The Drake Maye Report: Rookie gains more ground in Patriots QB race

The Drake Maye Report: Rookie gains more ground in Patriots QB race originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

FOXBORO — Drake Maye has a challenge on his hands that goes beyond honing his footwork or diagnosing whatever the Patriots defense throws his way in practice.

He turns 22 next week. He knows he’s one of the youngest players on the roster. He knows what he doesn’t know. He knows he has excellent resources in the veterans around him from whom he can learn.

But he’s also a quarterback. And the No. 3 overall pick from this year’s draft. He’s the leader of his rookie class. And soon he’ll be the leader of the entirety of the locker room at One Patriot Place.

When asked on Wednesday to single out the most difficult part of his job at the moment, he highlighted the fact that he’s living in those two separate worlds at the moment.

“Most difficult part of my job,” Maye repeated as he thought. “I think just balancing being there with vets that know what they’re doing or kind of helping me, and balancing me being the young guy in the rookie class kind of knowing the most and trying to teach the young guys.

“Balancing that quarterback (role), or hey there’s guys like David (Andrews) and Chuks (Chukwuma Okorafor) and K.J. (Osborn) who’ve played in games and played in playoff games that know all these things I’m trying to learn from them.

“Then for me, there’s the young guys here. Me and (Ja’Lynn Polk) and Javon (Baker) and Layden (Robinson) and Caedan (Wallace). Young guys that are trying to come up together. And I feel like as a quarterback it’s my job to try to kind of bring them along.”

Maye has already reached a fascinating point in his young career in that, over the last two weeks, he has put some pressure on assumed starter Jacoby Brissett.

That continued on Wednesday, as Maye went 6-for-8 and completed his first six passes in competitive team periods. His two incompletions probably should’ve been caught; a deep shot to DeMario Douglas glanced off his hands, and a screen to Jaheim Bell was dropped.

Brissett, meanwhile, went 3-for-6. His first competitive throw was picked and his last competitive throw should’ve been picked.

While head coach Jerod Mayo has left the quarterback competition open, Brissett continues to get the vast majority of the first-team reps. But if things continue to trend in a direction where Maye’s confidence and level of play is building while Brissett’s trajectory heads in a different direction, perhaps there’s a change sooner than many have anticipated.

Maye is currently toggling between the identities of student and teacher. That’ll continue through his rookie season, in all likelihood, and probably beyond. But if he continues to play the way he has in his last couple of weeks as a 21-year-old, it won’t be long before he’s leading more than just a handful of rookies.

Let’s get to The Drake Maye Report for Wednesday’s open Patriots practice…

The rep report

In terms of first-team reps, the split leaned heavily in favor of Jacoby Brissett — as had been the case throughout training camp this summer. But there was some movement in Maye’s direction.

Maye took three snaps with David Andrews — his first competitive practice snaps of the year with the starting center — and got a few more with players like Mike Onwenu, Okorafor, Vederian Lowe and Layden Robinson. (Robinson still typically plays behind Sidy Sow at left guard, but he’s not far off from being a starter as he’s seen more first-team reps in recent practices.)

Brissett, however, got 15 snaps with the first-teamers, making him the clear top quarterback once again.

Maye did receive more total 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 reps. In 11-on-11 periods, Maye took 22 total snaps to Brissett’s 15. Maye got eight 7-on-7 snaps to Brissett’s two.

Why the split in terms of volume? Since the Patriots are using this as a week to prep for the Commanders preseason game on Sunday night, Maye’s workload in practice could serve as an indication that the plan is to play him significantly more snaps than Brissett.

Crunching the numbers

Brissett went 3-for-6 in competitive 11-on-11 work, completing both of his 7-on-7 attempts as well. His first pass in team periods was underthrown and picked off by rookie scout-team corner Marcellas Dial.

Brissett had a pass batted later by Ja’Whaun Bentley, and his final 11-on-11 throw of the afternoon was nearly picked by A.J. Thomas. The 24-year-old safety stepped in front of a target to a well-covered Javon Baker and got both hands on it, making it a throw he’d likely expect himself to intercept if given another opportunity.

Maye went 6-for-8 in team periods and 7-for-8 in 7-on-7s. He has long excelled in 7-on-7 periods, throwing with good timing and accuracy. (One of his best throws of the day came in 7-on-7 when he served one up and over one layer of the defense and in front of another to Jalen Reagor for a chunk gain.)

But Maye’s performance in 7-on-7 work has recently extended into team periods as well. He seems to be spending less time looking at the pass-rush and more time focused on getting the football out quickly and decisively.

Play of the day

Maye’s best throw of the day was one of his few incompletions on the day. His deep shot to Douglas came after receiving a bad snap from backup center Nick Leverett. He had to take his eyes off the defense briefly to secure the football, looked up, sensed pressure, and bombed away down the middle of the field.

Had the play mattered, Douglas likely would’ve done a little extra to ensure that he caught the ball. But on a Wednesday before a preseason game, Douglas thought better of it. Didn’t mean it wasn’t an accurate throw.

The Patriots defense got on Douglas for not laying out to try to secure the catch after the fact.

Why he’s ready

In this section of The Drake Maye Report, we’ll highlight the portions of the rookie’s performance that suggest he’s prepared to sit atop the hierarchy of quarterbacks in New England sooner rather than later.

The No. 1 reason as to why Maye has looked ready for real action lately is that he has seemed to develop an excellent feel for how the route concepts in Alex Van Pelt’s passing attack are timed out.

Even in 7-on-7 situations when there is no pass-rush, you can see him getting through his reads on time and finding a third option within the structure of the play. That’s translated to team periods. He looks more comfortable with how routes are tethered to his footwork, and he even looks more confident in his line because the instances of him looking down at the rush are few and far between.

It’s been very rare to see him indecisive, pumping and almost throwing, or scrambling around to buy time because the play has been disrupted.

This has nothing to do with Maye’s readiness in a vacuum, but if the decision to play Maye boils down to whether or not he’s better than Brissett, then the way they’ve played lately would suggest he’s going to be on the field sooner rather than later. Ready or not.

Why patience is a virtue

In this section of The Drake Maye Report, we’ll highlight the portions of the rookie’s performance that suggest he’s not quite ready to sit atop the quarterback depth chart.

The arguments for remaining patient with Maye are well-worn by now.

He could use the seasoning behind a veteran like Brissett. He’ll be able to learn behind the scenes, while continuing to get opportunities to improve on the practice field and off. (He’s been using the team’s new virtual reality technology to bank virtual reps in the facility.) He’ll be able to learn about pro defenses in meetings during the regular season in a way that he hasn’t this summer.

All that would make sense. It would also come as little surprise if, in their heart of hearts, Patriots decision-makers wanted to prevent Maye from being put in harm’s way behind an offensive line that seems to be shuffling on a daily basis.

Lowe went down with an injury on Wednesday that thrust Caedan Wallace into the top left tackle gig. Will things remain that way? Will Layden Robinson play guard with the “ones,” bumping Mike Onwenu out to tackle?

Until that gets settled down, even if Maye has played well, the Patriots may want to exhibit some patience with their prized rookie.