Last week New England Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye, the third-overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, made his NFL debut. It came against the Carolina Panthers on a rainy night in Foxborough, and while he took the field to roars from the Patriots faithful, his short stint saw him leave the game to a cascade of boos.
Not regarding his play, but rather the fact that just one series was all they got to see.
Thursday night the Patriots hosted the Philadelphia Eagles, and while New England lost 14-13, those same fans were treated to even more action from their new quarterback, and they must have liked what they saw.
Maye finished the game having completed 6-of-11 passes for 47 yards, and added a touchdown run, as he led New England on two scoring drives. Beyond the box score, however, Maye flashed some athleticism, as well as a willingness to fight in the pocket and an ability to work through reads when bodies are flying around him.
And he also gave those fans a little bit of hope along the way.
Maye’s first completion of the night, a 12-yard connection with fellow rookie Javon Baker, might have been his best play of the contest. With New England facing a 3rd-and-5 at the own 34-yard line, Maye first looks to his right, where the Patriots are running a Flat-7 Smash concept with Kayshon Boutte on the corner route, and Mitchell Wilcox releasing to the flat.
But with those two covered, Maye gets backside and finds Baker on his dig route. Watch as the rookie works through his reads, resets his feet to synch up with the backside dig, and hits it in the window between two underneath defenders:
His next completion, a short throw in the flat to Wilcox on a boot-action design, did not cover some distance but required some athleticism and came with a high degree of difficulty:
Maye comes out of the fake and immediately has a defender in his face, and with the concept tasking him with rolling to his left, the right-handed passer has to quickly jerk his shoulders into something of a throwing motion, enough to get this throw off.
He does just enough, turning a would-be sack into a four-yard gain.
On New England’s next possession, Maye throws a simple flat route to another rookie, Ja’Lynn Polk, which turns into a six-yard gain. But what stands out is the process from Maye, from pre-snap to throw. He begins this play under center, but his cadence signals that Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean might be blitzing, which you will see on the end zone angle here:
Maye then makes a check, moving into a shotgun alignment. New England uses a four-man slide protection to the left, and running back Kevin Harris steps up to pick up Dean, who indeed blitzes.
Still, the Eagles get some pressure, and rather than wait on either of the deep curl routes in this Curl/Flat concept, Maye takes the quicker throw to Polk in the right flat. The rookie WR avoids a pair of would-be tacklers, turning another short throw — aided by some adjustments in the pre-snap phase — into a six-yard gain.
It was not all perfect. There was a throw to Boutte in the flat that was high, and while caught the completion required a snap adjustment from the receiver. There was a botched center exchange in the second half. There were also moments where due to protection breakdowns, tight coverage in the secondary, or a combination of the two Maye was forced to fight in the pocket before admitting defeat and throwing the ball away, like this play from the second half:
Still, plays like those are positives, because sometimes in the NFL disaster avoidance is the name of the game. In the above example, Maye could have forced a throw on the slant route, which was his initial read. (And it is worth noting that he does a good job at creating a lane for that throw, by influencing the underneath linebacker away from that route initially with his eyes). But with a defender in his face, forcing that throw could have ended with a tipped ball, and maybe an interception.
Instead, Maye pulls the ball down and rolls to his right, hoping to find an option. But when he runs out of potential options, he throws the ball away, living to fight on another down.
Another throw that goes into the box score as an incompletion, but shows the progress Maye is making as a passer, is this deep shot to Baker that falls to the turf:
Facing 3rd-and-10 the Patriots dial up a vertical concept, and Baker has a step on his defender downfield. Maye again faces some quick interior pressure, but does a tremendous job at creating space with his feet to get this throw off, sliding around that interior pressure with near-textbook footwork. Baker makes a diving attempt and has the football in his hands, but cannot complete the play.
However, those completions will come.
After the game, Maye talked about some of the missed opportunities and the areas he will need to “clean up” going forward.
“It’s an awesome opportunity,” Maye said. “Definitely some things I can clean up. I had some good things, had some bad plays, dropped snaps, you know, inexcusable for me. Other than that, probably just sometimes I’m scrambling when I can sit in there, hang on and try to make a throw. So, definitely a lot of things to learn from. Good to get out there and, like you said, get some tape to learn from. Other than that, I thought the guys fought. We played hard. Can look at a lot of things, but the one thing you can’t question is our effort. That really starts it all.”
His coach, Jerod Mayo, highlighted Maye’s “composure” after the game.
“One of the reasons we drafted Drake was, you know, through the interview process you could kind of tell this was an even-keeled guy,” the Patriots head coach told the media following the contest. “I think you guys can probably see it from the stands. This guy doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low. He was like that in college, he probably was like that as a kid, and he remains that way now, which is a good thing for a quarterback. Those guys have to maintain their composure and get the call to the huddle and get those guys out the huddle and be ready to go. He’s always been like that in my mind.”
Of course, this was just one night in August, with Maye playing against largely backups on Philadelphia’s roster. It remains to be seen if he will even be New England’s Week 1 starter, as signs point to Jacoby Brissett at least opening the year under center for the Patriots.
Recent moves by the team, such as trading pass rusher Matthew Judon, point to 2024 being largely a transition year for the team, building the foundation for stronger rosters in 2025 and beyond.
That all begins with getting the franchise quarterback. New England drafted Maye to be the quarterback for the next ten years, and not just Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season. The goal for this year is to confirm by the end of the season that Maye is indeed that quarterback, and then build around him heading into 2025.
On Thursday night, Patriots fans were finally able to envision that path and were able to feel some hope again.