Some Patriots news and notes on this Wednesday:
Today kicks off the first of two joint practices between the Patriots and Vikings out in Minnesota, with the first one set for 1:00 pm ET.
The Vikings should be a good test for New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, with a defense that’s led by former coach Brian Flores.
Against Washington, Maye and the offense walked away from last week’s joint session looking like the better overall unit, with the second-year quarterback putting together a solid outing last Wednesday behind the practice fields at Gillette Stadium. Against the Vikings, the odds are pretty good Flores will likely put together some looks he’s yet to see, which is probably going to make things a little more challenging than he dealt with against the Commanders.
“I mean, we’re going to see a lot of different things,” said offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels earlier this week. “I think we’ve seen a lot from our defense here, which has been great work for us. But also, this is going to be a new… They’ll align in different spots. They’ll pressure us in different ways that maybe our defense hasn’t yet. It’s just great to go up there and get tested.”
One key question will definitely be how New England’s offensive line holds up in front of Maye, especially after what we saw Friday night. Both rookies, Will Campbell and Jared Wilson, played relatively well, but the one play where they got crossed up, which led to a strip sack, was something that certainly stood out.
The odds are probably good that Flores has seen that film, and head coach Mike Vrabel will also probably be looking for him to test his rookies again over these next couple of days. These are two critical working days for both sides, as each club tries to continue working out problems in a controlled setting ahead of the regular season.
Drake Maye
(PHOTO: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images)
For now, it’s up to McDaniels to continue guiding Maye and the offense through what has essentially been one of the first rough patches they’ve been through. But this is the time where these things need to start getting figured out, and with two days of work ahead, hopefully they’ll be two productive ones for this football team.
“What happens in these practices is you find out how well you know your rules because you can’t anticipate everything,” said McDaniels Monday. “I’m sure we’re going to learn a lot. There’s going to be some mistakes. There always is both ways when you have a joint practice. Hopefully, it’s similar to what we just experienced with Washington, which is a great day of work, hopefully, a couple of days up in Minnesota.”
Looking back at Friday night’s game, one thing that McDaniels noted was the two decisions Maye made where he took off with his legs on New England’s second series.
The first came on a 2nd-and-10 where Maye dropped back and the Commanders’ coverage created an opening in the center of the field, with the quarterback slipping through the middle of the line and taking off for 11 yards and then sliding for the first down.
The next came on a 3rd-and-goal from the five-yard line. Maye was in the shotgun, and he got good blocking on the right side, with Campbell blocking one-on-one on the left. Maye stepped up and saw the coverage pull the defensive backs to the right side of the field, and with nothing but green grass on the left side, Maye took off toward the pylon and scored.
His speed and athleticism are obviously key assets they haven’t really had at that position, and McDaniels talked about the stats Maye put up in 2024, which saw him run for 421 yards on 54 carries, including two touchdowns.
“I mean, we don’t have that. We haven’t talked about that,” said McDaniels about a limit on Maye’s runs. “But I think he had 400 and some yards rushing last year on no designed runs. I think the reality is those loose plays are hard to predict when they’re going to come up, you know? Like, the other night, we didn’t call a pass play for him to scramble for a first down, but he did, and it was a good play. I think he just has to understand when there’s nothing there and he has an opening, what to do with the ball.”
With that in mind, one concern is that Maye took a couple of shots in 2024, one of which knocked him out of the game with a concussion back in Week 8, forcing Jacoby Brissett to come in and finish the game. While McDaniels said when it comes to Maye running the ball they haven’t necessarily put a limit of how many times he can run, but the goal is to put in plays where he can possibly make a play while also emphasizing being smart when he does run the ball.
“I think he’s really improving in that area, and understanding his value to the team is when he’s healthy,” said McDaniels. “I think that’s what we’re all talking about. Players that have the ability to do both, they have to be smart about it because when Coach Vrabel always says, ‘We’re going to protect the team.’ You know what I mean? Whether that you play running back and you protect the ball, or you make a great decision off the field, or you’re the quarterback and you scramble and you decide to slide, all of those things are protecting the team. I think Drake is definitively looking to try to do that every time he has the ball in his hands.”
Ben Woolridge
(PHOTO: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images)
While Maye did lead a scoring drive on what ended up being the final series for the starting offense, the discussion locally has continued when it comes to Maye’s turnover.
Coming off the fumbles he had as a rookie as he tried, at times, to do too much, there are already a fair number of people who are concerned that Maye “isn’t the guy,” and a significant number of them seem split on the quarterback already heading into his second season. Those flames were stoked even further locally on-air, with that storyline being the topic of discussion to begin the week.
The turnover happened after both Campbell and Wilson got crossed up on a twist, which allowed the tackle to slip through and wrap up Maye’s right leg. Rather than going down, Maye tried to get the ball off and lost his grip on the football, and the Commanders ended up recovering the fumble.
That’s a play that during the regular season can be critical. It was also something that we saw a few times during his rookie season. Tony Massarrotti talked about Maye on Monday, noting that even when he takes off running, he still appears like he’s fighting with himself to get down.
