Friday Patriots Notebook 8/23: Maye’s Last Stand?
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Some news and notes for this morning:
Head coach Jerod Mayo spoke to the media on Friday morning in his final press conference ahead of the preseason finale in Washington this weekend, with Mayo providing a little bit of insight into how Sunday night’s game might play out.
According to Mayo, Jacoby Brissett will get the starting nod on Sunday, although he didn’t get into any specifics in terms of how much action the veteran might see.
“Jacoby [Brissett] is going to start the game off,” said Mayo on Friday. “Drake [Maye] will play as well. Joe [Milton] will play as well. There’s a nugget. Boom. You’re welcome. Thank you. Now you guys can sleep. [Bailey] Zappe will play.”
The question from there will be what percentage of snaps each of the respective quarterbacks might see. The logical scenario would be that Maye will likely see the lion’s share of the snaps, especially since this will potentially be the most action he’ll be able to get heading into the regular season.
Due to the restrictions with practice, it’s difficult for teams to split reps significantly while preparing for an opponent. That means that preparing Brissett for who they’ll be facing week in and week out will be the priority, with any additional work for Maye likely coming outside of that.
One would have to believe that the workload might be similar to what we saw last week against the Eagles, with Maye coming in after one or two drives for Brissett, and then again getting back under center briefly after halftime.
From there, the question is going to be how much time Joe Milton and Bailey Zappe see split between them. In the last game against Philadelphia, it was all Milton, with Zappe only seeing one series against Philadelphia in the final minutes of the game. Zappe actually had them driving for the potential come-from-behind win, only to have a badly botched snap spoil his efforts.
Milton’s stock has risen significantly this preseason, which potentially means the club will be forced to keep him on the roster. Zappe has played fairly well, but it wouldn’t be a surprise for the team to gamble with having Zappe be among the final cuts.
The other issue is that Zappe’s time in New England may soon be coming to an end. Given the direction things are going in at quarterback, it’s not necessarily a lock he’ll end up on the practice squad since he may opt to explore another opportunity where he could compete for a backup role elsewhere.
One interesting comment for Mayo on Friday was talking about how far Maye has come since the start of training camp, including from a mental standpoint.
Mayo pointed out that Maye expressed some frustration early on when certain plays didn’t quite go his way, but his demeanor is now quite different as he’s started gaining confidence.
“To me, the top two things, mental toughness and just competitiveness. Those are two qualities that I really look at with quarterbacks,” said Mayo. “I can’t sit here and tell you, unless it’s a Philip Rivers release where, ‘Man, that release is weird.’ I don’t get into the technical stuff like that. But for me, evaluating a quarterback or any other player, but especially the quarterback, they have to be mentally tough, and they have to be able to just bounce back from all that, the adversity that they’re bound to see.”
“If you guys remember early on, he was throwing interceptions, and he would get so down on himself. And I would say now, as we exit camp, he’s done a lot better job being able to pull the nose up on the plane when it seems like it’s going down. I think that’s an important quality.”
Maye has looked more and more comfortable over the last two weeks, with his performance last week against Philadelphia certainly raising some eyebrows after only seeing him for a handful of plays in the opener against Carolina.
Against the Eagles, Maye went 6-of-11 for 47 yards, along with a rushing touchdown. On the surface, that 54.5% completion percentage doesn’t say much, but it also doesn’t hold the full context of how he played.
Maye actually completed 5-of-7 (71.4%) for those same 47 yards in the first half, including his touchdown run, while going just 1-of-4 for 0 yards in the second half. However, two of those incompletions were throwaways, along with this unreal throw to rookie wideout Javon Baker, that Baker just wasn’t quite able to haul in.
https://twitter.com/Chase6D/status/1824245464776032655
So, as always, the stat sheet certainly doesn’t always tell the entire story.
But so far, his development has absolutely been fun to follow. In the meantime, he’ll have one final time to give people a glimpse of what he’s potentially capable of on Sunday night.
From there, the next time we see him, there will probably be a little more at stake.
The Patriots had Mike Onwenu remaining at right tackle on Thursday, while Layden Robinson remained at right guard. Robinson’s rise continues to have people talking, with the hope that the club can build some stability on that side as they continue looking for their best five guys. “It was encouraging to see that,” said Mayo of that alignment. “And any time you can sandwich a rookie between two veteran players, that’s always going to be a benefit for the player and also the team. So we’re still trying to figure out that combination, but I feel like we’re getting pretty close.” … After not having an undrafted player make the initial roster last August, Mayo was asked how important it is to hopefully restart that tradition again this year. “It’s huge,” said Mayo. “I always tell those guys, they all were on teams in college where a five-star would come in or a four-star would come in, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, but they’re trash.’ So you have that one star player that actually makes the team. I think it’s important. And once again, going back to competition and going back to my job is to put the best player on the field no matter where you drafted him. So that’s kind of how I think about it.” … Dell Pettus has been a name that continues to come up this training camp given some of the plays he continues to make. He’s caught Mayo’s eye, and the head coach has also been impressed. “Yeah, he’s done a fantastic job,” said Mayo. “And there’s been a lot of conversation around him, but he’s done a fantastic job up until this point.” … Mayo also had comments on David Wallis, who has also had a good camp. “Yeah, he’s had a decent camp,” said Mayo. “I would say he has definitely gotten better. He’s an explosive player. We have to find a role for him.” … Mayo said there will likely be some names missing Sunday night, albeit, he didn’t mention who. He said there are some guys dealing with some “small” things, but to not read much into it. “Sorry, one thing. We do have some players dealing with small things that probably won’t play and get ready for the regular season,” said Mayo. “Some of our proven players… Yeah, there you go. All right? Fantastic.”
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Paul Parillo commented at the end the last game that Layden Robinson and Caeden Wallace both were physically impressive in camp. But dealing with a rookie learning curve that you’d expect. Parillo went on to say, if the two of them could end up working into the starting lineup by mid-year it would be a huge accomplishment in terms of rebuilding the o-line. Since then Robinson got moved from the 2nd to first team line. Sidy Sow was quoted as saying Robinson is really powerfully strong. Wolf also noted upon the draft weekend, that Robinson is a “freight train” in… Read more »