Patriots practice what they preach as Drake Maye grows originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
FOXBORO – The Patriots haven’t said a word about Drake Maye being rushed onto the field in 2024.
Rather, they have worked to shatter those expectations. When you ask about May, the answer eventually turns to something about Jacoby Brissett.
Their intention — their default setting — is to let May marinate until he has enough experience to take the field with everyone trusting that he’ll do the right thing most of the time.
Look at what Mayo said about May a month before they drafted him.
“The exciting thing about a player like Drake Mayo is that the sky’s the limit for a player like him,” Mayo said at the NFL owners conference in March. “I know a lot of people are looking at the ceiling. But you also need to be aware of how low the floor is.
“I think a player like Drake Maye. He has a lot of room to grow. He’s a young player. To be honest, he hasn’t played as much football as the other players. So that’s definitely something we’ve looked at. But he’s definitely going to grow.”
In other words, he is much closer to the floor than the ceiling.
How fast does he climb the ladder? It’s up to him. But for the time being, he’s looking up to Bailey Zappe on the depth chart. That’s what we saw during the team’s first OTA on Monday. Brisset. Zappe. Mei-chan. Joe Milton. That’s how the training went. It was the same when it was 7-on-7 and 11-on-11.
“So wait…did the Patriots use their No. 3 draft pick on a player they didn’t think was better than Bailey Zappe?”
No, you idiot who makes dishonest arguments. By the end of the book, Maye is the Patriots’ starting quarterback. But on May 20, 2024, Zappe takes a photo ahead of him. Because, no matter how inevitable the outcome, a person is still going through the process. Especially when Maye just announced he will be redshirting.
That means players with more NFL experience will advance ahead of rookies. And if you’re being realistic, Zappe will probably get better team reps because he knows what to do and where the ball should go. The other 21 players on the field for 11-on-11 reps also need effort.
Will May be left behind Zappe at minicamp in a few weeks? perhaps. After a week of training camp? God, I hope that doesn’t happen. 1A’s priority in 2024 (as everyone understands) is developing quarterbacks of the future, so they’ll eventually have to give up the ghost. The first priority is to get the entire coaching staff and player ready for the season, which begins in 110 days.
The rest of the team may see it out of the corner of their eye, but they don’t have to obsess over it.
“We’re going to draft a quarterback, but it’s all going to depend on Drake and how he takes it,” wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster said. “If he can step up and play a role, he definitely will. If that’s growth, that’s growth.”
“At the end of the day, he’s going to play his role. We’re going to see him develop over a period of time through OTAs and training camp. We don’t know. It’s too early to talk about that. But I think everyone’s here.” We’ll get together early, so we’ll see how it goes.” ”
There may be a little bit of quarterback envy in this area. If Chicago’s Caleb Williams or Washington’s Jayden Daniels or even Minnesota’s J.J. McCarthy replaces Sam Darnold, “Why don’t our players get reps and learn on the field?” You may be wondering. If you know it’s inevitable, why don’t you let him out? Why not throw him into the deep end like the team did with Drew Bledsoe 31 years ago? He did pretty well. ”
That’s a valid question. He has two schools of thought, and neither is necessarily wrong. But given the Patriots’ recent history of first-round quarterbacks falling apart in the face of second-year quarterbacks not equipped to handle the situation, the team is clearly more developed with the acquisition of Maye. have a certain mindset. Beyond that, personnel guru Elliot Wolf’s career in Green Bay, where the Packers allowed rookies like Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love to sit and learn, has influenced the Patriots’ current situation. There is.
No, Jacoby Brissett is not Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers. But my first impression of Brissett during his first OTA practice was, “He’s good.”Brissett probably won’t. of The problem for the 2024 Patriots is that Brissett is the perfect player to put in front of Maye in an offensive coaching staff that will have to understand each other and then the players at their disposal while implementing an entirely new offense and way of doing things.
Let Brissett, 31, ride the tsunami of change your organization is going through. Let Mae do the work to get her onto the ladder from her current floor, hopefully to a higher level of efficiency.
“He’s learning new strategies,” Mayo said. “He’s learning a new language, he’s learning his teammates, he’s learning the fundamentals that we preach here. So it’s tough for him, but at the same time he can get through it. I know that and I’m just looking forward to seeing his progress.”
