It's been a tough start to the season for Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.
Through the first two games of the season, Maye has thrown four interceptions, the most he's thrown in a two-game span in his professional or collegiate career. That's already half of his interception total from last season, when he threw eight. His four interceptions are tied with Atlanta's Cooper Rush for the most in the NFL. He has thrown just one touchdown pass.
Among players who have played two games, Maye's 63.1 passer rating is the second-worst mark in the league, ahead of only Rush, who was forced into action because of injuries to Atlanta's other quarterbacks, Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa. That's a far cry from the league-best 77.1 passer rating Maye posted a season ago.
Maye has clearly not been himself, and he’s looked nothing like the quarterback who finished runner-up for league MVP last season.
Is his uneven start a result of the 24-year-old quarterback putting too much pressure on himself? Head coach Mike Vrabel discussed during his weekly sit-down with The Greg Hill Show on WEEI (full interview below).
"Certainly, the decisions. I think we all put pressure on ourselves to be great. That's what really good players want to try to do," Vrabel said. "You have to find the fine balance of reading things out, being able to somewhat predict, and have the timing to make decisions to throw the ball downfield. I thought for the most part it was pretty good [against the Steelers]. I think there were some things that Drake can obviously do better; there are things a lot of guys can do better offensively."
Maye's decision-making has been suspect, at best.
After throwing three interceptions on consecutive drives in the fourth quarter of the season opener against Seattle, Maye had another ugly turnover on Sunday. He badly underthrew a pass intended for Hunter Henry with two Steelers in the area, allowing Patrick Queen to easily make the interception.
Could that be because of a lack of confidence?
Vrabel pushed back on that notion.
"I thought he threw a confident ball to Eli [Raridon]. I thought he threw a confident ball 55 yards down the field to Romeo [Doubs]. He extended on third down, kept his eyes downfield, and converted," Vrabel said. "Again, everybody is going to nitpick. I'm just telling you there are good things in there and there are things that we have to fix."
One obvious positive was the explosive plays.
Maye completed four passes that went for 29 yards or more, including a 63-yard pass to Doubs. It was the second-longest completion of Maye's career, trailing only the 72-yard touchdown pass he threw to Kyle Williams last November against Tampa Bay.
In Week 1, Maye's longest completion was just 19 yards, a pass to Mack Hollins in the fourth quarter.
Still, the passing game has a lot of work to do to get to where the Patriots need it to be. According to Vrabel, that process starts in practice.
"You start to build the confidence through practice," Vrabel said. "The passing game has to be done with speed, timing, and precision. And then you have to tie it in with protection. So we'll just continue to build and know that we were playing a good defensive front, and take the positives and try to fix the negative plays that showed up yesterday."
