Patriots-Eagles storylines to watch: More reps for Drake Maye? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The main thing you, I and every football-loving person 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 looking closely at the merits of his signing and the last four months monitoring his progress.
But when the team got the chance to introduce him to the hungry masses who had just witnessed two seasons of the worst quarterback in 50 Patriots seasons, they gave him three throws and six snaps.
Read. The. Motherscratching. Room.
So let’s try again to discuss the five things we want to see in Thursday’s preseason game against the Eagles.
Mong Maye he runs
Everything points to the Patriots using Maye for a large part of this game. OK. What would we like to see?
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High level of competence inside and outside the huddle and at the line of scrimmage when on the starting offensive line.
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Determination in moving through the reads, as opposed to the lingering looks and half-moves he sometimes makes when he’s not sure if his first read is open. If it’s there, rip it away. If not, get out of here.
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Willingness to make mistakes based on aggression.
SSupport for the child
The main reason Maye didn’t play much last week was because the team didn’t like playing with him lining up behind the backup offensive line. They didn’t want him running into traffic and getting squashed. Plus, if he’s out there running around trying to make plays that aren’t in the script and doesn’t have time to work on the fundamentals, what’s the use?
Which, even after a week of separation, still seems just as stupid today as it did then.
First, if you draft a project at No. 3 overall, you can’t be afraid to use him, especially when the GM grinned in April when asked if the roster was deep 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 he needs to develop.
In short, last Thursday.
Second, make the game better. If you don’t want him to take seven steps, play fast, draw, block, whatever. Just let the kid compete against the terrible on-field competition that Carolina presented.
Now, of course, the Patriots will play Maye more often because the Eagles defense has much stronger 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 have.
But after setting that precedent last week, they better damn well give Maye all the protection he needs so he can safely return to his little quarterback dolly at the end of the night.
Bring 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 that their most important running backs in the game – Kevin Harris and Antonio Gibson – ran a combined 12 of 26.
The Patriots absolutely have to run the ball effectively to be effective on offense. Alex Van Pelt’s offense is built on being so effective on the ground that the defense has to draw in the linebackers and maybe even rotate a safety into the box.
If you can do that, the receivers will have more room to pass. Simple as that. But if the offensive line is so leaky that Van Pelt finds himself on second-and-7 or worse more than half the time, the whole thing goes down the drain.
This week’s joint practice was embarrassing for the Patriots’ offensive line. But after spending the offseason, passing camp, minicamp, the start of training camp and countless meetings developing 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!
An effective pass rush
Matthew Judon is a good player. A Pro Bowl-caliber pass rusher. A guy that offensive coordinators had to build their game plans around, and the kind of threat that makes the secondaries better because the ball has to get out quickly. But he missed 13 games last season and the defense was still damn hard to handle.
So my reaction to Judon’s transfer to Atlanta is: It’s a shame they couldn’t come to an agreement.
A third-round return is surprisingly good. It’s not like they haven’t played without him before. They’d be better off investing the damn money they saved on him, Calvin Ridley, and Brandon Aiyuk as aggressively as possible on a left tackle, wideout, or edge rusher like Judon next year.
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 will be much tougher Thursday night.
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 exploit his unique style in a way it didn’t last season.
Limiting Philly Wideouts
AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith are one of the best wideout duos in the league, and as long as Brown and Smith are on the field, it poses a huge challenge for the entire Patriots secondary – especially cornerbacks Christian Gonzalez and Marco Wilson (who appears to be playing at the No. 1 position opposite Gonzalez).
