Not a lot has gone right for the Patriots over the last 12 months. Just about the only thing that has was selecting Drake Maye with the third pick in last year’s draft.
Maye’s play during Sunday’s 20-17 loss against the Tennessee Titans further solidified that he isn’t just a solid piece for the Patriots franchise, but rather that he is the Patriots franchise.
The major highlight of the game for Maye, a game-tying miracle touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson, has gone viral, with hundreds of thousands of views on multiple social media platforms, proving that it’s not just Patriots fans who are getting excited about his potential.
You can count WFAN host and former NFL MVP Boomer Esiason as another person excited for Maye’s continued ascent.
“Drake Maye was pretty damn good yesterday,” Esiason said Monday on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show.
While Maye tied the game up with a great play, Tennessee was able to seal the win off a pick from the rookie in overtime. Esiason chalked that mistake up to “the life of a rookie” in the NFL.
“I’m telling you Greg, he has all the makings of somebody that’s gonna be really good,” Esiason said.
Maye garnered all this hype from around the league before earning even a single career win in the NFL. But most agree: It’s not the rookie’s fault. Pro Football Focus ranked the Patriots 30th in the preseason roster rankings, ahead of only the Denver Broncos and New York Giants.
There are elements of Maye’s game, though, that need improvement. For Esiason, his reliance on athleticism could become a problem.
“He's got the ability to run and that should be curtailed as the season goes on, hopefully. And then as he goes into a second, third and fourth season, we'll see less and less of that, because right now he's still relying on his athleticism, which is fine. That's what most young quarterbacks do,” Esiason said.
While warranted due to the subpar offensive line in front of him, Maye’s run-first mentality could end up with more injuries like his concussion in Week 8.
“Coming off of a concussion, I didn't think he was going to play this week, I thought they were definitely going to overreact and be super sensitive about it,” Esiason said.
Esiason thinks that Maye could have pushed to play this week after being cleared from concussion protocol, given the scouting report on Maye’s love for the game.
“Caleb Williams was supposedly a can't miss player, Jayden Daniels was a can't miss player. But there was something about Drake Maye that really did set him apart, and that was his love of football and the way that he played it,” Esiason said.
While most NFL fans have seen the touchdown Maye threw to Stevenson by now, in overtime he was shakier. Mistakes like his interception in overtime, which sealed Tennessee’s win, are bound to happen with rookie quarterbacks.
“You know, the last interception that he threw, he never saw [Amani] Hooker, the safety. Those are things that you're aware of the more that you play,” Esiason said.
“I think that’s a learning curve and this is what happens with most rookie quarterbacks. What's happening with Jayden Daniels or CJ Stroud last year is the anomaly.”