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One year later, Patriots QB Drake Maye's comfort level is ‘worlds different'
FOXBORO, Mass. — Drake Maye still remembers the struggles of minicamp a year ago. He was a 21-year-old rookie thrown into the fire of his first mandatory NFL practices, left to face the first-team defense.
His read on one particular play at that early practice was supposed to be an easy one. Glance at the safeties. If only one is deep, throw the ball here. If both are back, target a different wide receiver. Day one stuff.
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But Jabrill Peppers and Kyle Dugger, the New England Patriots' experienced duo at safety, bounced around. Peppers jumped up toward the line of scrimmage, then darted back. Same for Dugger. How was he supposed to tell if that's 'single high' or not? Maye was perplexed.
'They were playing with me basically the whole snap, and I messed it up,' Maye said.
One year later, however, a lot has changed for Maye. He's on his second NFL coach in 15 months. He got engaged to his high school sweetheart this offseason and is set to be married in two weeks. He's learning a new playbook. But more than anything, his experience as a rookie has left Maye feeling more confident than a year ago, now the no-doubt leader of a promising young team.
'It's worlds different,' Maye said of his comfort level. 'It's a little different having a new offense and new verbiage, but I think finding where we're at in the offense and what we're good at and our identity has been fun and been cool.'
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Not all of the change has been easy, of course. It's challenging to learn entirely new verbiage for play calls. Josh McDaniels' offenses have historically been wordy.
But the quarterback credited his new offensive coordinator with talking him through plays and asking for input about certain aspects, including which plays Maye likes best.
'It's good for us to install the plays, get a feel about what I like,' Maye said. 'Coach McDaniels has been awesome about asking what I like and what he expects from me on certain plays. So, it's been good to be able to get that outside and on the field. It's been fun watching Tom (Brady) and a bunch of great quarterbacks in this offense do it.'
Of course, that has brought about some ups and downs in his play. But Maye downplayed any perceived struggles this spring after much of the discussion centered on a four-interception practice from Maye last month.
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In Maye's eyes, one of those picks came on a great play from one of the game's best cornerbacks (Christian Gonzalez), one when Hunter Henry was held (there are no refs at these practices) and another when he and the offense didn't have a good enough answer to an all-out blitz.
'I learned with that one,' Maye said of the blitz-forced interception. 'You can take that stuff with a grain of salt, but at the same time, you don't want to turn the football over and get in bad habits. I feel like I've done a good job of trying to keep the football in our hands, and that's one of our key focuses.'
While much of Maye's development is in the hands of McDaniels, coach Mike Vrabel has said he hopes to help the young quarterback with in-game situations and as a leader.
To that end, Vrabel acknowledged that Maye is in what he called 'a unique position' as a 22-year-old who's supposed to command a locker room because of the position he plays and his importance to the franchise.
'I think that there is a lot of room to grow,' Vrabel said of Maye. 'I think there's a lot of natural leadership qualities. I think I have to encourage him, continue to encourage him and put him in those positions to do that so that the players understand there's a different version of all of us. There's one that's maybe off the field, that there's one in the meeting room and then there's a version on the field, which we all have to understand is somewhat different than what it may be off the field.'
Of course, the Patriots know that their level of success for the next five years or so will depend largely on how well they develop Maye and what they surround him with.
That's why revamping the offense was such a focus in the draft, where the Patriots used their first four picks on that side of the ball. It was just one minicamp practice, but the rookie class looked great on Monday.
Third-round pick Kyle Williams caught a deep ball for a touchdown. Second-round pick TreVeyon Henderson nabbed a score himself by showing off his hands and speed out of the backfield. Undrafted receiver Efton Chism continued to shine and earned a shoutout from Maye on Monday.
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'I mean, they're making plays all day,' Maye said of those rookies. 'So we've got to find a way to get them involved. I'm looking forward to seeing how they shape their role in training camp, and I think they're shaping it out here. I think you saw plays from everybody. TreVeyon caught a touchdown, Kyle caught a deep ball, Chism had about 50 catches, I feel like, in OTAs.'
