2. I want to see Drake become a better ball handler. I would like him to improve his ball fakes on play action passes especially. Last year I didn't think he was great at it and he rarely actually meshed with ball carrier he was faking to. This year we will have 2 backs in the backfield much more than last, given we are featuring a FB this year. That alone give Maye and Josh many more opportunities to create misdirection in the backfield and slow down LB pursuit and make teams pay for playing attacking defenses that predetermine reads. BUT to make it work, Maye will have to become a more skilled ballhandler. It will take some time, so for right now I'd settle for good play action pass fakes.
The play action pass is a good weapon, once you have established the running game. However many times the Patriots were not effective at running the ball because of the OL inability to move people and create holes.
What I do find frustrating is I can remember at least a dozen times last season thinking WHY on earth do the Patriots not have designed plays for Drake rolling out of the pocket and deciding to either pass or USE his LEGS to gain 1st downs?
I'm going to put the BLAME on Josh McDaniels. Maybe he didn't feel comfortable doing that yet because he didn't realize Maye's athletic capability but this season I want to see designed plays that help take advantage of Darke's athleticism as a dual threat playmaker.
3. I want to see him become more evasive in the pocket. Brady, of course, was a master of making rushers miss within that 5 yd square of the pocket. Drake, with almost an infinite amount more athletic ability needs to develop that "escapability" that guys like Williams and Mahomes show on a regular basis. Now I don't expect Maye to become as good as those guys are. He is a different QB type. I'm looking for just enough "escapability" to make one man miss more often than not.
One of Drake's biggest weaknessess has been pocket awareness. He eats way too many sacks waiting for the play to develop. He needs to get a lot better "in the phone booth" to buy time and evade getting touched. We know he likes the big splash downfield plays and he has the arm to deliver, but he needs to make a leap forward in both his pocket awareness and pocket command if he wants to continue to do so without suffering big hits or turning the ball over from fumbles.
4. Among the expectations of the offense this season is that we will see a bit more expectations of a renewed emphasis on the running game this season. That will mean that Maye will be limited to around 25-30 passes per game, much like what we saw last season. It will be interesting to see how he distributes the ball. Will it be, "the open man" or will Brown get his 7-10 targets a game force fed. This will ultimately THE question that will last well into the season as we see how it works out in reality. It will be ultimately up to Drake more than anyone else in how he distributes the ball. The only thing we know for certain is this will NOT be team that throws the ball 35-45 passes a game like the Rams on a regular basis. I find THIS question of ball distribution and the amount of passing we will be doing this season fascinating and compelling enough to be of major discussion during the next 5 weeks of dead time.
The best man is the open man. I believe Brown is talented enough that he will often be BOTH the best Option and the Open option. But Drake needs to stay disciplined in his play reads and progressions and throw the ball to his best option at the time of the play. Don't give into the temptation of only favoring one weapon if a better play is available in the moment. Forcing plays into the teeth of the defense rather than taking what the defense gives up would be a mistake.
For years Brady detractors called him a game manager because he took the easy high percentage plays. What they failed to realize is that when TB12 constantly dissected opposing defenses and consistently completed high percentage plays then turned those long drives into points, that process wore down and demoralized defenses. Eventually Tom would capitalize on opportunities to punish the defense, but he was smart enough to never force the issue, take the free play when given, and pick his moments to drive the ball downfield.
Drake has great arm talent, but he needs to stop thinking that taking free plays is being a "check down Charlie." No Drake, sometimes the easy plays are just good football plays, period. The quickest way to kill a drive is negative plays or high risk plays that come up empty. Here's hoping Drake studies the film hard, gets into his comfort zone, learns to manipulate the defense during pre-play snaps, and increases his processing speed using pre-snap reads.
Reasonable expectations:
4,600 yards 36 TDs 10 INT.
Previous season:
4,394 yards 31 TDs 8 INT.
If Maye clicks with Brown right away and establishes a similar connection like Brady had with Moss, he could easily threaten 5k yards in 2026 but only time will tell. Hopefully Drake makes a nice step forward this year and not a step back.
