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Maye and O-line concerns

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He needs WRs who can get open very quickly. He does not yet have that yet. Maye did his best yesterday. I don't fault him that he chose to trust his left tackle to push a rusher back a mere one feet!.
I think more than. Anything he needs to have two clocks .. one a speedier one when he knows his left side doesn't have much help so that he can push the ball out in 2.5 seconds . He can't assume that it will always be 3 seconds or more. Stafford changes pass options when he knows a blitz is coming so maybe needs to employ similar ones wif he knows left side Campbell is on island .
 
Bunch of turnovers over the past two weeks. What needs to happen to cut down on these turnovers?

I think first we need to give Will Campbell more help because he just can’t do much against any pass rushers. He is a rookie and we probably need a TE next to him or a RB to help him.

Next, Maye needs to protect the ball better. Fumbles galore. He will need to have better pocket awareness especially when he feels that the rush is coming.

Protecting the ball is a must. Today we got bailed by the defense.

Yep.

Not that the defense doesn't have its own issues, but...

We have a Left Guard problem;

We have an offensive Line depth problem;

We have a short-armed southern Left Tackle who can no longer be left on an island for however long the POs last;

And we have a small-handed southern QB whose play has regressed once the POs began...

Yet somehow we find ourselves in the AFCCG, on the road but in it nonetheless. Thanks for spreading those legs, Lady Luck!
 
The whole time he kept fumbling, I kept thinking how that would not happen to Tom Brady. Brady throws it away, takes a sack, or gets rid of it quicker.

Maye could become much better at it though. Pocket awareness/not fumbling takes time .
 
Take the good with the bad.

We played a pretty good defense that doesn't allow you to run or throw short safe passes.

The only way to beat them is with long developing routes that take time. That's how the Patriots won today. Throwing the ball downfield. Maye is the only QB to throw 3 TDs against the Texans, and he did it without throwing an Interception during the normal course of play.

The fumbles are what happens when you hold the ball for 3+ seconds while you're looking for the big hit.

2 of those fumbles were not like the other 2 however. One was a busted play by Treveyon when Maye ran it and the other was a complete whiff by Campbell which occurred in 2 seconds.
That busted play where Maye ran it into the pile, he only had one hand on the ball. He needs to sit down with Stevenson, who seems to have fixed his fumbling problem, to get some tips on how to protect the ball.
 
The whole time he kept fumbling, I kept thinking how that would not happen to Tom Brady. Brady throws it away, takes a sack, or gets rid of it quicker.

Maye could become much better at it though. Pocket awareness/not fumbling takes time .
Brady did not demonstrate this capability in his second year on the team.
Apples to Oranges.
 
The whole time he kept fumbling, I kept thinking how that would not happen to Tom Brady. Brady throws it away, takes a sack, or gets rid of it quicker.

Maye could become much better at it though. Pocket awareness/not fumbling takes time .
He very famously did NOT at a key point in the playoffs his second year.

The last Super Bowl vs the Eagles also ended when he let the ball be punched out.

He wasn't perfect.
 
Brady did not demonstrate this capability in his second year on the team.
Apples to Oranges.
Are there any games that stand out where he fumbled alot?
 
Diggs is by far the best WR for getting open quickly in small spaces. He's used more in the middle of the field. But that could easily change if Hollins comes back.
 
Are there any games that stand out where he fumbled alot?
That would a heck of a research project. I don't even recall games where he was under the pressure that Maye was under these last couple of weeks.
 
Campbell need to play better its that simple.
 
Campbell looked like shot the last two games. That’s the entire story.

As for WHY…

It could be lingering injury.

It could also be what a LOT of much more experienced evaluators than any of us said pre draft- that he’s an all pro left guard who currently plays left tackle.

We’ll know what Vrabes thinks in the offseason.
 
Some of the pressures were on Campbell, some were on Maye not knowing when his tackles had no help in chip blocking, some of that was on Tre Henderson not being a particularly good pass blocker and Rhamondre being on the bench with a poked eye, some of that was on Josh McDaniels for not calling a smarter game.

