FOXBOROUGH – The love affair with Drake Maye has begun. Fans showing up the first three days of Patriots training camp gave the rookie quarterback the rock star treatment all week.
Between the clamor for autographs, and the buzz every time he touches the football, Maye has already drawn a following.
Popularity or not, whether Maye should be the Week 1 starter remains a hot topic for debate.
Patriots coach Jerod Mayo certainly left the door ajar. He gave Maye a shot to overtake Jacoby Brissett and be under center for the season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals in six weeks?
Definition of shot?
Don’t hold your breath.
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For that to happen, Maye is going to have to show command of an offense Brissett knows better than anyone in the room. He’s going to have to understand what he’s seeing from the defense. He’s going to have to convince the coaches his footwork is fixed, and he’s more than competent taking snaps under center. All by the end of training camp.
In short, Maye needs to play well enough to prove beyond a shatter of a doubt he’s the best choice at quarterback to start the season. Not Brissett.
Once again, fat chance.
But let’s not spoil the fantasy just yet.
It’s hard not to root for Maye to “light it up” in the coming weeks. That’s what Mayo said he needed to see from the rookie to entertain the thought of having him start over Brissett. Given the importance of Maye in the big picture scheme, it would be an incredible boost to the Patriots if the former UNC star won the competition and forced Mayo’s hand.
No offense to Brissett, but that’s something to root for. Having Maye beat out Brissett, and do so in convincing fashion, provides hope. If the Patriots No. 3 overall pick proves to be the real deal, that will go a long way toward making the team contenders again.
Now back to reality.
Three practices in, Maye hasn’t exactly lit it up. He’s been up and down. He’s shown flashes of his talent, making several noteworthy throws. But he’s also made mistakes.
Friday’s practice was arguably his worst. He missed a snap count. He threw a bad pick. And, he was so off-target on several throws, that it was tough to tell the intended target.
Thus far, he’s done nothing to suggest he’ll make the decision tough.
But there’s still time. It’s early in the process. For his part, Maye is doing his best to weather the storms.
“You can’t ride the ups and downs. Just can’t be too hard on myself,” Maye said following Friday’s practice. “Sometimes I’m too hard on myself. You gotta bounce back. It’s how you bounce back.”
He’ll certainly have plenty more opportunities. To this point, there have been no padded practices. Those begin Monday.
It’ll be interesting to see how Maye fares in that setting, and if he responds after a tough outing Friday with better practices going forward. An even better barometer will be seeing how he does in the joint practices against the Eagles in a little more than two weeks.
For now, Maye is focused on correcting mistakes, keeping himself afloat, and progressing every day.
“There’s some plays where I think I’m doing a good job and there are some plays where I think I can do a better job,” Maye said. “I’m just trying to make it where I’m not missing the read – or not getting through the read as quickly as I need to out there more than one time in a row. Out here in practice, Friday, if I make the same mistake I did on Wednesday, I’m not making any progress. I try to keep that balance and keep going at it. You’re going to make mistakes, that’s what practice is for. Keep my head up and continue to sling it around.”
Against a defense that’s way ahead of the offense. Thus far, the Patriots defenders have made it difficult for all of the quarterbacks. There hasn’t been much in the way of slinging.
To be fair, the offense hasn’t looked great no matter who’s been under center. There really hasn’t been much to see amid a sea of checkdowns.
As for Brissett, the veteran and career backup has done his best to pump up Maye and has served as a mentor to the quarterback room given he’s played in Alex Van Pelt’s offense.
He’s been one part top gun, one part cheerleader, and one part teacher.
More important, three days in, he’s still out front in the Brissett-Maye derby. Mayo considers Brissett the starter. At this point, it’s tough to see that changing.
