On Thursday night, New England Patriots fans got their first look at 2024 first-round pick Drake Maye in the team’s first preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. It was very, very brief.
After the first offense, with presumptive starter Jacoby Brissett at quarterback, had one possession, Maye came on for the second offensive series. He threw three passes – a checkdown, a screen and an incomplete pass to a crosser over the middle. The offense earned a first down before punting. Maye was then taken off the field and the rest of the game was played by Bailey Zappe and sixth-round rookie Joe Milton III as quarterbacks, battling for the third spot in the order.
This was a source of great frustration for the Gillette Stadium crowd and was even somewhat confusing to a neutral audience, as Maye is widely viewed as a project who needs more experience before he can lead an NFL offense. Jerod Mayo, who just played his first NFL preseason game as a head coach, told reporters it was “always the plan” to use Maye for as short a time as possible.
“That was always the plan,” Mayo said. “The plan was to get him for a season, Jacoby for a season, and then make it the Zappe Show and the Joe Show. That was the plan from the beginning.”
“This is the first preseason game,” he continued. “We have two left. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to play against the other two teams before the regular season.”
Jerod Mayo on the quarterback lineup for the first preseason game on Thursday night: “That was the plan from the beginning.”
Mayo talks about using both Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye for a series before turning the evening over to Bailey Zappe and Joe Milton III. @ABC6 #Patriots pic.twitter.com/1gEBTz26ld
— Nick Coit (@NCoitABC6) 9 August 2024
When asked if the team wanted to avoid putting Maye behind the second offensive line, Mayo admitted that they had also thought about protecting the young quarterback.
While the exchange may lack the concrete answers fans would like, it does shed light on the Pats’ biggest problem early in the season and the risk of preseason games in general: poor offensive line play. New England has two established linemen in guard Michael Onwenu and center David Andrews. Otherwise, there are a lot of question marks. And the pass defense in general has been pretty bad in preseason.
So you can understand why the Patriots were hesitant to throw Maye in at the deep end. He has an incredible arm but needs practice to improve other aspects of quarterbacking, like footwork. However, there is also a balance that needs to be struck between giving him that practice and still putting him in a position to succeed. A balance that is difficult to find in the squad’s first dose of full contact with another team on a rainy night in Foxborough.
It sounds like Maye will get his representatives one way or another. They just won’t come at the earliest opportunity.
