Bedard: Team thinks Maye has made a huge leap forward this offseason.

[Huckleberry1]

No one has any idea how Maye will look next season. Not me. Not you. Not Vrabel. Not Maye.

A step forward or back is possible. Just as is holding serve. Personally I think it is highly likely his cast will be much better so that will help. He didn't have a great cast last year and it showed in the playoffs. But we need to be fair. He also wilted a bit under the lights. It was a bit concerning cause 3 or 4 games he wasn't good, even considering his competition. Personally I think he did very well in the Houston game all things considered. The other 3 were meh to bad even when adjusting for his 10 being vastly outplayed by the other 11.

I don't need his stats to be better really. I need his choices to be better. Maye still has a number of weaknesses in his game.

1 His pocket awareness is suspect. He is at times late to buy space. A step forward or to the side would have made some forced fumbles not happen. Too many times he stood like a statue in a collapsing pocket that had an escape path and didn't take it before throwing. This was perhaps the best part of Brady's game. He was a master of pocket movement and knowing who was around him. It was rare late in his career to have a ball knocked out of his hand while in motion. This develops a bit over time, but right now it can be moved a whole grade up from a C- to a B- if he focuses on it this off season.

2 Sometimes his passes sail high. This to me is a mechanics issue. When he misses he misses high, not low. This is a problem and he needs to figure it out. Every QB misses and his miss rate is certainly really good, but it is better to miss more often and miss low than miss less often and miss high. A lot of picks came from these high misses.

3 Red zone progressions needs to be faster. Maye had issues in the red zone so far in his career, and it is not just his targets. When things compress they move fast and you need to make a choice. Too often when he succeeded in the red zone it was cause he dropped a beautiful pass in over the top. Sensational stuff. But those are hard and low probability. The guys who do well here deliver a lightning strike between defenders with anticipation. He doesn't do this well yet. Few guys do to be fair. But the great ones do. I think he has the processing speed to make it work. He just needs to work at it.

If he fixes these 3 things he is the best QB in the NFL right now.

Bob, he was the best player in the NFL last year, and as hard as they played they wouldn't have sniffed .500 without him. I get that there are areas he needs to improve, but the idea that he's some big question mark going into the season is absurd. That was his first year in MacDaniels system and he played brilliantly in it. People are talking about his " processing speed," and " not making his checkdowns" etc etc like they actually know what they are talking about, when in truth they don't even know what play was called. And as far as his " pocket awareness" goes you are talking about a guy whose OL played poorly when they played good defenses, and who was " aware" enough to get the hell out of out of the pocket and get them 1st downs when they needed them.

I'll say it one more time, Maye has things to improve on, but the claim that he's some unknown quantity is ridiculous. He's the best young player in football, and we are really lucky to have him on this team. The future would be bleak without him, even with good coaching, as teams with no quarterback always suck.

And to the Captain, Sam, FCB, and the rest of the miserable ****s who are never satisfied, go suck your own ****s, or Felger's, and root for another team, because nothing any Patriots team does is ever going to satisfy you.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

It's a bit of a Oxy moron for me when I think of last years record..because with last year's roster we had some tough battles in the postseason.. the idea for us is getting back to the superbowl and winning itmm

Beating the chargers and the Texans both by double digits showed this team is legit. 14 wins is still doable with this schedule if the moves work out and we have decent health.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

No worries. I should have better clarified. The impact of having a bruising full back, a when healthy unquestionable top 10 OL in Vera-Tucker, a meat head with the brushing mentality in the blocking TE in Hill. Along with Rham who was awesome down the stretch last season.. so in summary I don't mean a singular player here who's Dillon as there's only one Corey Dillon.. I'm simply referring to Dillon and his impact he had on the running game and Brady as a whole. If the running game is better like I tend to believe it will then Drake will become greatly benefited from it.. look at how Josh allen and his running game benefited him last season.. Hopefully this clarifies what I was trying to say..

I gotcha. Yes, lots of upside there!

 

[KamikazeKnight]

I really hope this ends up being true lol. It was so good to have football being fun to watch again instead of just frustrating, and he'll have to be good with this schedule we've got.

 

[Real fan 02]

Beating the chargers and the Texans both by double digits showed this team is legit. 14 wins is still doable with this schedule if the moves work out and we have decent health.

Absolutely patsy.. look at all the sum of the parts.. we have essentially 3 Head coaches on the roster Vrabel, Josh and Doug Marrone.. we have an added advantage at coach and QB each week this season.. I believe in this team the culture and the direction the teams headed..