New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye has been stuck in the pocket. Throughout the summer, Patriots coaches have rightfully prioritized the rookie’s work in-structure during training camp practices knowing what he can do elsewhere. But with the red non-contact jersey coming off in preseason action, Maye’s playmaking abilities finally got a chance to shine.
In four drives of work Thursday night, Maye looked like he was back playing in Chapel Hill at times. While he still took six snaps under center, New England often kept Maye in the shotgun — several times in empty as well — and let him use his legs to play off script. It’s no surprise what followed was the third overall pick looking the best he has all summer.
“It’s very important to do those things. Like you said, he did it in college,” head coach Jerod Mayo said post game. “And the problem is from college to here is just the language.
Once you can start to link the language that you learned in college to the language you’re learning right now, the game becomes a little bit easier from an Xs and Os perspective. “I look forward to see how he builds off of today. But he did a lot of good things.
” In total, Maye completed six-of-11 passes for 47 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles . The night could’ve been even bigger, but a beautiful deep ball — where Maye’s pocket presence and arm talent shined — hit the turf as fellow rookie Javon Baker could not haul it in. The duo did connect on one of Maye’s better passes of the game, however.
On his opening 3rd-and-5, Maye opened a passing lane by holding the linebacker before ripping the backside dig to Baker. The completion was a sign of the progress the rookie QB is making. “They rolled down a safety, took away the options.
Felt like coming back backside. Had an in-cut that I missed in practice this week that I probably could have thrown,” Maye explained. “Just learning from practice and trying to translate it to the game.
” 10 ➡️ 6 @DrakeMaye2 | @Javondbaker1 : @wbzsports pic.twitter.com/wAPtZAD7DL Then came a UNC staple down near the goal line, as offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt dialed up a zone-read for Maye, who read the play-side edge defender before keeping it himself for six.
Drake Maye. pic.twitter.
com/kepUS6ELnW “That’s the great thing about this offense with what AVP does, we do a lot of different things. We spread it out in empty, we get in 12 personnel, 13 personnel, run the football — we can do a lot of different things. We got keepers, we got kind of the whole nine yards,” Maye said.
“I think a lot of the stuff that translates from college — other than getting in the huddle and using the cadence — it all translates.” “Also we go through a list of plays we like before we go out there..
. So we got a little bit of idea oh ‘Hey, it’s third-and-medium I think this calls coming, this is what I told him I like.’ So, he does a great job of understanding our feedback and calling what we like.
” As the Patriots return to the practice fields on Saturday, Maye has earned the right to see playing time with the starters. Whether he does, or if it actually leads to him taking over for Jacoby Brissett however, is yet to be seen. “We always talk about competition, and that’s at all spots.
So even if Drake beats out Jacoby [Brissett], I mean, he earned that role,” Mayo said. “And we don’t really take [the offensive line] into consideration when he’s ready to go, and if he’s better than Jacoby, then he’ll play; he’ll start.”.
