Tuesday Patriots Notebook 6/25: News and Notes
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Some Patriots news and notes for this morning:
So far Drake Maye has had a strong spring for the New England Patriots after the club took him with the third overall selection back in April, but one former player believes New England should have gone in another direction.
NFL Writer Tyler Dunne of Go Long caught up with former quarterback Shaun King for an interview, with King discussing a variety of topics. King, who played for the Buccaneers, Cardinals, Lions and Colts during his NFL career, also spent time in recent years coaching at the University of South Florida and is now an analyst in Las Vegas.
In the interview with Dunne, King mentioned former North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell, who he believes played on a team with a terrible offensive line in Washington last season. King went so far to say that had Howell landed in Atlanta, he feels the Falcons may have been a playoff contender this past January.
However, that conversation led to King mentioning Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye, who King apparently isn’t high on. In fact, he believes that the Patriots took him too high in the draft and should have used that selection on a different player.
“They were terrible on the O-Line,” said King on Washington. “And again, your Baker Mayfields and your Geno Smiths, there are 32 teams. There aren’t 32 Hall of Fame quarterbacks that are still of playing age that are walking the face of this planet. Somebody’s going to have a diminished talent at that position, but I think the draft is where teams mess up. I’m telling you now, Drake Maye is not a first-round draft pick.
King said it’s because the club isn’t getting a polished player who falls into the category of most quarterbacks drafted at that position.
“He’s not,” said King when asked why he feels that way. “He’s a developmental quarterback. He comes from a great family. If given time to mature and grow into being a more confident, consistent player, he can be OK. But what did you bypass to take a developmental quarterback at three? He’s not going to beat out Jacoby Brissett. And the way I look at draft value, if I’m drafting something in the top five — no offense to Jacoby Brissett — that can’t beat out Jacoby Brissett, then I’m overdrafting that player.”
As for how he would have handled it, King said he would have traded down and taken Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.
“Traded down, traded out,” said King on his strategy. “I know Minnesota, Denver, there were some teams that were dying to get up to that spot. And the only reason I did that is because Jacoby’s better. Now, if my coordinator was comfortable with drafting a left-handed quarterback, I would’ve taken Penix. I think Penix is the real deal. I think he’s box office. But knowing football how I do, you have to have a coordinator that’s comfortable with that because a lot of these guys have only coordinated from an orthodox prism.”
“All their quarterbacks have been right-handed. So to bring a lefty in, you’ve got to have some mental maneuverability themselves because in crucial situations that bootleg has to be the opposite of what it’s always been. That rollout has to be left instead of right. There’s some things where guys get a little uncomfortable with that. But I thought trading down would’ve been great value.”
Maye isn’t the only player King has been frustrated with. Apparently he wasn’t pleased with the Steelers taking Kenny Pickett, feeling as though they wasted a selection there also.
He believes that when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks, he’s got “a gift at it” and that some NFL team should hire him to prevent them from making what he feels are “colossal errors.”
“You’re the Pittsburgh Steelers. I screamed from the rafters: That kid is not a first-round quarterback,” said King. “It took it, what, 17 years in college to have a good season and they used a first-round pick on him and they still got to go sign Russell Wilson and trade for Justin Fields because Kenny Pickett wasn’t the answer. They could have drafted another first-round starting player at that pick and been better in another area.”
“So it is what it is. I don’t mean to rant and ramble, but I’m passionate about the quarterbacks. I think NFL teams should hire somebody like me just to be the final say on personnel. I think I have a gift at it — I’ve been right a whole lot — and they’ll stop drafting the Zach Wilsons of the World two and the Trey Lances at three. Making these colossal errors.”
Hindsight is clearly 20/20 when it comes to Pickett, and it remains to be seen what the future holds for Maye. But King also said something else that essentially contradicts his own philosophy. He pointed out that if there’s a player who you believe can be ‘an elite player,’ that teams sometimes have to pull the trigger and take the risk. Granted, it may not always pan out, but given their situation, that’s more or less where the Patriots found themselves this past April.
“Sometimes at that position, if you got what you think is an elite player, you have to take him because they’re hard to find,” said King. “And supply and demand doesn’t always match up in the National Football League. And that’s where I think a lot of organizations get it wrong. Because you have a deficiency. That year’s draft may not provide the right level of talent to fill that deficiency.”
At the same time, as we know, not every draft ends up with elite-level talent at quarterback. Many of the top names in the league took multiple drafts and spans stretching 5-10 years – or even longer – in-between before NFL clubs uncovered these superstars.
Still, much like the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play. And it’s a gamble the Patriots are likely hoping eventually pays off as Maye embarks on his NFL career.
Veteran defensive lineman Davon Godchaux was spotted during minicamp with his helmet on and not his jersey, leading some to believe that there might be an issue with his contract.
Godchaux, who signed a two-year, $20.8 million extension back in 2022, is apparently not pleased about heading into the upcoming 2024 in the final year of his deal.
He replied to a Tweet Monday night by NFL writer Dan Kelley, saying he’s hopeful a deal gets done before camp starts.
