FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — It was Drake Maye out entrance for conditioning when the New England Patriots wrapped up their OTA follow final week. He referred to as out a snap rely and took off, with roughly 30 offensive teammates trailing behind him.
It’s an indication of what’s to come back this season. It’ll be Maye out entrance. The Patriots have turned the group over to him.
No query. New England is his.
“Worlds totally different,” Maye mentioned when requested how far he is come since final summer time. “Shoot, I used to be speaking to [Jabrill Peppers] about that earlier. I bear in mind this time final 12 months, seeing single-high … Pep and [Kyle Dugger] — they have been enjoying with me the entire snap. I messed it up.”
Now?
“Confidence,” he mentioned.
There’s no query about how far Maye has come. However there are many questions on how far he’ll take the Patriots in 2025 and past.
They only barely gained 4 video games final season, stealing a win from the Buffalo Bills’ backups in Week 18. (I might argue New England was actually a three-win crew.) And now, many are choosing the Patriots to make the playoffs.
Although Maye is the irrefutable QB1, he’s nonetheless going to wish a variety of assist.
Maye is working underneath a brand new teaching workers, specifically head coach Mike Vrabel, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant. There’s a brand new system. There’s new verbiage. There’s a new supporting forged.
“I used to be actually beginning to discover a stride. I am sort of bummed we’re about to depart,” Maye mentioned on Monday on the finish of minicamp.
If the Patriots are going to make the playoffs, this teaching workers has the enviable however tough process of changing one of many NFL’s most promising passers into one of many league’s finest.
“I believe Drake’s simply doing a hell of a job with the change from one offense to a different,” Grant mentioned Monday. “He has an ideal grasp of it to date.”
This part of the offseason is much less about outcomes and extra about progress. So it may need made headlines that Maye threw 4 interceptions throughout the first open session of OTAs in Could, however the second-year QB ought to have put the anxious souls (on Boston sports activities radio) comfortable over the following two open practices, when he made clear progress, lowering his errors and growing effectivity.
He’ll have extra unhealthy days in coaching camp and doubtless on Sundays this fall.
That’s simply how studying works: Development comes with regression.
However Maye and McDaniels appear to be discovering their footing in these early days. They’ll must hold doing it underneath great scrutiny. Mix the Patriots’ busy offseason (with a variety of free company spending) with Maye’s promising 12 months and the QB will face excessive expectations.
“You need excessive expectations,” Maye mentioned. “The Patriots are used to profitable. That is what we wish to get again to.”
Now in his third stint as Patriots offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels must get essentially the most out of Drake Maye for the crew to develop into a winner once more. (Photograph by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs)
Are they unrealistic?
McDaniels was requested how he’ll handle these expectations for the younger QB.
“If I do know him very nicely — which I’m studying increasingly about him each single day — he’s going to position excessive expectations on himself,” McDaniels mentioned. “We will’t actually management exterior expectations. … Hopefully we meet our expectations, which is able to ultimately meet yours.”
Maye is, in spite of everything, the previous No. 3 general decide. He additionally had a rookie season that had New England buzzing. His counting statistics and win whole didn’t converse to a particular 12 months. However these numbers ignore the dearth of a supporting forged with arguably the league’s worst roster and offensive line. Maye was strong. And most significantly, he didn’t break. (Although, it is vital to notice he did undergo a concussion final 12 months.)
This part of the offseason is harmful as a result of followers and media members spend time enthusiastic about what’s forward for Maye. People get so caught up in what he may be that they neglect what he’s at this second: nonetheless a developmental mission. And now he’s studying his second NFL system in as a few years — a course of that would set again that improvement.
Maye can have three new protectors on the offensive line (Will Campbell, Morgan Moses and Garrett Bradbury) and two new receivers (Stefon Diggs, Kyle Williams). Rookie working again TreVeyon Henderson additionally arrived as a second-round draft decide.
Change may be good. Change may be unhealthy. Change all the time brings uncertainty.
“You are sort of beginning to see it [come together],” Maye mentioned when requested in regards to the new-look offensive line. “They’re doing their half. I gotta get the ball out to assist them out.”
On the teaching workers, the brand new group is eclectic and skilled. Passing sport coordinator Thomas Brown was the interim head coach for the Chicago Bears final 12 months. Offensive line coach Doug Marrone was the Payments’ head coach for a couple of years. Receivers coach Todd Downing served because the Titans’ offensive coordinator for 2 years. If you happen to’re searching for overlap between the methods they’ve coached, you’ll discover some, largely by way of Vrabel’s teaching tree. None of those coaches has ever labored with McDaniels earlier than.
There will likely be a melting pot of ideas, schemes and wrinkles.
“If you take lots of people from totally different backgrounds, and so they have such good expertise and knowledge doing stuff you don’t, I believe it makes a variety of sense for me to mainly study from them in what they will educate me,” McDaniels mentioned.
He wouldn’t put a quantity on how a lot of his playbook is totally new. However McDaniels admitted he’s not sticking merely to what he is aware of from his profession, most just lately in Las Vegas as head coach and in New England as offensive coordinator.
Grant laid out the three touchstones round which New England will base its playbook — in no specific order. It’ll be about what Josh McDaniels likes to run. It’ll be about what Drake Maye has already carried out nicely. It’ll be in regards to the new and totally different concepts from the opposite offensive assistant coaches, who’ve fallen from a number of teaching timber.
“I believe it’s a must to have a place to begin,” McDaniels mentioned when requested if he’ll construct the system from scratch. “After which actually it’s going to be about giving [the players] some issues to exit and do on the follow area after which studying what they do nicely, how a lot they will course of, what fashion we must always play. And I’ve all the time sort of believed the gamers dictate what we find yourself being.”
Certainly greater than McDaniels is prepared to confess, his quarterback will dictate what the Patriots find yourself being.
“We went again and watched a variety of Drake [on film],” Grant mentioned. “So Josh was very in tune to what Drake did nicely final 12 months.”
There’s nothing extra essential than Maye’s improvement for New England. And it’s clear this workers is giving the QB the eye he deserves.
Earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years protecting the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports activities Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Observe him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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