FOXBORO — Honey, look.
It’s another Drake Maye column. Whoop de doo.
Except this time, I’ll skip the adoring praise, the advanced stats and flowery prose, and get straight to a simple question.
Can the Patriots, for the love of the football gods, help him?
Last weekend, the Dolphins partied in the backfield like it was 1972 and pressured him on more than half of his dropbacks. But Maye out-grooved them all, lobbed two touchdown passes and escaped with a win. You knew it then: we had seen this movie before.
It’s a superhero flick, where Maye rescues the Patriots and tilts his smiling head in an aw-shucks post-game press conference recapping how he saved the day. Maye might swoop down again as soon as Sunday, when the Pats will again be perilously thin at a few positions, yet are nonetheless favored over the Packers by 2.5 points. Then again, that alone might indicate victory is nigh.
Already in Year 3, Maye has proven he wins the games he should. Since the start of last season, the Patriots are 17-1 as favorites, and that one defeat — a season-opening loss to the Raiders two Septembers ago — was perhaps the last time we questioned Maye’s ability to carry a team.
Now, the Pats can continue to live like this, clinging to Maye and content to soar as far as he takes them. But they shouldn’t. Neither should Maye.
It’s too much to ask over the long-term. And, mark my words, it will be Sunday against Green Bay.
Granted, the Packers are playing similarly right now through Jordan Love at 5-3. Love has overcome his own porous offensive line and stuck-in-neutral run game to win four of his last five games. But unlike Maye, Love is throwing to two receivers tracking for 1,000-yard seasons. He’s backed by a defense playing like a top-5 unit since the start of October. And Love’s got a contract that compensates him like a franchise quarterback whose workplace hazards include occasionally playing Atlas for the organization.
Maye does not. He’s not even eligible for an extension until January, though his contract does account for one of the Patriots’ 10 highest cap hits this year. These are the players who round out that top 10: Milton Williams, Carlton Davis, Christian Barmore, Robert Spillane, Christian Gonzalez, Hunter Henry, Morgan Moses and Kevin Byard.
You know what else those players have in common?
Underachievement.
Some have underperformed by smaller margins, like Byard, Williams and Spillane. Williams has seen more double-teams from opposing offensive lines, but is barely averaging two pressures per game. He has one sack. Byard just nabbed his first interception of the season and has allowed multiple touchdowns in coverage. Spillane’s tackling has tightened up lately, but his playmaking (fumbles, interceptions, sacks and TFLs) lags well behind the pace he set last year.
Other players, like Henry, have played to expectations, if not surpassed them.
But Barmore? Davis? If you want to know why they’re reportedly available ahead of next week’s trade deadline, start there. Offloading Davis would create $9.1 million in cap room and $6.6 million if they part with Barmore, according to Spotrac. Barmore has been wildly inconsistent and disappointing.
New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel watches his team at practice Tuesday. Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald
Even if the case for trading Davis is much weaker than dealing Barmore, to the point it almost feels nonsensical, the veteran corner is not living up to his contract. He has one pass breakup in four games. He’s allowed nine catches on 10 targets in man-to-man coverage. On Wednesday, his head coach declined to assess his performance compared to last year.
“I think midway through the season is not the time for me to give a state of the union (address) on each player. I could tell you — again, I love (Davis’) toughness, his ability and the way he competes. But defensively,” Mike Vrabel said, “we have to improve.”
That goes for Gonzalez, too. His massive extension was a massive headache right up until it got done two months ago. Last weekend, Gonzalez allowed three catches against an FCS-level passing attack in Miami. Davis allowed more than that.
So, when will one of the NFL’s best cornerback duos start playing like it? Until Sunday, the answer to that was understandable: when they’re both on the field at the same time, which thus far has been rare. Well, so is Gonzalez’s ball disruption.
Since the season opener at Seattle, the highest-paid cornerback in football has three pass breakups in five games. He’s also nabbed a single interception since the start of last year. That’s one pick in 24 games. And counting …
Meanwhile, Moses is hobbled by a foot injury. He left the Patriots’ last home game in a walking boot, then played four days later at Chicago and last weekend in Miami. A tough guy’s tough guy.
The problem is Moses’ run-blocking is not nearly as bruising nor impactful as last year. And when his pass-blocking cracks against the league’s better edge rushers, with losses at Jacksonville and Chicago being prime examples, Maye suffers. The Patriots know and expect defenses to beat up their backup guards. But Moses, too?
The Patriots need him, Williams, Gonzalez and Davis to all show up specifically against Green Bay.
The Packers’ offensive line is a wounded mess. It ranks dead last by run-blocking and pass-blocking grades at Pro Football Focus and ESPN’s pass-block win rate. That’s green and gold blood in the water, Milton.
In coverage, Love is a big-game hunter. He will take any and every deep shot available, even when the coaches have told him not to. Green Bay’s No. 1 receiver, Christian Watson, is the type of tall, explosive target Gonzalez is built to shadow and erase downfield.
Do it, Christian. Be the corner you’re paid to be.
Still, as talented as the Packers are, they will put up points somehow, some way. That means Maye needs time to do the same. Morgan, it’s time to part that Green Bay defense.
The Patriots’ schedule is such that the days when they can win without returns from their biggest investments are over. Now, the Packers march toward Foxboro for what Byard said Wednesday will be something close to a measuring-stick game.
Agreed.
Not for the Patriots as a team.
Only the players they’re paying to deliver in games just like this.