“Hopefully we can get something done that’s fair to me and my team before camp starts!” wrote Godchaux. “I love NE, I would love to retire here but it’s has to make sense for us! What I do on the football field in the trenches most of time doesn’t show on the stat sheet but turn on the film you will see it if “U know” ball! Would love to finish my career here in NE but it has to make sense to me and my team!”
Following Godchaux’s extension two years ago, former head coach Bill Belichick had high praise for the veteran, calling him one of the best in the league at his position.
“Well, he’s one of the best defensive linemen in the league,” said Belichick at the time. “Glad we were able to work that out with Davon and Drew [Rosenhaus]. Obviously, both sides are happy.”
That sentiment feels like it’s carried over with new head coach Jerod Mayo, who also had praise for Godchaux and sounded optimistic that he’d be out there at some point.
“Yeah, DG, look, we want him here,” said Mayo two weeks ago. “He’s one of our best players. He’s working. I will say that, he is working. He’s here every single day, has been here every single day, and look forward to getting him on the field in camp.”
One challenge may simply be the fact that the value Godchaux believes he has may not be in line with where the team is at. Mayo was asked about if Godchaux’s appearance but lack of participation was similar to what happened with Matthew Judon last year after Judon was present but also remained a spectator during his own dispute.
Mayo dismissed that notion. But he also added that situations like these are complicated due to the fact that teams need to make evaluations when it comes to value, which is something he’s beginning to get immersed in now that he’s a head coach.
“I wouldn’t put it in those words,” said Mayo of the similarities between Godchaux and Judon. “Look, there are guys that, obviously, they want to redo contracts and stuff like that. And not just DG, it’s a bunch of guys that want to do those things. And we’re working through it.”
“Eliot and his staff, they do a great job as far as handling that. I don’t get into the player contracts. What I will say is, one thing I’ve learned is sometimes the value that the team has on a person is a little bit different than the value that the market has on a person. And so those are just things I’m learning, guys. Like I told you guys before, I’m green, but I’m learning. I’m evolving, and these are the conversations that have to be had.”
It appears the Patriots once had an interest in acquiring former Vikings receiver, Adam Thielen. Many may be aware of the heated on-field exchange between the two back in 2018, where it was clear that there were expletives fired back and forth late in the game as Belichick challenged a spot on a run play by Minnesota, not long after Patrick Chung went down with an injury. Thielen didn’t like it, and he let Belichick know about it, with Belichick clearly telling him to, “Shut the [expletive] up.” However, that left an impression, and with the club in need of adding to its receiving corps that offseason, Thielen said during a recent appearance on Pardon My Take that Belichick tried to acquire him. “I believe going into that next offseason, [Belichick] had reached out to the [Vikings] about, you know, possibly trading for me, trying to get me to come there,” Thielen said via Inside the Vikings. “So it must have been like a good impression, he must have liked that kind of tenacity or competitiveness.” Definitely an interesting bit of information revealing that efforts were apparently indeed made ahead of 2019 to try and improve a group that turned out to be pretty rough during what proved to be Tom Brady’s final season. … Former receiver Julian Edelman said recently on The Herd with Colin Cowherd that what happens in the spring during OTAs and minicamp absolutely holds value, especially when it comes to building a foundation. Edelman reflected on his own time with the Patriots, saying that while games aren’t won in the offseason, it’s where teams gain an edge ahead of the season. “People don’t realize you can’t win games in the offseason, but you can lose them because this is ultimately where you gain your fundamentals,” said Edelman. “And later on in the year, you rely on fundamentals in high-stress situations. That’s what you’re going to naturally fall on.” … The former receiver was present for the end of Patriots minicamp, and he was apparently pleased with what he saw. “I saw a defense that was flying around. I saw a lot of communication out of defense,” said Edelman. “I saw Jacoby Brissett looking confident, calling and communicating plays very well. And that’s what you really want to see in organized team activities. You want to see execution, operation, like being able to get a play call in with a coach out of the huddle and communicating player to player, running plays on not just first down, second down, third down, but having calling plays like it’s a game. They were doing a lot of that.” … Edelman was also high on Maye, saying the rookie looked ‘dialed’ the day he was there. “He had it pretty dialed the day I was there,” said Edelman. “I saw him make an endline in-cut in traffic, which is a tough play in the red area. So that’s throwing an in-cut on the back of the end zone with other guys, other defenders, making the proper read on hitting that in-cut, going to his third read. So that was really cool to see. But you also can’t take too much with OTAs because everything’s kind of scripted. He goes in, we have our six plays this period. You kind of know on this down and distance, the defense is going to give you this coverage. The mic call is going to be this. So the communication was very good for what I saw, but I didn’t know how they were doing it behind the scenes. They could have been prompting that.”
From our archive - this week all-time:
April 6 - April 21 (Through 26yrs)
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Maye was drafted on prospectus for the long term, not beating out Brissett in the short term by September. Mahomes was a bit of a project and needed to sit behind Alex Smith for a FULL year and some thought longer than that. Mapping these players from college to the NFL is a big leap. Especially QB. And then the players offense in college vs the draftee team’s offense is another big variable. Sounds like this source Shaun King is job seaking. There’s almost no one saying Maye isn’t a solid pick. There’s a reason Minn, NYG wanted to trade… Read more »