The Venti-sized, made-to-order, steaming-hot meltdown in Seattle that Drake Maye and the Patriots served up in the NFL’s 2026 lid-lifter represented a regrettable missed opportunity. The same applies to New England’s missing-in-action preseason approach.
Maye and the other Patriots starters were sideline bystanders, seeing zero snaps in three preseason games. Hindsight is 20-20, but some prior in-game experience building a rapport with Romeo Doubs would’ve helped, no? Instead, coach Mike Vrabel went with a cold open for his A-listers, and they flubbed their lines in the fourth quarter of a 13-10 loss to the Seahawks in a Super Bowl rematch the Patriots largely controlled.
During the latter stages of the glory years, Bill Belichick espoused the attitude that the first four games of the regular season were an extension of the preseason — a lace-’em-up laboratory for trial-and-error tinkering. That led to some shaky starts, most notably a 2-2 panic in 2014. But the Vrabel-Maye Patriots can’t take those same liberties. They’re not advanced enough in Vrabel’s program, and they don’t have the luxury with a historically tough schedule out of the gate.
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According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Patriots are the first Super Bowl team to start the following season with four consecutive games against playoff teams from the previous year — Seattle, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, and Buffalo. A sluggish start could be the difference between a division title and settling for a wild-card slot, or a playoff DNQ.
“I think it’s Week 1, but at the same time there’s a full season ahead. But you’ve got to get this going early,” said Maye. “We’ve got to start off on the right foot. I know what we had last year, but we’ve got a new season, a new team, and we need to build that.”
The first game of the season is always a bit weird. We’ll allow for that. But in the fourth quarter, Maye looked every bit a quarterback who had not been asked to make split-second decisions with defenders allowed to touch him in seven months.
Patriots' Mike Vrabel, Drake Maye on interceptions and miscues in 13-10 loss to Seahawks
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The head coach and his third-year quarterback acknowledged New England's shortcomings in the season opener. (Photo by Danielle Parhizkaran/ Globe Staff, Video by Von Smith/Globe Staff)
Playing in a game for the first time since Super Bowl LX, he threw a career-high three interceptions, including Josh Jobe’s reverse Malcolm Butler with 21 seconds left that sealed the Patriots’ fate.
Maye staggered to the finish in the fourth, going 6 of 11 for 51 yards with three picks and three sacks for a 27.3 passer rating. (He was 23 of 33 for 178 yards and a score overall.) And the Patriots’ offense looked stuck in first gear the first three quarters.
Young Drake looked more mentally fatigued than physically, as his decision-making deteriorated under pressure and the strain of the constant calculations required by a quarterback in Josh McDaniels’s offense.
Maye is only in his third season and his second in the complex McDaniels offense. As potent and efficient as he was last season as the MVP runner-up, he’s still a franchise quarterback in training, not a finished product. Any snaps in a game environment, including preseason, remain a useful learning experience. He hasn’t graduated beyond that. He played 29 snaps last preseason for a reason.
Related: Shaughnessy: Football should be the last thing on Drake Maye’s mind for a couple of days
Preseason snaps also could’ve allowed Doubs to shake off the nerves and cobwebs in his first game as a Patriot. Those led to a stomach-churning drop that directly preceded Maye’s second pick, which set up the Seahawks’ go-ahead field goal.
Defensively, the Patriots played well overall, but you don’t tackle by any means necessary in joint practices. That felt like a contributing factor on Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s 45-yard catch-and-run TD jaunt.
It’s football funambulism for any NFL coach weighing how much to play his front-line players in the preseason.
Vrabel, now 2-6 in season openers, was asked Thursday if he still felt his approach to the preseason, relying on three joint practice sessions, was sufficient.
“I do. Playing the backups for the Eagles or the Colts for eight plays, I don’t think was going to prepare us for what we saw [Wednesday] night,” said Vrabel. “I thought we handled the environment. I know that the execution was not good enough, but the line-of-scrimmage penalties, the operation, those things gave us a chance, and some other things didn’t give us a chance.”
It’s not as cut and dried. Remember, Browns coach Todd Monken revealed his and Vrabel’s original plan was to play their starters in the final preseason game. But Monken said both coaches reconsidered because of injury and depth issues up front. So, Vrabel recognized the value in getting his starters some game snaps.
“I know that’s a difficult decision. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer. … We just wanted to try to get to the regular season with the guys that we had,” Vrabel said following the preseason finale.
Related: Romeo Doubs, without a catch and with a hand in Patriots’ collapse, says he’ll be better moving forward
Only to see star receiver and Vrabel favorite A.J. Brown felled by a high ankle sprain on an imprecise throw from Maye.
For the record, Seattle didn’t play its starters in the preseason, either. But the Seahawks boast more continuity than the Patriots, who are integrating 24 new players. The Seahawks returned 20 of 22 starters from the team that overwhelmed the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
Plus, backup quarterback Drew Lock, who stepped in for injured — I’m recoiling at having to write this descriptor — Super Bowl winner Sam Darnold, logged 55 preseason snaps.
The Patriots are still building and growing. They’re not in a position to skip steps or reps.
They should’ve gotten some game reps before they took to Lumen Field to help prevent a false start.