Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye made his season debut Thursday night against the Panhers.
It was a short one.
Maye, the third overall pick in the 2024 draft, led a drive for the Patriots in his first game at Gillette Stadium. It included eight plays and 21 yards of offense, ending with a punt from the Carolinas’ 45-yard line. Maye completed two of three passes for 19 yards.
After the game, coach Jerod Mayo said that Maye was expected to play very little.
“That was always the plan,” Mayo said in quotes distributed by the team. The goal was to have him play on the first line of attack.
“We have to protect the guy,” Mayo said. “I’m not saying we don’t have to protect the other guys, but they definitely will.”
So you can basically assume that Maye will only play with the first offense in the preseason. The question then is how the division will look between Maye and the (for now) starter Jacoby Brissett.
Although Maye didn’t get much work, she expressed optimism about the experience.
“I think it was great,” Maye said (according to a transcript provided by the team). “First of all, it was being out there in the stadium. Other than going through yesterday, it was really the first time I’d been in the stadium since the day after I got drafted. Being there with the fans was a different feeling. I felt a little chill in my body, but it was just great to compete against someone else. We go through training camp and train amongst ourselves and finally get a chance to come together and compete as a unit.”
Even if it was just one trip.
There will be more to come, and Patriots fans will surely be increasingly excited to see what the highest drafted quarterback of the Kraft era will become for a team that was used to playing high-end quarterbacks.
