Bedard's Breakdown (Offense): Drake Maye's preseason performance doesn't make sense

There are two truths about Drake Maye as he prepares to enter his second season in the NFL.

He's been really good in the three joint practices with the Commanders and Vikings — against the starters from playoff teams last year, which have big expectations this season — especially when the Patriots have a play blocked up correctly.

Maye has completely underwhelmed in the two preseason games against the backups and third-stringers from those teams.

It doesn't make any sense.

And I don't have any solutions, but I sure hope Josh McDaniels and Mike Vrabel do.

In two games, Maye's best plays have been two scrambles against the Commanders (when he had opportunities to throw), and an incomplete pass on third down to TreVeyon Henderson on Saturday.

That's it.

The mistakes? They are plentiful, as we'll show in the video analysis for BSJ members:

 • His first pass, Maye threw high to the very tall Mack Hollins on a play that could have gotten the receiver hurt (I didn't even mark him down for that one).

 • Maye missed high to a wide-open Demario Douglas and was nearly picked off.

 • Maye allowed a delay of game penalty in the red zone to happen.

 • Maye barely connected with Hollins on another high pass - a play in which he had two receivers (Douglas and Kyle Williams) basically wide open for touchdowns.

 • He took an unnecessary hit on another play where Williams was open on a pass Maye should have cut loose.

Don't take my word for it, listen to Dan Orlovsky:

Overall, Maye was tentative throwing the ball, wasn't seeing the field right, and his mechanics were poor on the high passes.

Maye ended up being my lowest-graded offensive player of the game. Only Jared Wilson was worse against the Commanders.

Again, this was against backups. Other NFL starters, in the same scenario, are ripping through defenses for touchdowns. I mean, even Caleb Williams looked great on his opening drive last night for the Bears.

Vrabel talked a bit about Maye today.

"Well, I mean, I think that we have to be able to connect on passes like the one to Pop, making sure that both the receiver and the quarterback are on the same page and that the ball placement is where it needs to be," Vrabel said. "I would say the tipped balls, especially ones that are over the middle of the field or towards the middle of the field, are going to end up intercepted.

"He's continuing to improve and continuing to help us. I like where he's at, it's just we've got to fix that. We talked to him about not taking a senseless hit outside the pocket on second-and-ten. If there's nobody there, throw it away, and we'll try to convert on third down. Just being smart and understanding those little details."

Maybe Maye is one of these quarterbacks, Brett Favre was similar, where they are too amped up for the game, and that causes issues. The playcallers had to adjust to that. Maye was asked about that after the game. 

"Yeah, I don’t think we want to dial it down," he said. "We're out there, we’re keeping score. We're trying to win. I miss Pop high, same thing, he's wide open sitting in a zone out there. So just couple plays to have back, but the guys up front blocked well. It’s preseason, but these guys are still trying to come tackle us and stop us, so we're trying to go down to score."

This is the type of answer, similar to response about his fumble against the Commanders, that led me to question if Maye was enough of a perfectionist at this point, which is needed to win championships. As I said, maybe he develops it.

It's a little bit discerning that he didn't see a need to adjust, if his early-game energy was a problem. Thankfully, it sounds like his head coach is on it.

"The personality or whatever they're feeling, that's up to them," Vrabel said. "I think that the performance and the mentality and how we want to play the game has to be the same. So, whatever they want to feel, they're more than welcome to feel. We just need to make sure that we execute and that we're taking command of the huddle and that we're operating at a high level."

Translation: Maye wasn't good enough in this game (again), and he better figure out a way to be better. Being too amped is not an excuse, not if you want to contend for championships.

Here are my positional thoughts (no ratings) against the Vikings:

Quarterback

Josh Dobbs had a couple of good plays against pressure, and poor throws to Javon Baker and Kyle Williams (put him in harm's way). That's the way it seems to go with him. Just very inconsistent, which is why he's a career backup and never a starter. ... I continue to be impressed with Ben Wooldridge. He has a throw a game — the out to Baker in this one — that makes me sit up in my chair. Maybe's there's something there. I'll say this, and will probably take heat for it: Wooldridge's throwing motion is way better and efficient than Maye. I wish I could give it to Maye. He'd be unstoppable.

Running backs

TreVeyon Henderson showed his ability between the tackles in this one on his touchdown, an aspect of his game that has been a bit surprising. He does have starter talent, but durability is an issue and should prevent that, for a while. ... JaMychal Hasty showed a lot in this game, especially a burst I hadn't seen in his previous stops here. Had a broken tackle and good blitz pickup as well.

Receivers/tight ends

Not much more needs to be said about Efton Chism's performance, but he didn't execute a tough block in the run game. ... Mack Hollins had two very nice grabs in this game. His ability in the red zone and on third down is very real. ... Javon Baker had a nice catch on the sideline, but he had two very poor routes (stopped in the end zone, rounded off a sideline red zone out route horribly). ... Two good catches by Kyle Williams before he had to exit. Too bad Maye missed him for a touchdown. ... Two good run blocks by Austin Hooper. Gee Scott and Jaheim Bell didn't show well as blockers. ... John Jiles continues to impress, although he did have a drop. I think there's something there to mine. 

Offensive line

Will Campbell had a very good outing with two plus run blocks, including his work with Ben Brown on Henderson's touchdown. He wasn't challenged much in pass pro. ... Garrett Bradbury was terrible in this game, even whiffing a few times, and the Patriots have to start looking at other options, including Jared Wilson and Ben Brown. Brown was very solid last year, and he had standout game in this one at left guard. He's better at center. ... Jared Wilson was much better in this one - he said it slowed down a bit for him - although he did allow a QB hit and had another poor pass block. After a hot start, Wilson looks like he's lost some confidence and he's thinking a lot. Looked solid in his return to center. ... Vederian Lowe looked very rusty, but he was way better than Demontrey Jacobs. Lowe still has tools and I don't think he's far off. ... Marcus Bryant had a bit of a rough outing with two hurries and a couple poor run blocks. Still, he's way ahead of where I thought he would be at this point.

THREE UP

WR Efton Chism: What separates him from other preseason heroes is his play strength, which is very real.

RB TreVeyon Henderson: When was the last time the Patriots had a back who made you sit up each time he touches the ball?

LT Will Campbell: After a rough stretch of practices, maybe this will give him some momentum into the season.

THREE DOWN

QB Drake Maye: This performance was not acceptable for a starting NFL quarterback against backups playing vanilla defense.

C Garrett Bradbury: Surprised it didn't happen today, but I would expect Ben Brown and/or Jared Wilson to get a shot with the starters this week.

OT Demontrey Jacobs: I don't expect him to stick around much longer.