New England Patriots fans were hoping to see Drake Maye make some drives in Thursday night’s season opener against the Carolina Panthers at Gillette Stadium, but were ultimately disappointed.
With veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett starting the game, Maye got his first chance to play in front of Patriots fans by taking over the offense on the team’s second drive in the first quarter.
He connected with running back Antonio Gibson for a 12-yard pickup and a first down on a screen pass on his third snap. The drive ended four players later, and so did Maye’s night.
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The number 3 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft played only one series. He played six snaps and completed two of three pass attempts for 19 yards.
The lack of reps for Maye was puzzling, to say the least. NBC Sports Boston Patriots insider Tom E. Curran took the issue a step further when he addressed the issue on Thursday night Boston Sports Tonight.
“Huge missed opportunity,” Curran told co-host Michael Felger, as seen in the video player above. “And a former coach texted me and asked, ‘What are they doing?’ That’s a missed opportunity.”
“This is the kind of thing where you want to have a huge amount of video footage and spend all day, all weekend making corrections, anything you can do. Nothing beats a preseason game because nothing is scripted and it’s full of physical contact. I think that’s a huge missed opportunity on the Patriots’ part.”
One of the most popular explanations for Maye’s lack of playing time is that the Patriots’ offensive line starters didn’t play much after that drive. And given the lack of elite talent on the offensive line and some shaky play in training camp so far, it begs the question why would Maye be put at risk of injury?
However, Curran does not accept this explanation.
“It has nothing to do with the offensive line because you can outsmart it, you can scheme it, you can block it well enough if it’s a breakout, which it really wasn’t,” Curran said.
“You can still throw it far, you can still run the football, you can still get those reps. You can still get the game control opportunities. I don’t understand the logic, and that’s what I tweeted during the game: I’m interested in figuring out the logic behind it.”
Bailey Zappe played quarterback for the next five possessions after Maye. Rookie quarterback Joe Milton played the final two of the fourth quarter and performed quite well.
The Patriots’ second preseason game will be next Thursday against the Philadelphia Eagles in Foxboro. Before that game, the two teams will have a joint practice at Gillette Stadium.
“We wanted to see Jacoby go out there and perform as well as Drake did and mix them with the best,” Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said in his postgame press conference Thursday night.
“The rest of the guys, like Zappe and Joe, went out and finished the game. I thought they did a good job. But that was kind of the thought process. Next week we have the Eagles. So we’ll practice against them and, who knows, the reps will probably change a little bit and we’ll see what happens in the game. But that was the thought process.”
