Phil Perry, Mike Giardi and Tom E. Curran discuss whether or not Patriots’ fans will see more of Drake Maye during their second preseason game vs. the Eagles.
FOXBORO -- Drake Maye had just finished up his first joint practice as a professional.
His final full-team period featured three of four plays ending in "sacks" with Eagles defenders arriving quickly in the Patriots backfield. He'd been sacked eight times total during the session, attempting just seven passes cleanly in those 11-on-11 settings.
Still, when asked about his assessment of the experience, he shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
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"I think it was fun," Maye said. "It was fun for the team to get to put on pads and hit another team. That's the best part about it, going against somebody else, suiting up in the same-colored jerseys and getting after it. The best thing about joint practice is you'll watch the film and learn from it. Lot of different looks."
The Eagles certainly gave both the first- and second-team Patriots offenses all they could handle Tuesday. Let's get to the nitty gritty details for both units in our Day 14 edition of The Drake Maye Report...
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The rep report
After a half-dozen 7-on-7 snaps for both quarterbacks, there was a massive number of 11-on-11 reps available to both Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye.
Brissett and the first-team offense got a whopping 45 competitive snaps, which was far and away their busiest day of camp. Maye, meanwhile, saw 26 competitive reps.
As has been the case throughout camp, the Patriots gave all first-team reps to Brissett. No surprise there.
The real takeaway when it comes to the volume for both passers? The workload split on Tuesday could set up Maye to handle the early portion of Thursday's preseason game after Brissett saw almost twice as much work in the joint practice.
Crunching the numbers
Let's start with Jacoby Brissett's day. He finished 10-for-20 in competitive periods, taking seven sacks and throwing two picks in the process. It was a rocky day for the entire unit.
Brissett's first dropback was a "sack" by young defensive tackle Jalen Carter. His next dropback could have very well been a sack, too, with Brandon Graham bearing down on him unimpeded as he rolled out for a bootleg throw.
Carter blew up a run a few plays later, and edge rusher Josh Sweat sacked Brissett on a stunt, working around the right side of the line with Chukwuma Okorafor and Mike Onwenu. Two plays later, Onwenu picked up a false start penalty.
Brissett began the day accurately, and his first pick of the day was actually one of his best throws of the practice, a back-shoulder toss to Austin Hooper in the back of the end zone. But it popped out of Hooper's hands and was picked -- the first of two drops for the veteran tight end in the practice.
Brissett found Hooper for a touchdown later, but he made attempts to Hooper and Tyquan Thornton midway through the practice that would've qualified as misses. The quarterback was later picked by rookie linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, who jumped a pass attempted for KJ Osborn.
Brissett's best period of the practice might've been the two-minute period. He got things going with completions to Hooper and Douglas. After absorbing a sack by Bryce Huff, he found Jalen Reagor deep down the sideline for a long catch-and-run to get the Patriots into Eagles territory. Brissett then flashed his high football IQ by snapping the football quickly and catching Philly in the middle of a substitution, drawing a flag on the defense and picking up a free five yards.
Another Huff sack, a Sweat pressure, a Hooper drop, and a Kelee Ringo pass breakup forced the drive to stall out inside the Philly 10-yard line.
On the positive end of things for the first-team offense, Hooper drew a pass-interference penalty on Ringo, and the run game showed some encouraging signs. Though they had four runs stuffed, they also appeared to pick up good gains on a "power" call with a pulling guard and an extra lineman (backup guard Michael Jordan) on the field. They also had what looked like a downhill "Duo" call, with double-teams at the line of scrimmage, that generated some space.
Rhamondre Stevenson also picked up a good gain on an inside run, scooting behind strong blocks from Sidy Sow and David Andrews. Okorafor helped spring a big run by tossing linebacker Zack Baun on first down at one point.
The Patriots appeared to go with more up-the-gut runs on Tuesday, and it'll be interesting to see how frequently they turn to the wide zone runs they tried to hone for much of the spring and into the early portion of training camp. But with the strength of their line being up the middle -- with Onwenu, Andrews and Sow leading the charge -- perhaps more of a downhill attack will suit their personnel more effectively.
As for Maye, he went 4-for-7 with eight sacks during competitive periods.
Play of the day
Maye's best play during 11-on-11 periods was not exactly highlight-reel worthy. But it did look like it was set up to hit for a good gain.
Throwing along the line of scrimmage as soon as he received the snap, Maye found fellow rookie Ja'Lynn Polk for a little wide receiver screen. Thanks to a nice block from Javon Baker, Polk looked set up to get a first down and then some.
The highlight throw of the day for the No. 3 overall pick, though, came in 7-on-7 work, where he continues to thrive. Launching deep down the right sideline to Baker, Maye found the fourth-round rookie for a diving catch near the boundary.
Baker should get credit for an excellent route. Baker got the Eagles defender on his back while still providing Maye plenty of room between himself and the sideline, allowing the pass to float away from the middle of the field while simultaneously keeping Baker in bounds.
The Patriots social media team caught the connection and included it in their montage from Tuesday's work here.
Why he's ready
In this section of The Drake Maye Report, we'll highlight the portions of the rookie's performance that suggest he's prepared to sit atop the hierarchy of quarterbacks in New England sooner rather than later.
A couple things worth mentioning here.
First, Maye completed his first nine competitive throws of the practice. Six of those came in a 7-on-7 setting -- no surprise since he's thrived in those periods throughout camp -- which raises the following question: Should the Patriots be getting him more work with the first-team offensive line in practice?
Maye hasn't been perfect in those 7-on-7 sessions, but he seems to consistently go from an accurate-enough and in-rhythm passer during those moments to someone who's a little less decisive when trying to find his receivers behind the second-team offensive line. If given the opportunity to play with better linemen who provide clean pockets more consistently, would his 11-on-11 periods look more like his 7-on-7 periods?
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Second, Maye's attitude has been praise-worthy over the course of camp.
Perhaps it's simply the expectation for a rookie at his position. But there have been plenty of practices during which (or after) he could have shown signs of frustration. Tuesday was no exception. But neither during the practice nor after with a microphone in his face did he exhibit any sign of annoyance that he couldn't consistently get a throw off without a Philly defender in his face.
That approach will serve him well as he works himself into a leadership role within the organization because he will inevitably run into situations -- whenever he's on the field for meaningful snaps -- where he's let down by his teammates, and he'll want to handle it as professionally as possible.
Seems as though he's already on his way in that regard.
Why patience is a virtue
In this section of The Drake Maye Report, we'll highlight the portions of the rookie's performance that suggest he's not quite ready to sit atop the quarterback depth chart.
Though the offensive line came under the microscope in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday's work, Maye will find things he can clean up when he goes back to watch the practice again.
On his first snap of 11-on-11 work, tight end Jaheim Bell shifted from the backfield to more of an end-of-the-line alignment. But Maye snapped the ball before Bell was set, leading to a penalty. That's a small detail that falls under the rookie quarterback's purview.
Maye also fumbled a snap from Atonio Mafi -- that center-to-quarterback exchange has been an issue all camp for a lineman not accustomed to playing center and a quarterback not accustomed to being under center -- and was sacked in a perplexing manner on the very next play.
With a linebacker stationed over the "A gap" -- between the center and guard -- Maye snapped the football and neither lineman closest to the blitzer picked him up. Maye wasn't hit, but Baun placed his hand on Maye's shoulder pad for the "sack," effectively ending the play before it really began.
Was that Maye's responsibility to sort out the protection? Was it the center's? Either way, it was the kind of blown-up rep that the Patriots would likely want to see all but eliminated before they hand the keys to the offense to the soon-to-be 22-year-old.
