The New England Patriots offense will look different (perhaps even rejuvenated?) when they take the field this Sunday at Gillette Stadium.
Rookie quarterback Drake Maye was named the Patriots' starting quarterback for Week 6 vs. the Houston Texans. The announcement has given Pats fans something to look forward to amid a four-game losing skid in what seems to be a lost season for New England.
Maye wouldn't share much detail on how the Patriots offense would change with him replacing Jacoby Brissett, but it's fair to assume offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt will have a few new plays up his sleeve with a young, mobile, big-armed QB to work with. On a new episode of the Next Pats Podcast, our Phil Perry and CLNS Media's Taylor Kyles discussed how the Patriots' offensive scheme will get more dynamic with the third-overall pick under center.
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🔊 Next Pats: Patriots schemes are about to get more DYNAMIC with Drake Maye | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
"Van Pelt and (head coach Jerod) Mayo both acknowledged that he can do stuff with his legs and he'll probably be involved in the QB run game," Kyles said. "He's not gonna be Jayden Daniels, necessarily, but I think especially in short-yardage and the red zone, we saw in college, he's plenty capable in those situations. ...
"Also, moving pockets like the bootlegs where we've seen Jacoby Brissett miss a couple really big downfield opportunities because he couldn't connect on the run. Drake isn't perfect in those situations either, but at least he can use his legs and there's a little more fear where if he has depth in the pocket, you can't just run at him because if you miss, he could just take off and run on his own."
When Brissett made his NFL debut against Houston in 2016, then-offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels had to incorporate a new offense on the fly to suit Brissett's style. As Perry notes, Van Pelt will have the benefit of working with Maye on his scheme throughout training camp and in practices.
"The Drake Maye stuff, my understanding is, has already been incorporated," Perry said. "They've been working on it. He's been getting first-team reps. They've been able to obviously see a lot of him in training camp. ...
"Drake Maye is going to use his legs as a natural playmaker, and I think the situations (Alex Van Pelt) was describing were when he's under pressure, when he's forced to use his legs, when he sees an opening and he wants to get creative. But the designed stuff, the zone read stuff, the sprint-out passes -- again, we've seen some sprint-out passes from Jacoby Brissett this year. Not many, I don't think they benefit Brissett's skill set as much as they might Drake Maye. So maybe we see more of those."
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Perry asked Kyles what he saw from the Maye-led North Carolina offense that he'd like to see translate to the NFL. Kyles hopes the Maye-Ja'Lynn Polk connection will look similar to the Maye-Tez Walker connection at UNC.
"What they did at UNC was, Tez Walker, a lot of the success that he had and Drake Maye had was exploiting those 3 by 1 (formations) where, hey, you're 1-on-1, I know how you win," Kyles said. "I know when to give you the back shoulder, when to lead you because you're gonna stack. I'm just gonna let you win. Those are the easy buttons for an offense where you can still push the ball downfield, but you don't really have to worry about hitching and buying time because you have a natural rhythm.
"That's the biggest thing for me is if Polk can also capitalize. ... Create those situations and see if those guys can take the chemistry we think they have on the practice field and translate it to the game field."
Also in the episode:
- What should we expect to see from the Drake Maye offense?
- Predicting Maye's stat line vs. the Texans.