The training wheels didn’t come off for the New England Patriots’ rookie quarterback Drake Maye against Philadelphia, but the coaching staff finally took their hands off his shoulders and let him pedal on his own for a bit.
Listening to the kid postgame, it sounds like he craved it.
“Every time you get out there, you get more and more confident. First off, there’s always going to be the nerves going out there the first time. But other than that, the more reps, I think it’s only going to help me,” he told media after the second preseason game, a 14-13 loss to the Eagles.
But the night was a big win for Maye and those who want to see him when the leaves are still clinging to branches around Foxborough. He led the Patriots’ work-in-progress offense through an 8-play drive that ended in a field goal, and ran a keeper play into the end zone, flipping the ball with a hint of 2010s Cam Newton-swag.
Watchers of the Great Maye Experiment have largely prepared themselves for a JV Josh Allen, a rollercoaster of tremendous backyard football plays leveled out by idiocy and inaccuracy.
That’s not what he showed last night.
Sure, the timing was a little askew, and there were disconnects, a fumbled snap, and a sack. But there was no disaster. He didn’t feed the ball to Philly, he remained upright and healthy, no throws took out a piece of the Krafts’ multimillion-dollar videoboard.
There was an odious question hanging around Maye and the Patriots after the head-scratching decision to only play him for a series against the Panthers: are they protecting him, or hiding him? Thursday night should be enough to squash the latter. But now the bigger question is, why have the Patriots kept Maye out of reps with the top line talent in practices? Why not give the kid more of a chance?
Head coach Jerod Maye doubled down on his assertion that a quarterback competition is alive and well in Foxborough, between Maye and the steady journeyman, Jacoby Brissett. But it sure hasn’t felt that way. It appears more that Maye can’t win a competition by narrowly beating out Brissett. He cannot just show some polish in his game, as he did Thursday. He has to absolutely shine.
But how does a rookie do that behind an offensive line unit that’s as shallow as a kiddie pool? It’s been a tightrope for the Patriots coaching staff to walk all summer: prepare the team for September, but develop the No. 3 overall pick. So far, Maye’s been watching the act from the wings. Mayo and company have just over three weeks before Cincinnati comes to town. If Thursday night showed anything, it’s Drake Maye can handle more than what they’ve tasked him with so far.