FOXBOROUGH - During his Wednesday afternoon press conference, Mike Vrabel didn’t want to relitigate Drake Maye’s performance in Sunday’s win over the Steelers. At least not to start.
“These are questions that I would like to answer on Monday,” he said, gruffly. “I think I was willing to do that. The focus has got to be on Jacksonville and our performance…”
For him and his team, yes. For what some of us in the media do for a living, no. Vrabel knows that. That is why he eventually answered the question: did the pendulum swing too far from Maye being overly aggressive and reckless to end Week 1 in Seattle, to passing up makeable throws against Pittsburgh (he twice had Kyle Williams with potential hole shots vs. cover two but decided against making them).
“It's being decisive,” Vrabel continued. “It's in everyone's play, but it's certainly magnified with the quarterback. And so being decisive, believing in what you see, again, that's what we ask all our players to do: prepare to try to play fast and aggressive, make great decisions.
“And so, yeah, we could always say, "Man, we should have let that one rip, or we got to use a better decision. Ultimately, it's his responsibility to be able to distribute the football as quickly and decisively as possible in the places that it's supposed to go, and continue not to force things, and try to create an ‘X’ play on every single play.”
Despite the changing media narrative over the last 36 hours or so regarding Maye’s performance - yes, he wasn’t terrible on Sunday, but can we stop with the “it wasn’t that bad” nonsense? That’s how we’re going to judge the MVP runner-up? “Not that bad?” Give me a break. Maye did not play well. Vrabel told you as much both postgame (when he’s at his most emotional, and therefore most honest) and again on Monday (when he’s more tempered). There are reasons for Maye’s struggles, and there are excuses. I don’t want to hear the latter.
As for the former - and I’ve written it multiple times but will do so again - teams have a better plan for him, especially with how they’re changing their looks from pre- to post-snap. Why does Maye look so unsure? That’s one hell of a reason. Why is he not gripping and ripping these throws? See above. In that position, not knowing what the look is morphing into is a recipe for bad interceptions, misreads, or balls thrown without the conviction Maye delivers when he’s seeing it well.
“I think that goes back to playing instinctively and seeing it, and knowing that, trusting what I see in practice, and trusting the decisions I'm making out there on the field,” Maye said this afternoon. “I've never, you know, shied away from trusting something and letting it rip.”
Well, except for Sunday.
“We're going to have our opportunities, and just because it looked one way in practice doesn't necessarily guarantee that it's going to be that way in the game,” Vrabel said Wednesday, before invoking the royal “we” and talking about how all his players must be able to handle unscouted or unique looks.
“It's hard to play just when you're thinking about a lot of different things, and you are to be regardless,” Maye said. “It's going to be natural to think about motions and fronts and defense and what our guys are doing and route concepts and what they're doing versus the play we have up. So just thinking and trying to be instinctive. One of the best things I learned in college: to be instinctive and try to play as fast as you can back there.”
Opposing defenses are also taking a page out of Sean Payton’s game plan pre-AFC Championship game: don’t let Maye beat you with his legs. Lo and behold, he ripped off a huge run that day and catapulted the Pats into the Super Bowl.
Since then, those openings have been few and far between. Teams aren’t using a spy (not that I have detected), but they are more hyper-aware of situations where Maye might tuck it and go, including in the red area. The Steelers certainly didn’t part like the Red Sea on one of their three sacks, forcing the quarterback to basically give himself up before he made it back to the line of scrimmage.
Another fair point is the protection issues the Patriots had against Pittsburgh. If Jared Wilson (or Greg Van Roten, for that matter) is going to lose and lose as quickly as he did on three or four reps, the play is already in a world of hurt before it has a chance to develop. But here’s where the overcorrection has gone too far. We’re not talking about 90% of the snaps. We’re talking about a handful. Maybe two handfuls. That needs to be cleaned up and improved, but this line is no worse than the one he stood in front of last year.
One of Maye’s strengths a year ago was that when he was forced into creation mode, he succeeded a lot more than he failed. Thus far, that hasn’t been the case, but that doesn’t mean the worm won’t eventually turn. On Sunday, for instance, his lone completion on three attempts versus his kryptonite, cover 6, was the 29-yarder to Romeo Doubs. How did that happen? Maye spent the requisite time in the pocket, didn’t see anything to his liking, and eventually found an escape hatch to his right, kept his head up, and found an uncovered Doubs. More of that, please, especially because the Jaguars have embraced cover 6 as much as any team in the league.
“You can see that they kind of take away some of the boundary, you know, one-on-one stuff,” Maye said of Jacksonville, adding, “More and more teams are trying to mix it up and try to cloud one side, cloud the other, and try to keep things in front.”
That said, there are holes, and to help play the Jaguars out of cover 6, or any other team following this newly formed blueprint designed to stop Maye, he’ll need to exploit those openings. Of course, it would also help if the Pats could find more success on the ground against these split-safety looks, but that, like Maye’s own play, remains a work in progress.
ON INJURY FRONT
Vrabel announced that safety Dell Pettus has been put on IR. Pettus revealed he has a high ankle sprain and was seen in the locker room with a walking boot. The Pats have already signed outside linebacker/special teamer Jose Ramirez to the active roster. Ramirez joined the practice squad shortly after cutdown day. With injuries to both Dre’Mont Jones (shoulder) and Quintayvious Hutchins (both were out of practice), the Pats may feel short one or both come Sunday in Jacksonville.
“Been a really good practice player for us,” Vrabel said of Ramirez. “I think he’s improved since the time he’s been here, multiple times being recognized. He’s taken the reps that we talk about being on the show team and using those to his advantage. So, whether they’ll be an opportunity, we’ll see, for him to be able to help us this week when we get down to the 48-man roster.”
Eli Raridon (thigh) did go out to practice but worked on the lower field with the other injured players. Meanwhile, special teams whiz Brenden Schooler (back) did participate today, meaning the clock has started on his return from NFI.