Giardi: NFL Notebook - Maye has to solve this problem, or else; plus, is KC a run-first team?

After facing a Seahawks team that played 86% zone coverage in the opener, Drake Maye and the Patriots will now face a Steelers defense that, per TruMedia, played some form of zone coverage on every snap in week one (the only team to do so). Not only that, but the Patrick Graham-coached unit dialed up the fewest number of blitzes in week one. 

This could prove challenging for Maye, who has struggled over his last five games (postseason and week one) against split-safety looks, which he saw on over 52% of snaps. That’s not about to change until (if?) the third-year quarterback finds more success and plays teams out of that approach, which is designed to take away the deep ball that the quarterback and this offense thrived on a season ago.

There’s another element to Maye’s struggles against these types of defenses. It’s the point that Seahawks safety Julian Love made while he was mic’d up in the Super Bowl. Here’s the clip that’s become very popular over the last 10 days or so.

The Seattle defense said something similar after Maye’s meltdown two Wednesdays ago, and on rewatch, it was clear that some of his hesitations or ragged mechanics were - in part - because he wasn't always sure what he was looking at. So did Love have a point? And is that another area where Maye has to grow if he’s going to become the quarterback they think he can be?

“I guess you could say there's truth to that: guys want to see the play right there,” backup QB Tommy DeVito told me. “I think if you compare anything to what Matthew Stafford is doing, I mean, that's just an anomaly in itself, where he tends to get away with no-looking or getting seen doing more no-look passes than some others. So I think that if you want to try to compare it in that sense, you can. But I don't think it's anything too crazy. I think just with more time and reps, and the longer you are in the league, like any other position, the more savvy you get with certain things like that.”

“I think every quarterback is different. I played young quarterbacks; a lot of times, it's not about seeing it. They just are trained to throw it to a spot,” Kevin Byard said. “You look at the 49ers offense. I played against Tua (Tagovailoa) a lot. Even Brock Purdy, to a point where, a lot of times, it's almost like you can tell they're being coached. They're here (Byard was pointing to a spot), here, and almost blindly just throwing into the hash. So I think a lot of times it's maybe how it's being coached. It could be, you know, he's maybe getting pressure. Maybe sometimes a guy doesn't want to make a mistake. I think, as you game plan against every team and you're watching a bunch of film, every quarterback maybe has certain tells. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's just based on my experience.”

This becomes part of the chess match between the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, between the defensive players who can muddy the picture for Maye and Maye himself, who has 30 NFL starts under his belt.

“Shoot, defensive guys, defensive coaches - that's what they get paid to do,” DeVito added. “They get paid to confuse quarterbacks and try to change up the picture and do everything they can to make it hard for the offense. It's our job to be able to decipher that and see pre-snap and post-snap, and make sure that everything is aligning with what we're seeing and doing. 

“I think that's just part of the game. I think that some obviously make it harder than others, but at the end of the day, that comes down to film study and seeing how the game starts to flow and seeing what they're doing. If they did what they did on film in the prior weeks, or if they didn't, change it up and try to get little tells here and there.”

What’s evident in these conversations is that this is part of the maturation process for not just Maye, who you care about most, but any young quarterback. Classroom work and film study help, but time on task is where you’ll either see growth or start to wonder if this is a player’s kryptonite.

“Patience and repetition,” Josh McDaniels said, smiling. “I know nobody wants to talk about that, but he does a lot of good things, and he's gotten better and better and better since we've gotten to work together. It's been really cool to watch that progression, and we want them to be aggressive and smart, and always at the same time. And so, that's not asking too much, but that's the reality of playing this position: is you want to be aggressive when you get your chances. 

“Some teams don't give you many. Some teams don't give you many at all, and then you've got to be smart with the football because we know what our record has been when we don't turn it over. And so there's just a - I've not experienced anything with him that he hasn't learned from when it hasn't gone our way, and so I think failing sometimes is a good precursor to a great lesson he's about to learn. And when he's learned them, he doesn't make them many times over. So I know this is an area where we can make progress. He does too. I'm excited to see it happen and get another opportunity this week. “

Graham was the defensive coordinator for the Raiders last season, and if you’ll recall, Maye looked uncertain in that game as well. The former Patriot assistant had his unit play zone 90% of the time, the highest rate that Maye’s faced in his career.

BULLET DODGED?

Normally, the NFL injury report is littered with the usual: knee, ankle, shoulder, wrist, etc. But in Seattle, Sam Darnold is dealing with something unusual: what the team is calling a “very unique soft tissue " in, well, his buttocks. 

Darnold suffered the injury in the opening series of the Seahawks' victory over the Patriots. Dre'Mont Jones sacked him, and the weight on Jones, combined with the unforgiving turf, caused a chain reaction that was initially described as a hip injury but later isolated to a tendon in his right glute. The injury was so painful that Darnold stayed overnight in a local hospital, which partly fueled concern that it might be a season-ender.

Instead, Darnold will miss this week and probably the next, but the Seahawks aren’t setting a timetable. However, by not putting their Super Bowl-winning quarterback on the IR, they clearly believe he has a real chance of being good to go before the four-week stint sidelines him. All things considered, that’s a win for Seattle.

In the interim, the Seahawks will roll with Drew Lock as the starter and 2025 day two draft pick Jalen Milroe (Alabama) as the backup.

“It’s tough losing 14,” Jaxon Smith-Njigba said. “I mean, he’s the head of the snake. But we have each other’s backs. … We fully trust in Drew Lock to come in and do his thing. He’s done it time and time again.”

