FOXBORO — Inside the Patriots’ quarterbacks room late Tuesday, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels rewound the tape and hit play.
Drake Maye was on the screen hurrying to the line in his red practice jersey, barking at 10 offensive teammates to do the same. They settled into formation around him. Time for a play.
But first, Maye stopped and scanned the defense across from him. He barked some more. This was the play-call, a decision he had made based on his survey of the defense, his evaluation of the matchups that had formed and the best options at his disposal. Everything, all at once, up to him.
As for McDaniels and the other coaches, they stood on the sideline silent. The ball snapped, Maye completed a pass and hurried back to the line.
In yet another example of football revealing itself to be a cyclical game, Maye has occasionally been tasked with calling his own plays in practice. The coaches have challenged Maye to diagnose defenses at breakneck speed, something all the best quarterbacks do and have done dating back to the times all of them called their own plays. After practice in position meetings, McDaniels and Patriots quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant then assessed what Maye saw, the quality of his play-call and his execution.
So far, so good.
“I think he did a good job,” Grant said of Tuesday’s practice.
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, top, signals at the line of scrimmage during the first half of an NFL divisional playoff game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Foxboro. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, top, signals at the line of scrimmage during the first half of an NFL divisional playoff game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Foxboro. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A year ago, the Patriots’ plan to spring Maye for a Year 2 leap was built around three tenets: footwork, ball security as he transferred up in the pocket and leadership. Maye, a first-time captain last season, aced all three. Now, life is less about growth and more about mastery.
The Patriots want Maye to eventually command Josh McDaniels’ offense the way Tom Brady once did.
“It seemed as if anything a defense presented to (Brady), he had the answer at the tip of his tongue,” Grant said Wednesday. “It didn’t seem like there was a lot of confusion or hesitation. He would call the play, break the huddle, see what the defense was presenting. And if it was something he liked, he put his foot on the gas and snapped the ball. And if it was something he didn’t (like), he changed it and usually got to a good answer.”
Providing answers means Maye must control everything at the line of scrimmage, from cadence to changes in protection, routes and even entire play-calls. And the sooner, the better.
The driving principle of McDaniels’ passing offense is to seize on the elemental fact there is no perfect defense. Therefore, if read correctly, any coverage can be exploited by calling a concept that attacks its weakness. This explains why the Patriots’ offense is known both for its volume of plays and the minute nuances of said plays, including option routes that sometimes demand receivers change the depth of their routes mid-play by inches based on their read of a defense.
Basically, if they do this, you do that, and vice versa.
To ensure Maye can sift through the modern disguises foisted upon quarterbacks, including those that thwarted him in the Super Bowl, the Patriots have given him “new tools,” Grant said. Some are new, others are old, buried in the McDaniels’ system under all the basics Maye had to first master last year; tools Brady used more than a decade ago.
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye throws a pass during OTAs at Gillette Stadium. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye throws a pass during OTAs at Gillette Stadium. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Grant gave an example of the quarterbacks recently studying game tape of a game Brady played against a Rex Ryan-coached defense, one of the most complex defenses of that era. After struggling early in their head-to-head matchups, including an infamous loss in the 2010 divisional-round playoffs, Brady eventually finished 12-4 in his career against Ryan-led teams.
The hope is the deeper Maye’s understanding of defenses becomes and the stronger his grasp of the offense gets, the firmer his grip will be on every game.
“There were some examples last year of (Maye) changing protections or signaling routes, but I think he was just putting his toe in the water,” Grant said. “But I think this year there’s going to be a lot more reasons as to why he’s getting to things. It’s not going to just be an arbitrary thing. It’s going to be very purposeful, intentional, and I think he has a better understanding of the defense and what they’re showing him and what answers that he can get to.”
But if Maye is fooled, the entire operation is at risk. Then it will be incumbent upon him to abort the play with minimum damage, even if he might be tempted to turn the next few seconds into backyard football. This is also part of Maye’s schooling entering Year 3.
“I think one thing is just making the right decision in the first few seconds I have the ball in my hand,” Maye said Wednesday. “Making the right decision, knowing sometimes incompletions are the best plays, not trying to hold the ball too long and get out of the habit of really trying to extend plays just because I feel like I haven’t extended a play in a while.”
McDaniels went so far this week as to say the worst thing for an offense is a negative play, be it a tackle for loss, sack or turnover.
“They put you in bad situations, and we saw that last year,” he said. “When that happens to us, it’s hard to overcome those things. I don’t care who you are. We’re trying to do what we can at each position, not just at quarterback, but certainly he has a say in all of those.”
In his final season with the Patriots, avoiding negative plays was one of Brady’s greatest strengths. As his weapons blunted over the course of the 2019 season, Brady fired 46 throwaways, according to Pro Football Focus, by far the most he ever threw in a single season over his illustrious career. That discipline, to avoid sacks and not risk interceptions, allowed the Pats to at least stay in neutral offensively and lean on their defense while a hobbled Julian Edelman offered Brady his only legitimate outlet during a wild-card campaign.
Brady’s sack percentage finished at 4.22% that season, less than half of Maye’s 8.72% a year ago. Meaning, on virtually one of every 11 dropbacks, Maye went down. The Patriots, of course, made the Super Bowl, anyway.
But inspired by their beatdown at the hands of the Seahawks, the Pats added firepower in free agency with Romeo Doubs and bolstered Maye’s protection by signing Alijah Vera-Tucker. Then came the drafting of Caleb Lomu and the A.J. Brown trade. Questions about whether Maye has a strong enough supporting cast have faded, replaced by questions of how well the Patriots will use their new weapons.
According to Vrabel, the Pats have yet to re-write parts of their playbook to leverage the extra attention Brown will command as a true No. 1 receiver. But it’s coming.
“There are so many different formations, personnel groups. I think we have to get that down first before we start going on to adjustments and ‘What are we going to do?’ Vrabel said. “But that will all be part of it.”
Once the ink is dry on those new plays, it’s on Maye to bring them to life. And the old tools. And all the Patriots’ hopes and dreams together once he steps to the line, over and over again.
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is sacked by Seattle Seahawks' Derick Hall during the first half of Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is sacked by Seattle Seahawks' Derick Hall during the first half of Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Quote of the Week
“Before I go, I probably won’t speak with you all again for a while. From June 19 to 27, Massachusetts is sending 95 Special Olympians, coaches and staff members to Minnesota for the games. We’d appreciate any support you can show them. The athletes and coaches put so much time and effort into an amazing cause. A lot of you saw the flag football game on the field when we practiced against the Vikings last year, but now we’ll have 95 athletes, coaches and staff will be up there for some time in June, and anything we can do to support and encourage them would mean a lot.” — Patriots coach Mike Vrabel