FOXBOROUGH - Drake Maye finally moved up in the quarterback pecking order Tuesday, working behind Jacoby Brissett but ahead of Bailey Zappe in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11. That news, however, may be burying the lede. The rookie first-rounder rode the struggle bus on a day that featured heavy red-zone work, although he was hardly the only one. Brissett, too, had issues a) finding the time to work through his progressions in these tighter windows and b) seeing receivers consistently get open.
For Maye, the struggles are part of his growth, part of a process that will have some ups and downs, especially with him still learning the offense while refining some of the footwork issues that distinguished some of his college tape last year.
"I think of it as a marathon over a sprint," said offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt of getting the young QB ready to play. "You know, you just don't go out and run a marathon. You have to train properly for a marathon, and it's the same with a quarterback. There's a process, and we follow that process; we trust that process. You can't just stick a guy out there and expect them to be successful without the proper training. So it is a process, and we're making moves in the right direction."
"He's doing well. He's headed in the right direction," said Jerod Mayo when we spoke before the practice. "A lot of times people think it's this longitudinal, just straight line up to the top, and realistically, it's up and down, up and down, up and down. But hopefully, you end up still – from left to right – going in the right direction. So, he's doing well. You guys, I'm sure, will evaluate him today at practice."
You're damn right we will, although as I am wont to do, a reminder that this work was done in helmets, t-shirts, and shorts. A decided lack of physicality, especially for the offensive line, can skew some of the stats you'll read and some of the observations others will make. But suffice to say, it was rugged when the session's script turned from 7-on-7 to full team work.
Maye had to tuck it and run more than once, which is never what you're looking for offensively during these periods. He also fired what some will call a completion to Pop Douglas in the red zone, but, in reality, it would have been a sack long before that, with him holding the forever. Then there were a pair of interceptions, one around midfield that - to be quite frank - was hard to determine if he overthrew the underneath receiver or underthrew the corner route, then a clear misread between him and running back Antonio Gibson.
"Just seeing man (vs) zone," said Maye of the latter turnover. "It's always easy to go right after and say, 'Hey, should have done this, should have done that,' but I thought he was gonna keep running, and he may have seen zone and stuff. So, just be on the same page. Gotta make a better decision and protect the football."
You have to expect this stuff from a young quarterback with oodles of upside but limited experience. To think this spring - and when we get there - the summer would go any differently is delusional.
Remember, we saw C.J. Stroud in early August, and he looked like he wasn't someone who should start week one. All he did was have one of the most efficient rookie campaigns ever. I'm not telling you that's how it will go with Maye, but I'm trying to illustrate how much there is to learn — the playbook, teammates, and mechanics (just to name a few). The opposition isn't Maryland or Duke, just like it wasn't Minnesota or Illinois for Stroud.
"He's taking everything from the classroom, everything from our individual periods, and applying it to the team drills," said Van Pelt. "It's been impressive so far. The biggest thing we're working on with him right now is calling plays from the huddle, which is new to many of these college guys. And then just, you know, playing in rhythm and in time with your feet. And that's the biggest strides he's made over the last few weeks."
In fact, it's Maye's work on the latter part - that damn footwork - that has opened Van Pelt's eyes.
"I'd say probably just the ability to pick up the footwork changes," he said. "That's a big change for a guy to come in and completely change the footwork, but we did it right away, and he's embraced it."
Maye has done a solid job cleaning up some of those missteps (if you will), from when we first saw him at rookie mini-camp to what we've seen here, the 9th OTA (and third we've been allowed to view). With more repetitions, the belief is Maye will go from being mechanical to having the muscle memory necessary to make it second nature.
"I think it's all about timing and timing up the drops with the concepts," said Maye. "Going back in the film, ''Hey, did I use the right drop? Am I a little early? Am I a little late? Going back and watching routes versus air. I think routes versus air is an awesome opportunity to say, 'Hey, am I timing it up right?
He also spoke on his run-game footwork and the under-center work that was not a big part of the North Carolina offense, noting that this is "new" to him.
"A lot goes into playing quarterback, so just trying to focus on those things."
The work Maye continues to put in both on and off the field is why you can live with days like today, knowing - in all likelihood - tomorrow will be better (*probably).