Thursday marked a step in the right direction for the New England Patriots offense, specifically quarterbacks Drake Maye and Jacoby Brissett.
While Brissett has stood out as the clear-cut starting QB, Maye has experienced growing pains early in camp. On Day 7, however, the rookie made noteworthy progress.
Our Phil Perry and Tom E. Curran attended the practice on the fields behind Gillette Stadium and shared their observations of the QBs on the latest episode of the Patriots Talk Podcast.
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"I would say the highlight of the day from any of the quarterbacks was not one specific competition," Perry said. "But I have a stretch here of six Drake Maye throws where five of those six, including four consecutively, would be considered among his best maybe eight or nine throws of camp. ...
"The stretch didn't bowl people over because it was spread out over three different periods of practice, so this occurred over a long period of time. ... I'm gonna give him credit for a pretty good practice here. Better than what we've seen. An improvement for Drake Maye."
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Curran agreed with Perry's assessment of Maye and highlighted a memorable moment of practice for Brissett.
"What stood out to me was three different things," Curran said. "One, we saw Drake Maye, despite some ups and downs in the last week, still has the confidence to make that no-look throw in the red zone, so that doesn't mean he's running around scared of his own shadow, which is something we saw with the previous quarterback. ...
"What I liked about Jacoby Brissett was, we had a play in the red zone coming right at us, I was basically in the back right corner, and Brissett had to move a little bit and he saw Tyquan Thornton uncovered, and he threw an absolute friggin laser. ... That thing had to be going 65 (miles per hour). It was just an absolute dart. I looked at (ESPN's) Mike Reiss and said, 'He's got more than enough arm to be a successful quarterback for the Patriots this year.'"
Also in the episode:
- How has Jerod Mayo handled the Matthew Judon situation?
- Will Bill Belichick stick with a career in media instead of a coaching return?