bad throws.” For comparison, through his 13 games last season, he averaged 76.2% on-target throws, and 16.4% of his throws qualified as “bad.” Those stats put him second-to-last among his draft class peers in Week 1, (Caleb Williams showed a worse 62.9% accuracy and 25.7% bad-pass rate against the Vikings Monday night).
“I think just some of them, I was rushing them. I think I see them and kind of rush it to try to get it out to him as quick as I can,” Maye explained Wednesday. “The one to Pop [DeMario Douglas], he was getting close to the sideline with kind of a trapped corner there, so I tried to get it out as quickly as I could to him to get the first.”
Even with all the issues around Maye, (a questionable offensive line, far-from-elite pass catchers, a run game that never got going Sunday), he has to be able to hit an open man. He may have the weight of the game on his shoulders. Nobody will deny that. But his issues last week weren’t turnovers – sure he had an interception that killed the game’s momentum, but the real issue was how he was never able to recover from the mistake – how he kept missing his guys. When he overthrows an open man, he’s on the same level as any receiver who drops a perfect pass. When the other guy does his job, (like runs a route well), he has to be able to depend on his teammate to do their part.
Maye sounds like he knows that reality. He also mentioned the other side of the equation: staying out of his own head about how poorly he missed some of his teammates.
“I'm not going to over-harp on too much, but at the same time, you've got to hit guys when they're open, so it's an even kind of balance. But yeah, definitely, accuracy is one of the biggest things at quarterback. So, being accurate is what I take pride in, and you can't miss open guys,” he said.
Maye provided a technical explanation for why some his throws went as haywire as they did against Vegas – because, let’s be honest, it’s not just about overthinking, or being under pressure from Maxx Crosby, or trying to get to the second or third read. It’s all of that, plus the reality that Maye is young, still-developing quarterback.
“I think I was accurate and made some throws when my feet timed up with the routes and with the concept,” Maye explained. “So, I’ve just got to stay on my stuff throughout the week of not letting little things like that go to waste because I feel like when I've got a good base, turn my shoulder at it and let it rip, I've been on target.”
Head coach Mike Vrabel discussed exploring whether Maye had “too much on his plate” on Monday, and when speaking with the media, he continues to emphasize how he doesn’t expect him to be “perfect,” just “precise.”
Nobody expects Maye to become Josh Allen in one summer, (it took that guy like, three years). But he should bring his throwing mechanics back to where they looked as rookie, and be able to chalk up his performance against the Raiders as Week 1 jitters.