Patriots-Eagles storylines to watch: More reps for Drake Maye? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The main thing you, I and every football fan in this great country wanted to see last week was a good dose of Drake Maye.
Not unreasonable. We spent the first four months of the year examining the merits of his design and the last four months monitoring his progress.
But when the team got the chance to introduce him to a hungry audience that had just watched two seasons from the worst quarterback in 50 Patriots seasons, they gave him three throws and six snaps.
Reading. From. Mom’s. Doodle Room.
Let’s try again now that we’ve discussed the five things we want to see from the Eagles in their preseason game on Thursday.
Iong Maye he runs
All indications are that the Patriots will use Maye for a large part of this game. OK. What do we want to see?
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Very skilled in and out of the huddle and at the line of scrimmage when on the starting offensive line.
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Decision making when making reads, as opposed to the constant looks and half-moves he sometimes does when he’s not sure if his first read is open. If it’s there, rip it away. If not, piss off.
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Willingness to make mistakes that arise from aggression.
SSupport for the child
The main reason Maye didn’t play much last week was because the team didn’t feel good about letting him play behind the backup offensive line. They didn’t want him to get caught in traffic and get run over. And if he’s out there running around making plays that aren’t in the script and doesn’t have time to work on fundamentals, what’s the point?
Today, even a week later, it still seems just as stupid to me as it did then.
First, if you draft a young player with the No. 3 pick, you can’t be afraid to use him, especially when the GM grinned in April when asked if the selection was enough to support a developing quarterback.
Eliot Wolf said he doesn’t understand what that means. It means the team isn’t good enough on offense to give the player the reps they need to develop him.
In short, last Thursday.
Second, play it up. If you don’t want him to take seven steps, play a quick game, draws, screens, whatever. Just let the kid compete against the terrible competition Carolina has provided.
Now, of course, the Patriots will use Maye more often because the Eagles defense has much tougher competition. That’s obviously the right thing to do. They shouldn’t even think twice about it. And if they hadn’t been so overly cautious last week, no one would either.
But after setting that precedent last week, they should be more than happy to provide Maye with all the protection he needs so he can safely return to his little quarterback doll at the end of the night.
Put it back
I wanted to see the Patriots run 4.0 yards per carry last week. They ran 3.8 yards on 30 carries. GOOD. Good enough. Except for their top backs in the game – Kevin Harris and Antonio Gibson – who ran 12 of 26 carries.
The Patriots absolutely have to run the ball effectively to get going on offense. Alex Van Pelt’s offense is built on a ground attack so effective that the defense has to sneak linebackers forward and maybe even rotate a safety into the box.
If you can do that, you create more space for the receivers in the passing game. Simple as that. But if the offensive line is so porous that Van Pelt is on second and seven or worse more than half the time, the whole thing goes wrong.
This week’s joint practice was an embarrassment for the Patriots’ offensive line. But after an offseason, a passing camp, a minicamp, the start of training camp and countless meetings to develop this curriculum, you can’t just say, “Damn. Didn’t work. Let’s try something else.”
The Patriots have left the dock and are in the harbor. The open sea is looming. They can’t just paddle back to get supplies now!
Aan effective pass rush
Matthew Judon is a good player. A Pro Bowl-caliber pass rusher. A guy that offensive coordinators had to reckon with, and the kind of threat that makes the secondary better because the ball has to get out quickly. But he missed 13 games last season and the defense was still pretty tough to deal with.
My reaction to Judon’s deployment to Atlanta is: It’s a shame they didn’t find a solution.
A third-round return is surprisingly good. It’s not like they haven’t played without him before. They could spend the money they saved on him, Calvin Ridley and Brandon Aiyuk as aggressively as possible in free agency next year on a left tackle, wideout or edge rusher similar to Judon.
Meanwhile, the Patriots defense had a good day overall against the Eagles offense during Tuesday’s joint practice. After last week’s dominant performance against not-so-good Carolina, the challenge on Thursday night will be much tougher.
Josh Uche, who re-signed in the offseason, is their strongest remaining pass rusher. He is smaller compared to Judon, but quicker and more sudden. It will be interesting to see if the team tries to capitalize on his unique style, which was not the case last season.
Limiting Philly Wideouts
AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith are one of the best wideout duos in the league. As long as Brown and Smith are in the mix, it will be a huge challenge for the entire Patriots secondary – especially cornerbacks Christian Gonzalez and Marco Wilson (who will likely be the best cornerback opposite Gonzalez).