“That’s a horrendous play,” said Massarrotti. “The stupidity will undermine everything else he can do. That’s the part that he has to awaken to. The stupidity will undermine everything.”
“I’ll be honest, and I’m nitpicking, let me admit that I’m nitpicking. On the first one, I thought he went down just a half a beat too late. He wanted to start going down, and then changed direction either because his stride wasn’t right or something, or he thought he could pick up another yard. But if you watch him, he looks like he’s about to go down, and then takes another sort of jab step to his left, and I thought that was a mistake.”
“I thought, ‘When you go down, go down. Don’t try to squeak out another half yard. Get your a** on the ground.’ So to me, there was a little bit of hesitation there. It’s almost like he had to remind himself to get down. So I don’t think it’s instinctive for yet for him.”
Drake Maye
(PHOTO: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images)
Most are likely hoping to avoid a repeat of what we saw from Mac Jones in his second year where he started off with five interceptions over their first three games, and then followed that up by throwing six more in his first five games the following season in 2023.
The difference with Maye is that the two are entirely different players. Like Jones’ final season, the Patriots had issues up front along the offensive line again in 2024 and not a lot of weapons around him, both of which the club has been slowly able to start addressing over the last two offseasons.
So far, things look better up front, and Maye has better protection than a year ago, and significantly better coaching. With both Vrabel and McDaniels in his corner, there’s no need to put everything on his shoulders week in and week out, and both are doing a better job of helping him navigate through those rough spots, while also emphasizing that plays like what happened Friday night aren’t necessary.
McDaniels said these are things Maye is still learning, and it’s his job to help the second-year QB continue figuring things out.
“I think he’s still learning all of those things. He’s like… He’s such a gifted athlete,” said McDaniels. “I think a lot of guys that play this position that have ability to throw it, but also to move and make plays with their legs and extend plays, they have to find that line themselves, honestly.”
“We can tell them all we want, ‘Don’t make a bad play.’ You know what I mean? I’m going to be the first one in the end zone when he extends a play. We all saw the one to Pop [Douglas] early in training camp. If I was telling him to throw that away, I’d have been pissed at myself.”
Vrabel echoed those sentiments on Monday as well.
“You look at the preseason practices and even against Washington, if it could, ‘well, maybe that was a sack or we’re scrambling, we extend outside the pocket,’” explained Vrabel during an appearance on WEEI on Monday. “And now there’s no… The stove isn’t hot, you don’t have to touch it. And I think in the game, we’re able to see those things. And that’s why we have preseason games, and we get those actions and understand that when you say, ‘Hey, I’m just trying to make a play,’ sometimes we can’t try to make plays because they become bad ones.”
“And so I think he’ll learn from it and understand, ‘Okay, I’m not going to be able to play Superman all the time, and I can reserve the right to punt and help this football team, and we’ll flip the field and play defense and get another crack at it.’”
Drake Maye
(PHOTO: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images)
Maye also acknowledged Monday that there’s a fine line between making a play and being smart, and that what happened Friday night needs to be buttoned up.
“I think it’s definitely got to balance when to extend plays and try to make plays with my feet or make plays on the run,” said Maye. “But at the end of the day, ball security and protecting the football is the number one thing.”
The Patriots made another transaction Tuesday, waiving newly signed running back Deneric Prince with an injury designation.
He was replaced by Fort Hays State University running back Shane Watts, who is an interesting player. Watts previously played defensive back but converted to running back as a Junior, and he certainly flourished.
Watts finished his junior season leading the team in rushing with 676 yards on 111 carries, before breaking out his senior year with 223 carries for 1,303 yards, while averaging 118.5 yards per game.
According to the transaction wire, he visited with the team on Monday prior to his signing.
The Patriots have had a rough go of things so far this preseason at running back, having lost both Brock Lampe and Lan Larison to injuries. Larison is disappointing because he had a nice showing Friday night, catching 2 passes for nine yards, as well as rushing 7 times for 35 yards, including a touchdown.
Unfortunately, according to the Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard, Lampe apparently suffered a broken foot. Watching it back, the injury may have happened on his touchdown run as he appeared to be hobbling slightly as he came off the field.
Meanwhile, there are no Thursday night games on the NFL’s preseason slate this week, which feels a little unusual. Instead, there are two Friday night games (Titans at Falcons at 7pm ET, Chiefs at Seahawks at 10 pm ET), with the majority of match-ups happening on Saturday. The Patriots are one of five games taking place at 1:00pm ET, followed by four games at 7:00 pm ET, along with one at 9:30 pm ET (Cardinals at Broncos).
From there, there are two games happening on Sunday. The first is at 1:00 pm ET (Jaguars at Saints), followed by a game at 8:00 pm ET as the Bills visit the Bears. There’s then a Monday night game as the Bengals visit the Commanders at 8:00 pm ET.
About Ian Logue
Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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Tags: Drake Maye Josh McDaniels Mike Vrabel Minnesota Vikings New England Patriots
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