Drake Maye stock rising after 2 positive days at camp
On Friday’s Felger & Mazz program, Andrew Callahan and Alex Barth gave their thoughts on the developmental progress of quarterback Drake Maye.
Drake Maye Narrative Changing
Parts of conversation abbreviated for clarity.
Matt McCarthy: Is the narrative shifting a little bit with Drake Maye? I mean, let’s be honest, the early reports on him were not good.
But you guys are the ones down there. What’s the deal right now?
Andrew Callahan: Just like any day, there’s an ebb and flow, right? That’s just the natural progression of camp. Like Day 8 is going to look much better for the offense and certainly for Drake Maye when you have three down days before today.
Nothing has been disastrous. He wasn’t worse than Joe Milton. He’s not a guy that you look at and start freaking out. It’s only the first week of camp. But yeah, the narrative has changed a little bit because he’s played better. And that’s to be expected.
Alex Barth: I think a part of that is new things are being introduced. I thought he started well in the first few practices. Then the pads came on and he dipped down for a couple of days before now correcting it. He’s got his legs back under him.
But new things are being introduced and they’re expanding the playbook. The padded practices working on red zone and third down situations aren’t easy. There’s going to be growing pains because all of this is new to him.
McCarthy: The report today is a good day for the Patriots offense. How much of that is Drake Maye? How much of that is Jacoby Brissett? Has Maye closed the gap on Brissett at all in the past two practices?
Barth: No, because Brissett has still been good. Like he’s been the big surprise at camp for me. He had a couple of throws today that got audible wows. The big one was a corner route to K.J. Osborn in red zone drills.
The other thing is Pop Douglas is getting back on the field and he was electric today. He started camp dealing with a hand injury. He’s still a little limited and wearing that red non-contact jersey. But you could see today it was clear when he’s on the field, there’s another dynamic there. There’s another something there for these quarterbacks to attack. Brissett called him an offensive weapon after practice today.
Callahan: It’s amazing what happens, McCarthy when you have a receiver who can uncover immediately, win over the middle of the field, and beat man coverage. Pop Douglas might be the only receiver on this team who can do all three of those things.
I don’t think it’s an accident the last two days have been better for Drake Maye. His best receiver is now on the field.
As far as the gap between Maye and Brissett, I still think it’s grown a little bit from the start of camp. Brissett did have a head start. He’s taken all the first-team reps, so it might have closed over the last two days, but not in a significant way.
In other words, my headline later today at the Herald won’t be “Drake Maye closes the gap. Is he getting closer to starting?”
Segment Audio
Ryan Beaton is a producer for 985thesportshub.com. You can follow Ryan at @ry_beaton on Twitter.
Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!
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