The New England Patriots appear to have something special in rookie quarterback Drake Maye.
Through his first six NFL starts, the third-overall draft pick has already made big plays both through the air and on the ground. But with Maye still in the early stage of his development, the Patriots have yet to utilize their young QB's skill set with designed run plays. All of Maye's 260 rushing yards to this point have come on scrambles.
Protecting Maye this season makes perfect sense, but adding designed QB runs to the playbook would add another dimension to the Patriots offense. Former Pats safety Devin McCourty joined Phil Perry on the latest episode of the Next Pats Podcast and discussed whether New England should experiment with designed runs for Maye.
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🔊 Next Pats Podcast: McCourty: Designed runs for Drake Maye will cause defenses PROBLEMS | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
"I think they're trying to balance, 'All right, how much do we put on this kid? How much do we run him?' I think they're trying to find that happy medium," McCourty said. "I do think personally, when you have quarterbacks who are physical runners, the red zone is the time to run them. We've seen that throughout the league, guys are running less. Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and those guys, they're trying to be smart. They get in the red zone, you can see those guys, their eyes get big. It's like, 'Hey, let's go score a touchdown.'
"You even see that with Jayden Daniels and he's not a big guy, but they understand when we get in the end zone, even if we do it a time or two for the whole season, it creates this whole other element."
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Perry asked McCourty whether putting designed runs on tape would put hesitation in the backs of minds of opposing defenders when going up against the Maye-led Pats offense.
"No doubt about it," McCourty answered. "I mean, think back to our 2020 year with Cam (Newton). When Cam got in there, the first few weeks we were killing teams. Quarterback runs, I think he had 22 carries against the Dolphins. And then teams were like, 'OK, we gotta gameplan for this.' ...
"There's no doubt it would open up some other things. But again, what we've seen from Drake has just been scrambles. I think they have to decide is he the designed quarterback guy? Is he -- like, I know people keep saying Josh Allen, and I've played against Josh Allen. Those are two totally different body types. We've all seen Josh Allen in-person field-level. You look at him, he's kind of a defensive end body type and even him, all you hear about is the wear and tear.
"So I think for New England right now, it's like, 'We've got this rookie quarterback, he's running a good amount when we drop back to pass.' I agree four times a game, one time a quarter wouldn't hurt him, but I don't know their exact thinking of, 'How do we make sure we set this guy up to continue to develop and make the right decisions?' And most importantly, 'How do we have him available on the field?'"
Also in the episode:
- What coaches around the league are saying about Drake Maye
- Breaking down Drake Maye's game-ending INT vs. Rams
- Why Christian Gonzalez wasn't matched up with Puka Nacua or Cooper Kupp
- What McCourty thinks of the job DeMarcus Covington has done as defensive coordinator