Every NFL season, there’s an early reminder that we tend to overreact to what we see on the field on a weekly basis.
And look, that’s the nature of the sport.
There’s only 17 regular season games to work with. Each game counts a tremendous amount towards any given sample size - whether that’s shaping a narrative around a team or trying to dissect a player’s merits overall.
Yes, we’ve had one week of football to digest. But as is the time-honored tradition, we’ve all got plenty of takes, and we’ve all got plenty of days between games to fill with content.
With Drake Maye’s poor showing in Week 1, there’s a myriad of directions both fans and media can take the conversation around the second-year quarterback in the lead-up to Week 2 against the Dolphins (0-1):
- Is Maye not actually “the guy?”
- Is the Josh McDaniels offense too complicated for Maye?
- Does Maye still not have enough around him to succeed at the next level?
- Is Maye’s 3-10 record as a starter more about him or the organization?
Hours and hours and hours of discussion will be had. And if the Patriots (0-1) take care of business in Miami, that conversation will immediately shift.
But until then, it’s Drake Maye Dissection Week.
In the lead-up to the 2024 NFL Draft, NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran mentioned on the WEEI airwaves on numerous occasions that he would prefer Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy over Maye coming out of North Carolina. And to be fair, Curran was not alone with this opinion, both locally and nationally.
But with McCarthy missing all of last season with a torn meniscus and Drake Maye being selected to the Pro Bowl as an alternate, the pre-draft debate between these two players by fans and media had almost been forgotten.
Then Week 1 happened.
Maye looked lost against the Raiders, and McCarthy looked like a poised veteran in the fourth quarter on Monday Night Football, leading the Vikings (1-0) to a 27-24 comeback victory on the road in Chicago (0-1).
With Curran joining Jones and Keefe for his weekly hit on Tuesday, it was only natural that this debate from last spring be brought back up for day two of Drake Maye Dissection Week.
“I know you were quite high on J.J. McCarthy in his draft year,” said WEEI’s Adam Jones. “We've spent some time today talking about the 2024 draft class. You get to pick - you get Drake Maye or you get J.J. McCarthy. Who you taking?”
“I would still take J.J. McCarthy,” said Curran. “He's as fast, if not faster. His arm is just as strong as Drake Maye’s, even though he could use a little bit more touch.
“I really, really, really like his personality and command as a leader, and his ability to articulate things. I think he's a good player. Not that Drake Maye is not, but I think that J.J. McCarthy is a more polished player at this juncture - and you saw it at Michigan - than Drake Maye was coming out from a 7-4 North Carolina team where he had a lot of fundamental things to clean up.”
“Huge fourth quarter for McCarthy last night in that win,” said WEEI’s Rich Keefe.
“He’s all moxie,” said Curran.
One game into his career as a starter, McCarthy is already one-third of the way towards tying Maye’s career total of three wins.
We live in a scoreboard culture, and no professional league in North America breeds that more than the NFL.
If Maye and the Patriots don’t turn things around quickly, you will surely see this McCarthy-Maye debate rage on in a much larger way nationally.
As of publishing, FanDuel has the Patriots as a 1.5-point road dog heading into Week 2 against the Dolphins. You can get them on the moneyline at +104, and 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.