Last week, New England Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye, selected third overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, made his NFL debut. It happened on a rainy night in Foxborough against the Carolina Panthers, and although he took the field to the cheers of Patriots fans, he was whistled off after his brief appearance.
It wasn’t about his game, but rather the fact that they only got to see one series.
On Thursday night, the Patriots hosted the Philadelphia Eagles, and although New England lost 14-13, those same fans got even more action from their new quarterback, and they must have liked what they saw.
Maye finished the game 6 of 11 passing for 47 yards and a touchdown run, leading New England to two scoring drives. Beyond the playbook, however, Maye also showed off some athleticism, a willingness to battle in the pocket and the ability to work through reads when bodies are flying around him.
And he also gave these fans a little hope.
Maye’s first completion of the night, a 12-yard pass to fellow rookie Javon Baker, was perhaps his best play of the game. New England faces a 3rd-and-5 at their own 34-yard line and Maye looks first to the right, where the Patriots are implementing a flat-7 smash concept with Kayshon Boutte on the corner route and Mitchell Wilcox passing into the flat route.
But with those two covered, Maye comes back and finds Baker on his dig route. Watch the rookie go through his reads, realign his feet to sync up with the backside dig, and slam the ball into the window between two defenders underneath:
His next completion, a short throw to the flat to Wilcox with a boot-action design, didn’t cover much distance but required some athleticism and was associated with a high degree of difficulty:
Maye comes out of the feint and immediately has a defender in his face. Since the concept calls for him to roll to the left, the right-handed passer must quickly move his shoulders in a throwing motion sufficient to make the throw.
He does just enough and turns a possible sack into a four-yard gain.
On New England’s next possession, Maye throws a simple flat route to another rookie, Ja’Lynn Polk, that results in a six-yard gain. But what stands out is Maye’s approach, from pre-snap to throw. He starts this play under center, but his rhythm suggests that Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean may be blitzing, which you’ll see in the end zone view here:
Maye then makes a check and moves into a shotgun formation. New England uses a four-man slide protection on the left side, and running back Kevin Harris steps up to intercept Dean, who actually makes a blitz.
Still, the Eagles are under pressure, and instead of waiting on one of the deep curl routes in this curl/flat concept, Maye throws the quicker throw to Polk in the right flat. The rookie WR evades two potential tacklers and turns another short throw – aided by some pre-snap adjustments – into a six-yard gain.
It wasn’t all perfect. There was a throw to Boutte in the flat that was high, and although it was caught, the completion required a quick adjustment by the receiver. There was a botched center exchange in the second half. There were also moments where Maye was forced to fight in the pocket due to gaps in protection, tight coverage in the secondary, or a combination of both, before giving up and throwing the ball away, like this play from the second half:
Still, such plays are positives, because sometimes in the NFL, avoiding disaster is key. In the example above, Maye could have forced a throw on the slant route, which was his first assessment. (And it’s worth noting that he’s good at creating an alley for that throw by using his eyes to initially dissuade the linebacker underneath from that route.) But with a defender in his face, forcing that throw could have resulted in a deflected ball and perhaps an interception.
Instead, Maye pulls the ball down and rolls to his right, hoping to find an option. But when he runs out of options, he throws the ball away and keeps fighting for another try.
Another throw that counts as an incomplete pass but shows Mayes’ progress as a passer is this deep shot to Baker that falls to the turf:
On third and ten, the Patriots go for a vertical concept and Baker is one step ahead of his defender. Maye is again under quick inside pressure but does an excellent job of creating space with his feet to make this throw and slides around this inside pressure with almost textbook footwork. Baker tries a dive and has the football in his hands but can’t complete the play.
However, these deals will come.
After the game, Maye talked about some of the missed opportunities and the areas he needs to “clean up” in the future.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Maye said. “There’s definitely some things I can improve on. I’ve had some good things, some bad plays, dropped snaps, you know, that’s unforgivable to me. Other than that, I’m probably just in trouble sometimes when I can sit there, hold on and try to make a throw. So there’s definitely a lot of things to learn from. It’s good to go out there and, like you said, get some shots to learn from. Other than that, I thought the guys battled. We played hard. You can look at a lot of things, but the one thing you can’t question is our effort. That’s where it all starts.”
His coach, Jerod Mayo, highlighted Maye’s “composureness” after the game.
“One of the reasons we drafted Drake was because you could tell during the interviews that he’s a balanced guy,” the Patriots head coach told the media after the game. “I think you can see that from the stands. This guy doesn’t go too high and he doesn’t go too low. He was like that in college, he probably was as a kid, and he still is today, which is a good thing for a quarterback. These guys have to keep their composure, get the call to the huddle and get the other guys out of the huddle and be ready to go. In my eyes, he’s always been like that.”
Of course, that was just one night in August, with Maye playing mostly against Philadelphia’s reserve players. It remains to be seen if he will even be New England’s starter in Week 1, as signs point to Jacoby Brissett starting the year at quarterback for the Patriots at the very least.
Recent moves by the team, such as the transfer of pass rusher Matthew Judon, suggest that 2024 will largely be a transition year for the team, laying the foundation for stronger rosters in 2025 and beyond.
This all starts with getting the franchise’s quarterback. New England drafted Maye as their quarterback for the next ten years, 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 through 2025.
On Thursday night, Patriots fans were finally able to imagine this path and regain some hope.
