Drake Maye ‘looks like a stud’ to Sean McVay’s eyes, and it’s backed up on tape

The Patriots are putting everything in Drake Maye’s hands, and the rookie is answering the call

The 2024 NFL season has a familiar — and unfamiliar — feel for New England Patriots fans.

The keys to the offense, and the franchise, have been handed to a rookie quarterback. A first-round selection, wearing No. 10, tasked with taking over an offense that years ago was considered the league’s best, and living up to lofty expectations and potential comparisons to one of the game’s best. A rookie quarterback breaking into the league playing for a defensive-minded head coach, in a deep division and conference.

While those may be the similarities between Mac Jones and Drake Maye, they end there.

In many ways, Jones was a passenger along for the ride back in 2021, a fact that is best evidenced by his performance in a Week 13 victory over the Buffalo Bills that improved the Patriots to 9-4 on the season. On a windy night in Buffalo, Jones attempted just three passes, as Bill Belichick relied on the running game and New England’s defense to carry the night in a 14-10 victory. It was a three-throw outing from the rookie quarterback that was short enough to be broken down on video and shared on social media, and I did exactly that the next morning.

Sadly, that video has been lost to the annals of time.

It is hard to imagine the 2024 Patriots doing something similar with Maye. Their latest rookie quarterback may wear the same number as Jones, but their play on the field as first-year NFL quarterbacks is vastly different. Where Jones was, as mentioned above, more of a passenger along for the ride Maye is flying the plane, and every safeguard imaginable has been turned off.

Still, he is growing, and developing, the way the Patriots need him to.

Sunday’s outing against the Los Angeles Rams might be the best example yet of Maye’s development as an NFL passer. Operating behind a New England offensive line that has struggled to protect him at times, and with a young receiving core around him that is learning to separate from coverage consistently, Maye connected on 30-of-40 passes for 282 yards, a pair of touchdowns, and an interception which came on New England’s final offensive play.

It was an effort that drew the attention of a coach who knows quarterbacks, none other than Rams head coach Sean McVay:

Beyond the numbers, there is the video that Maye put on display Sunday. Plays that illustrate how the game is slowing down for the rookie, and how he is already ahead of schedule on the young quarterback development curve.

Take his first touchdown of the game, this nine-yard connection with Kendrick Bourne. Maye’s confidence is evident in the timing, as he executes an abbreviated five-step drop, drives his back foot into the turf at Gillette Stadium, and comes up firing without wasting a second:

Timing is critical in the NFL, particularly down in the red zone where the field is compressed and space comes at a premium. Every wasted moment, each extra step, carries a price. But Maye knows the coverage, knows that Bourne will have inside leverage on his in-breaking route, and rips in a perfect throw on time and in rhythm for the score.

A route combination that the Patriots love to call for Maye pairs a sit route over the football with a shallow crosser coming from the other side of the field. It is a standard “man/zone” read for a quarterback, as they’ll look to the crosser against man coverage (with that receiver running away from a defender) but get their eyes to the sit route against zone, with that receiver sitting down in space.

On this play from the first quarter the Patriots dial that up, and watch Maye work through this concept. He first gets his eyes to the left, where the Patriots are running a “peel” combination with a post route, and a wheel route. That is his “alert” on the play, which he will throw if one of the vertical routes is open early in the play.

But Maye sees the Rams dropping into zone coverage, so he gets his eyes to Hunter Henry on the sit route and throws it on time and in rhythm:

Here is that same exact design in the third quarter. Again the Rams use zone coverage, so Maye comes off the peel combination on the right, and gets his eyes on Henry to make an anticipation throw:

Even better is the placement of this pass from Maye, as he sees the nearest threat to Henry is coming from the left side of the field, so he leads the tight end away from that defender, allowing Henry to make an easier catch and pick up additional yardage.

Often in the NFL, teams look to blitz rookie quarterbacks. The thought is that the game is already too fast for them, but by blitzing them you speed up their thought process even more in the pocket, leading to mistakes.

But teams might want to think twice about blitzing Maye, who has already shown ability to beat pressure looks both with his mind, and his feet.

Take this play from early in the game. Los Angeles just brings five after the QB here, but a safety blitz from the third level creates a free run at Maye. But the rookie simply slides in the pocket with his feet away from the free runner, creating enough time and space to get off a throw on a crossing route to convert this third down:

Late in the first half, the Rams used another blitz to try and get pressure on the rookie, this time a linebacker coming from the second level. Here, Maye just hangs in the pocket and calmly replaces the blitz with the ball, firing a quick throw to Demario Douglas on a slant route:

But perhaps the biggest difference between 2021 and 2024 in New England? What Maye can do when he is forced to create. While Jones was able to execute from the pocket, a question mark facing the Alabama prospect coming into the NFL was his athleticism, and whether he could create enough off of structure and outside the pocket to function in the NFL. Those traits have almost become prerequisites in the modern game, thanks to the athleticism on the other side of the football, and the defensive schemes that can so often take away a quarterback’s initial reads.

While that question went largely unanswered with Jones, Maye is answering it each week. On this 3rd and 1 from Sunday the Patriots turn to a mesh concept, but the Rams cover the routes. Watch as Maye shifts into creator mode, buys some time with his feet, and manages to convert the third down late in the play:

These are the kinds of plays the New England offense could not generate in 2021, but Maye is delivering them week in, week out.

While graphics on every NFL pre-game show last Sunday showed the Patriots “in the hunt” for the playoffs, those expectations are not the goal for this season. The only true goal in New England in 2024 is this: Make sure Maye is the long-term answer at the position, and do everything possible to see that he is a better quarterback at the end of the year than he was when the year began.

The playoffs might be out of the picture, but the more important questions in New England are being answered in the best way possible.

Another difference between 2024 and 2021, and one that could work out very well for the Patriots in the end.