Can Drake Maye play his way into a quarterback competition?
Drake Maye has shown improvement in recent practices at New England Patriots training camp, but he’ still’s still not in a competition for the starting quarterback job. What can he do to get there?
Drake Maye is not in a competition with Jacoby Brissett … yet.
The third overall pick in the 2024 draft is still only 21 years old, and has had to learn how to run an NFL offense from the ground up, from huddling to calling plays at the line of scrimmage to dropping back properly from under center. Fortunately, those have felt less and less like issues at practice with each passing day.
But it won’t be until Maye can do those basic things cleanly and consistently that he’ll get a chance to start ahead of Brissett. Based on practice reps at training camp, he’s still not there. Maye has repped exclusively with the backup offensive line and mostly backup pass-catchers, while Brissett has gotten 100% of the workload with the projected starters on the line and most of the starting receivers.
MORE- Mayewatch: Signs of progress and room for improvement for Drake Maye
That hasn’t been just because Brissett is a veteran with tenure in the league and Maye is just a rookie. Pre-snap miscues have been much more prevalent with Maye in the huddle than Brissett. Maye does feel good about his progress in those pre-snap areas, and has cut down on those mistakes in recent days.
“A lot of times it’s us commanding the offense, it’s us versus the defense, basically, us making decisions,” Maye said last Friday. “I think the biggest thing is handling what our defense does. It’s great in practice getting all these looks, and just listening to coaching and listening in meetings and trying to do it on the field.”
On Tuesday, Maye was well on his way to definitively having a better practice than Brissett for the first time all summer, despite continuing to play with backups. He particularly shined in the 7-on-7 red zone period, going 2-of-4 with two touchdowns and no inaccurate throws, compared to 1-of-3 with a touchdown and two overthrows for Brissett. One of Maye’s two incompletions in this period was a pass breakup. The other, a potential corner fade touchdown to tight end Jaheim Bell, was on the money, but incomplete because Bell had only one foot in bounds.
Maye has looked less comfortable in 11-on-11 than in 7-on-7, but has looked more comfortable in the pocket overall in recent days. He later outperformed Brissett in an 11-on-11 game simulation starting from the 40-yard line, going 4-of-5, including four straight completions. His one incomplete pass was a throwaway after escaping the pocket, which alone was a sign of progress after Maye had thrown it away from inside the pocket twice in previous practices, borderline intentional grounding penalties.
Brissett, meanwhile, went 4-of-6 with a low incomplete throw and a miscommunication with running back JaMycal Hasty. At this point in Tuesday’s practice, Maye had the checkmark in the quarterback comparison.
It was in a late 11-on-11 one-minute drill that Maye took a step back, and the QBs became closer to even. On one play, Maye appeared to fail to get the play off before the clock ran out, which would’ve been delay of game in a real setting. Center Atonio Mafi had a bad snap on the same play.
Maye went 0-of-4 passing with an interception in this period. The pick was ill-advised, as he tried to target a well-covered Javon Baker in a tiny window. But despite that, two of his incompletions went right off the receivers’ hands (Baker and JuJu Smith-Schuster), and another was intended for tight end Mitchell Wilcox but broken up by safety Dell Pettus.
The whistled play and the interception were indicators that Maye still has work to do in terms of his overall command of the offense and decision-making from the pocket. And it could explain why Maye has yet to see any reps with the starting offensive line and receivers.
MORE: How Drake Maye has handled his first up-and-down week in the NFL
So, what can Maye do in order to get those much-sought starter reps in practice? It will start with how he works in and out of the huddle. He certainly can’t be late with the play clock, and he has to be in sync with his center, even if it is Mafi, who has struggled with erratic snapping throughout camp. If he is to be the Patriots’ new franchise quarterback, he needs to make up for shortcomings and elevate the players around him. A lack of surrounding talent can’t be an excuse, and the cleaner operation of the starting offense is a sign that the opportunity is there for Maye to match Brissett in that department.
Once the ball is snapped, Maye needs to show he can be crisp with his decision-making. He’s shown signs of improvement, but the interception on Tuesday indicated that there are still kinks to work out in his game.
Thursday night’s preseason opener against the Carolina Panthers will be Maye’s first chance to prove he deserves the opportunity to rep with the starters at some point this month. The play-calling will be simple and the Panthers won’t have a specific gameplan, so in theory, if Maye is worthy of a competition, he should have an easy time operating the offense.
WATCH: Drake Maye getting comfortable at Patriots training camp
If he doesn’t, then it would be surprising if Maye got any reps with the projected starters next week, when the Philadelphia Eagles come to Foxboro for a joint practice and a preseason game.
But based on the most recent practice, Maye narrowed the gap between himself and Brissett, if only slightly. It’s up to him to continue in that positive direction.
Matt Dolloff is a writer and digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read all of his articles here.
