Patriots Get Rude Awakening

The New England Patriots and NFL draft scouts absolutely knew rookie quarterback Drake Maye would take time to develop — more than other coveted players at his position — but did the franchise know it would be this underwhelming out of the gate?

Patriots Get Rude Awakening

Jerod Mayo’s team has about a week and a half of training camp under its belt, and so far, the team is beset by Maye’s unstimulating performance. Of course, Maye still has a long way to fulfill his draft stock—New England spent the third overall pick on the North Carolina alumnus—so the tweets that circulate the internet chiding his training camp debut may be much ado about nothing.

But the very beginning is concerning, especially after a season in which C.J. Stroud, for example, took the NFL by storm and dragged his Houston Texans to the Divisional Round of the AFC playoffs. Stroud and others before him, like Justin Herbert and Dak Prescott, set the bar extremely high for first-year quarterbacks — so much so that pundits and fans expect stardom immediately from rookie passers. Often, like Maye around the bend, it takes time for a youngster to develop.

While Maye emulating anything close to Stroud feels dead in August, reports from Patriots training camp have also raised eyebrows. Maye’s teammate and draft classmate, Joe Milton, who was chosen in Round 6 of April’s draft, is reportedly outdueling him. Milton was a prospect considered even rawer than Maye (hence the 6th-round selection).

“Milton outplayed Maye over the first six practices of camp. You can’t tell which player is the No. 3 overall pick (Maye) and which is the sixth-round flier (Milton),” Boston Globe‘s Ben Volin wrote this week. “Maye is running second on the depth chart and getting a ton of work, but he hasn’t made many noteworthy throws. He was the only quarterback not to throw a touchdown pass in a red zone drill Tuesday, while Milton, in limited reps, threw touchdowns on consecutive plays, one on a drag to Polk and another on an RPO slant to JuJu Smith-Schuster.”

https://x.com/TomPelissero/status/1825554292830576989

For now, there is little doubt that journeyman passer Jacoby Brissett — who is beloved in New England — will take the QB1 scepter into Week 1, a stereotypical patchover option to a player like Maye. Based on the current rate, however, Brissett may play damn near the whole season, perhaps only lending the QB1 job to Maye if the Patriots’ season swirls down the commode.

Volin provided more details about Maye vs. Milton. “In the red zone/two-minute situation, Maye had an ugly, off-platform throw that went way wide of Smith-Schuster, a hospital ball to tight end Mitchell Wilcox that got him sandwiched between two defenders, and an incomplete corner fade to Javon Baker in the end zone that had the entire offense doing pushups,” he explained. “Meanwhile, Milton wows the crowd every day with his tantalizing arm and standing backflips. After Maye struggled in the red zone, Milton promptly came in and completed a nice pass to Kawaan Baker on the sideline.”

New England also employs once-promising quarterback Bailey Zappe around the QB4 section of the depth chart, but he may be a forgotten man with newcomers Brissett, Maye, and Milton in the house.

Generally speaking, it’s fair for Patriots fans to roll their eyes about Maye’s summer maturation, but expecting much from in Year No. 1 would be foolhardy. He probably shouldn’t play at all in 2024, leaving that duty to Brissett for this precise reason. There’s precedent for watch-and-learn quarterbacks to blossom; the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs can attest.

It’s just that any regular season playing time for Milton — instead of Maye — would be, well, awkward.

The Patriots preseason kicks off at home versus the Carolina Panthers next Thursday, the next chapter in Maye’s young story.

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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His NFL obsession dates back to 1989. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL. 

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.