Lock completed 16 of 22 for 187 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers against the Pats. He last started a game on January 5, 2025.

METAMORPHASIS

That wasn’t your dad’s Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night. Not by a long shot.

Leaning heavily on free-agent acquisition RB Kenneth Walker, the Chiefs shoved the ball down the Broncos’ throats over and over again, winning emphatically, 31-10.

Walker was nuts, rushing for 173 yards on 23 attempts and a pair of explosive runs, including a 60-yard touchdown jaunt. A season ago. KC had exactly four explosive runs the entire season.

The reigning Super Bowl MVP had 101 yards over expected (I know, one of those nerdy stats that I wrestle with). That was more than double the next rusher in the league during week one, and also the most by a Chiefs RB since Patrick Mahomes’ first year, 2018. Walker also forced 14 missed tackles. I mean, have yourself a night, kid.

"You never know, going in, how many times you're going to give him the ball," Andy Reid said. "For him to play the way he did, I thought it was spectacular. It was something you hope for, and you got to see it, where he was the main guy." 

"It's just a special ability to run the ball tough between the tackles and then, when he does bounce it, he has the speed to go all the way," Mahomes said. "Once he gets the edge, he's gone."

Walker’s performance overshadowed Mahomes’ return to the field just nine months after tearing the ACL and PCL in his left knee. During the opening half, Mahomes looked like he should have sat this one out, going 8-of-18 for 57 yards and an interception. But he settled down in the second half, finishing with 184 yards passing and a pair of touchdowns. He also scrambled for a score.

"Going for the end zone, it kind of gave me that confidence that I can go out there and be myself," said Mahomes. "I just wanted to play. I had done so much rehab and so much work to put myself in this position. I just wanted to get out there and play. This is what you do it for.

"That was definitely the moment, physically, to say all this work has paid off. I didn't feel anything."

Per TruMedia, Mahomes averaged a paltry -0.05 EPA per dropback; his ADOT (average depth of target) was 4.6 yards and he did not record a single big-time throw (per PFF). But with Walker leading the charge, it was a rare game - especially over the last three seasons - where the burden to carry that offense didn’t fall on Mahomes and Mahomes alone. That should concern the rest of the AFC, assuming Walker can avoid the bumps and bruises that kept him from becoming a full-on star in Seattle.

“SHOCKING”

After an ugly postseason exit in Foxborough, Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh made the wise decision to part ways with longtime Harbaugh-brothers confidant offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Shortly after, LA snagged the highly sought-after Mike McDaniel to take over, leading many to believe he was the right play-caller to maximize Justin Herbert's extraordinary talent. However, Herbert and the Chargers lost 26-14 to the biggest underdog in week one (10.5 points), the Arizona Cardinals. What in the name of Air Coryell happened?

"You have a lot of visions coming to a new team and working on something for months," McDaniel said, "and the vision never looked like that.

“So, it was a case of humble pie. It didn’t feel good to anyone. It wasn’t good enough. First thing Monday morning, the coordinators got with Coach, and it was so obviously over the top not what we wanted as our product of football that we set forth a plan of action.”

That plan of action will be tested this weekend when the Chargers play the upstart Raiders, especially because top target Ladd McConkey is likely to miss the game with a rib injury. That will put even more pressure on Herbert, who, like the rest of the team, struggled to find his footing in the opener, throwing for 209 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. That TD toss came on the opening drive, and the Chargers got points on just one of their final nine possessions.

“We just didn’t make enough plays,” the quarterback said earlier this week. “We’re not happy with the performance. We’re not happy with the effort.”

“I don’t think the football was good enough and, certainly, not up to the potential that we have as a group of individuals,” McDaniel added. “To me, it’s been my favorite week of employment here because I know my experience in this league is that you do not measure anything beyond how a group of people handles adversity.”

NERD NUMBERS

- 11 teams scored 30-or-more points on Kickoff Weekend, tied for the second-most ever in Week 1 (1986, 12 teams; 2002, 11 teams).

- Six teams- Baltimore, Buffalo, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati and Jacksonville – all scored at least 24 points in the first half of their games, the most such teams in Week 1 in NFL history.

- Trend or flash in the pan? Teams went under center on 1st & 10 plays 66.5% of the time. That’s nearly a 20% increase from Week 1 last year and higher than any full-season rate since 2012.

- Pittsburgh linebacker T.J. Watt recorded two sacks and an interception returned for a touchdown in the Steelers’ Week 1 win. Since entering the NFL in 2017, Watt has recorded multiple sacks in 27 games. That’s currently 6th all-time since 1982 (when the sack stat became official).

- Big test for Caleb Williams this weekend when his Bears face Brian Flores’ Vikings defense. Williams was 3rd in EPA per dropback against the blitz last season, and his 3.3% sack rate when blitzed was also the best of any qualifying quarterback. Btw, Minnesota showed at least six defenders up on 62.7% of its Week 1 defensive snaps. Next closest: 26% by Washington.

- Nice first impression for Giants OC Matt Nagy. He helped QB Jaxson Dart set career highs in EPA per pass play (0.65), passer rating (134.2) and completion rate (79.3) in a 28-20 upset victory over Dallas.

- Matt LaFleur in trouble? The Packers are now just 7-5 when leading by nine or more points in the second half of games since the start of last season. The league winning percentage in such contests? Nearly .900.