It wasn’t just Campbell sucking.

The Texans edge players are as good as you get. Drake needs to protect the ball better, he needs to get the ball out faster. He hasn’t played with playoff urgency or particularly well, and Josh probably hasn’t done enough to account for Drake’s youth and inexperience. You can’t hold the ball for five seconds, especially with only five blockers… this is the playoffs.
 
It was a different game by far compared to the week prior.
Mayes got of the pocket quicker and ran vs the Chargers. This game he stayed in the pocket way to long and really didn't move round all that much when the pocket collapsed.
Henry was targetted 5 times v the Chargers, just twice this past weekend. I can understand using HH as a blocker but dude gets some serious YAC that can't be ignored.
 
He very famously did NOT at a key point in the playoffs his second year.

The last Super Bowl vs the Eagles also ended when he let the ball be punched out.

He wasn't perfect.
Brady got greedy. Shoulda passed to White instead of the bomb to Gronk.
 
I am concerned
 
That would a heck of a research project. I don't even recall games where he was under the pressure that Maye was under these last couple of weeks.
According to the google Brady had 4 fumbles 12/05/2004 vs the Browns.
 
The whole time he kept fumbling, I kept thinking how that would not happen to Tom Brady. Brady throws it away, takes a sack, or gets rid of it quicker.

Maye could become much better at it though. Pocket awareness/not fumbling takes time .
Sure later in his career, but I am pretty sure that in Brady's 1st 3 years he had double digit fumbles. Maye will improve with experience, hopefully. I feel like he is too good not to improve his pocket awareness/internal clock
 
I think that these two games have really skewed the perception that Drake's fumbling issues are something out of the ordinary, so let's compare him to his contemporaries and some legends in their first two seasons. For reference, Drake had 9 fumbles last year, and 8 this year, which is 8.5 career average so far.

Brady's first two seasons: 12, 11 and for good measure, let's add his third season, 13 fumbles. His career average is 6.4 per year, so obviously he improved drastically, the more experienced he was. But, and i have to underline this, Brady did not have eyes on the back of his head at the beginning of his career, he had more fumbles than Drake in their first two seasons, and he was even worse his third season. He improved his inner clock and his pocket awareness the more experienced he got, it wasn't second nature.

Aaron Rodgers first two seasons: 10 and 10
Josh Allen: 8 and 14, 13 in 2022. Career average 8.9 per year
Lamar Jackson: 12 and 9. Career average of 8.75 per year

The biggest problem with Drake's play, has nothing to do with his performance but the impossible weight of expectations. We're not comparing him with Brady years 1-2, we're comparing him with prime Brady, and expecting the poise, and presence of a 10-year vet at age 23.

Brady didn't have more than 28 TD's until his seventh year as a starter. He didn't have fewer than 12 interceptions until his seventh year as a starter. He fumbled more than 10 times, in four of his first six seasons. Drake's stats in his second year were 31 TD's, 8 int's, and he has yet to have double digit fumbles in a season.

My point isn't to make some preposterous statement that Drake is better, but to show that Drake's jump in year two has been so high, that you can compare him with the undisputed GOAT and he would not be worse for it. But even accounting for that jump, people are still putting IMPOSSIBLE expectations that not only should he have had the jump, but he also must have the poise and sixth sense in the pocket as if he has played for 10 years. As the stats show, both Allen and Lamar fumble more, so we're not even comparing Drake to the best of his contemporaries but prime Brady.

Let's all take a breath (i'm also very guilty of what i wrote above), and remind ourselves that Drake is 23-years old, he's still playing in his second year, and in his second year he will probably be the runner-up for MVP, and he's leading the team to the Super Bowl. Just imagine someone saying to you at the start of training camp that the only thing standing between MVP-caliber Drake Maye and the Super Bowl would be one game against Stidham's Broncos, who hasn't played a game in three years. Not a single person would believe it. Let's be appreciative of what we have, fellas.
 
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