After Drake Maye’s lackluster performance in Week 1, the noise around the second-year quarterback’s readiness to run offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ system has been loud across the WEEI airwaves.
When Patriots (0-1) head coach Mike Vrabel was asked on Monday if he felt like Maye had too much on his plate, the head coach didn’t outright shut it down.
“I think we have to evaluate that,” Vrabel said in a press conference. “We have to find out - is there something there, or we’ve just got to figure out what our guys do best and do that. Because if you do that, then you have to be really good, as opposed to trying to scheme or get into the right situation.
“Again, we just make sure that we're giving him answers by trying not to give him too much. I think that's always the balance and the fine line.”
When Drake Maye was asked on Wednesday if he thought the portion on the plate in front of him was too much, he emphatically shut it down.
“No,” said Maye. “I think, like I said previously, any time you're playing quarterback in the NFL, it's a lot on your plate. You're playing quarterback for one of 32 teams. It's a lot, and it's something I don't take for granted, what a special position it is in this league.
“There's a lot of good that comes with it, and there's a lot of stuff that's on your plate, and that's just part of it. So, I try to do whatever I can to study as much as I can, hear the play calls and study the formations before he [McDaniels] calls them. Like I said, there's a lot of things that go into it. Being accurate, play calling, getting in and out of plays, so just trying to, like I said, get a good grip on it. The more we do that throughout the weeks and as the season goes on, the better I'll feel in this offense.”
So when McDaniels took the podium on Thursday, you knew the question was coming.
He, too, emphatically shot down the notion.
“No,” said McDaniels. “No, we haven’t given him anything more than what we’ve given him all year, which is not too much.
“I think we have to understand it’s his first game in our system. I think we all learned a lot from each experience we’ve had. Every practice, Washington, joint practice, Minnesota, preseason games - the little we were able to work together, obviously, and the first full game that we had an opportunity to go through our operation and see things first the time, and use our rules, and follow our rules, I thought he made a lot of good plays. I thought he made a lot of good decisions.”
While you saw glimpses of the good version of Maye in his team’s 20-13 loss at home to the Raiders, 30 of 46 passing with an interception and 4 sacks isn’t going to cut it. He may have thrown for almost 300 yards, but a lot of that was in garbage time on the final drive of the ballgame.
Maye wasn’t good on Sunday. And while that doesn’t mean he can’t be good moving forward, eventually people are going to start pointing to his career record as a starter (3-10) in a non-trolly way.
Get to 4-10 instead of 3-11 in Week 2 down in Miami, and the conversation will shift.
“I would say the biggest thing for me is just, he’s a young quarterback, you know?” said McDaniels. “He’s a young quarterback. He’s learning through all these experiences, and he’s the right guy.
“And so we’re gonna have the opportunity to continue to grow and improve and get better. And I think I would be jumping ahead and jumping the gun if I tried to sit here and pinpoint one or two things [he could improve on]. We work on a lot of things to try and get better every day, and he’s gonna improve.”
With the Dolphins (0-1) on tap, Maye will have a great opportunity for a bounce back game, as Miami is coming off a blowout loss at the hands of a Colts (1-0) team that’s projected to be among the worst in the NFL this season.
As of publishing, FanDuel has the Patriots as a 1.5-point road dog. You can get them on the moneyline at +102. The total is listed at 43.5.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.