Could Drake Maye be even better than he was a season ago, a season that saw him finish second in the MVP voting and play a starring role in resurrecting a franchise that, quite frankly, had cratered?
If the spring is any indication, the answer is yes. For the first time in his collegiate and professional career, Maye is in the same offense with the same playcaller. The comfort and confidence are readily apparent to anyone who watched him at the same point in the calendar a year ago.
“I think it's just naturally night and day from last year this time,” Maye told us earlier this week. “I was trying to get things right, trying to get guys knowing where I was making calls and getting guys lined up. Now we're just taking the next steps. That's the best thing about this time. You get to work on those things and also work on executing.”
The spring is the teaching part of the program, but after establishing himself to the degree Maye did a season ago, a more aggressive approach was taken during OTAs. Josh McDaniels, quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant, and, of course, head coach Mike Vrabel challenged the 23-year-old (he turns 24 at the end of August) to take even more control of the offense.
One way to do that is to have Maye run tempo, but then not give him a play to run. That puts all the responsibility on the third-year pro. He needs to decipher what the defense is showing him in that short period of time and make a play call that capitalizes on the perceived weakness.
“It's trying to be a playcaller,” Maye revealed. “It's tough in this environment when they’ve got 18 seconds on the clock in practice and I'm trying to do a hard count and trying to get us in a play that we like. I think it's awesome to challenge me and to push my limits of knowing the offense, knowing what play looks good against what the defense has up.”
“Get us in the best play,” Vrabel added. “Not that we are going to be perfect, but being able to use every resource that we have to get us into the right play and be able to give us an option to have a positive play. Whether they are pressuring or they are in a look that is not advantageous to the play, we do not want to be tentative, so there is a fine line of that. But I think expanding some of that into the second year of the system has been good to see here in the spring.”
A big part of taking the next step offensively will be limiting negative plays. It’s been something Maye and McDaniels have been harping on, dating back to last season. If you look at some of the offensive struggles in the postseason, you notice the correlation between unsuccessful drives and how a negative play, especially on early downs, impacts overall productivity.
“Nothing worse for an offense than negative plays,” McDaniels said. “They put you in bad situations, and we saw that last year. When that happened to us, it’s hard to overcome those things. I don’t care who you are. We’re trying to do what we can at each position, not just at quarterback, but certainly, he has a say in all of those.
“And so I think his comfort level, I think his maturity and understanding of how bad those things are for the offense, I think that’s taken a huge step forward. He understands it, he gets it, and so through that, hopefully we’ll be much improved in that area when we get to the regular season.”
I looked at all of Maye’s turnovers in the postseason. The large majority were in unfavorable down and distance situations:
Chargers
2nd & 11: Interception
2nd & 10: Fumble
3rd & 6: Fumble
Texans
2nd & 5: Fumble
4th & 11: Interception (end of half)
3rd & 6: Fumble
Seahawks
3rd & 6: Fumble
2nd & 3: Interception
1st & 10: Interception (TD)
Being ahead of the sticks doesn’t mean turnovers are impossible - as you see above. But largely, the mistakes come when Maye found himself chasing a bigger play after being in disadvantageous spots. He is learning - and being reminded - that sometimes the right thing to do is live for the next series.
“I think one thing is just making the right decision in the first few seconds I have the ball in my hand,” Maye said. “Making the right decision, knowing sometimes incompletions are the best plays, not trying to hold the ball too long and get out of the habit of really trying to extend plays just because I feel like I haven't extended a play in a while.”
Maye will almost certainly retain that playmaker/gunslinger element to his game. It’s part of what makes him special. But the more he plays - and learns - the more likely he is to turn those YOLO plays into educated gambles, limiting the potential risk and increasing the odds. The Patriots are giving him the tools to win at the snap. Now it’s up to Maye to make those tools work for him.
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