Patriots News 6/19: Insider Casts Doubt on Maye, Coach: ‘Silly’ Not to Put Chism on Roster
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Some Patriots News on this Thursday:
1) NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran took a look at some of the things he’s optimistic about when it comes to the New England Patriots heading into this season, offering up six reasons why he believes this team will be better than they were in 2024.
For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a good read. He cites the coaching staff, the schedule, the defense, and several other aspects he believes will make a significant difference from how last year played out, but there was one part he left off his write-up.
That part centers around the offense and, more importantly, its quarterback. Curran elaborated on why he’s uncertain when it comes to that side of the football, noting that he’s simply not sure if Drake Maye is going to turn the corner after what he feels was a turnover-prone rookie season.
“I’m not positive about the offense,” said Curran. “I cannot include the offense as a guaranteed dead mortal lock it’s going to be better because I can’t trust the interior offensive line to a point that I say that’s fine. I can’t trust the wide receivers. I can’t trust that in his second year, a turnover-prone player who too frequently leaves the field, I’ve said this before, with fewer points in the opponent, is somebody that I can definitely say he’s going to be better. Do I presume he’s going to be better? Do I presume he, at some point, is going to be a Pro Bowl-level quarterback? I do. I’m not sure it’s going to happen right away. I know those other things, as much as I can, are going to happen.”
The turnover part of Maye’s game is something that’s come up in discussion as of late throughout the Boston media, with Curran simply questioning whether Maye can tighten things up.
But overall, looking at Maye’s numbers, it’s tough to necessarily put that “turnover-prone” label on him.
The rookie finished with 10 total interceptions in 2024, but what’s a little crazy is when you go back and look at all of his turnovers, there weren’t a lot of moments out of that group where he simply made a dumb decision and gave away the football.
Two of his interceptions went off players’ hands and into the arms of a defender, including one down at the goal line against Indianapolis where Hunter Henry had it in his hands but couldn’t squeeze it, and it rolled off his body and into the hands of a defender. Another interception came after it was batted down, and floated before being picked off. Two others included a player falling down, along with a miscommunication on a route.
A turnover is a turnover, but context matters. It’s the difference between seeing a QB continually making bad decisions, versus ones that are correctable or just unlucky.
I’ve compiled the full list of plays from last season below where you can make your own decisions there:
Week 6 vs Texans: 3 TDs, 2 INTs
TD1 – 40-yard TD to Kayshon Boutte | LINK
TD2 – 6-yard TD to Hunter Henry | LINK
TD3 – 35-yard TD to Demario Douglas | LINK
INT1 – (Targeting Demario Douglas) | LINK
INT2* – (Targeting Antonio Gibson) | LINK
*Batted at the line of scrimmage
Week 7 at Jacksonville (London): 2 TDs
TD4 – 16-yard TD to JaMycal Hasty | LINK
TD5 – 22-yard TD to K.J. Osborn | LINK
Week 9 at Tennessee: 1 TD, 2 INTs
TD6 – 5-yard TD to Rhamondre Stevenson | LINK
INT3 – (Targeting Ja’Lynn Polk) | LINK
INT4* (Targeting Kayshon Boutte) | LINK
*Kendrick Bourne fell down on his route, allowing the safety to leave and make the interception.
Week 10 at Chicago: 1 TD, 1 INT
TD7 – 2-Yard TD to Ja’Lynn Polk | LINK
INT5 (Targeting Austin Hooper) | LINK
Week 11 vs LA Rams: 2 TDs, 1 INT
TD8 – 9-yard TD to Kendrick Bourne | LINK
TD9 – 4-yard TD to Vederian Lowe | LINK
INT6* (Targeting Demario Douglas) | LINK
*Question on Douglas’ route, ball thrown behind him
Week 12 at Miami: 1 TD, 1 INT
TD10 – 38-yard TD to Austin Hooper | LINK
INT7 (Targeting Antonio Gibson) | LINK
Week 13 vs Indianapolis: 1 TD, 1 INT
TD11 – 16-yard TD To Austin Hooper | LINK
INT8* (Targeting Hunter Henry) | LINK
*Ball was in Henry’s hands on the ground but his body kept it alive, allowing Blackmon to make the interception
Week 15 at Arizona: 1 TD, 1 INT
TD12 – 3-yard TD to Demario Douglas | LINK
INT9* (Targeting Kayshon Boutte) | LINK
*Off Boutte’s hands, into the arms of Murphy-Bunting.
Week 16 at Buffalo: 2 TDs, 1 INT
TD13 – 28-yard TD to Kayshon Boutte | LINK
TD14 – 9-yard TD to Hunter Henry | LINK
INT10 (Targeting Austin Hooper) | LINK
Week 17 vs Chargers: 1 TD
TD15 – 36-yard TD to Demario Douglas | LINK
2) Still, to Curran’s point, the biggest thing Maye needs to do is make sure he’s more careful with his body this season. You can say what you want about Jacoby Brissett, but he’s a more capable and steady backup than Josh Dobbins, at least based on what we know about him. With Brissett, they could weather Maye’s absence and still win a game, which happened in Week 8. They don’t have that luxury this year.
That being said, Dobbins did reportedly have a good spring, but it doesn’t change the fact that Maye left the field twice due to a head injury, and that’s something that definitely can’t happen again if the Patriots hope to be a team that makes some noise in 2025.
However, one area that Maye took some heat for was the fact that he was part of 9 fumbles in 2024, four of which came when he ran the football, with Maye losing two of those. Without going back and seeing each one, memory has me recalling others happening on the snap exchanges, at least one or two more where there was a jailbreak, and he was hit and lost the ball, with a couple of others where Maye simply looked like a rookie doing rookie things and mishandled the football.
That’s an area Curran was likely referencing, and, if anything, Maye’s ball security from this standpoint is probably the biggest area where he needs to tighten up. But when it comes to his decision-making and the interceptions, that was overall better than expected, and it’s probably safe to say that was more of a bright spot than a point of criticism last season. Even more so when you consider how awful the offensive line was last year and all the different combinations they used.
Meanwhile, Mike Giardi, who also appeared in the segment, brought up a good point. As exciting as Maye’s rookie year was, it still only resulted with one win from start to finish last year. That’s an area where Giardi believes Maye needs to prove himself this season.
“I think there’s everything there that you want in a franchise quarterback from a physical standpoint,” said Giardi. “We haven’t seen it yet. We haven’t seen it all come together.”
“We haven’t seen him leave the field with more points than the other team all but one time. Only one time last year did that happen where he was the quarterback from start to finish, that he left and he was a winner. Two other times was Jacoby Brissett having to bail him out because of injury or what have you. So, to me, we make it like it’s an assumption. He’s still got to go do it. He hasn’t done it yet.”
3) Greg Bedard of BostonSportsJournal.com recently talked about Maye’s performance this spring, noting that he’s definitely seen improvement in the second-year quarterback.
“I thought Drake Maye was extremely efficient,” said Bedard last week. “It was a continuation of what I saw in the last OTA, Nick [Cattles], where he just looks – as opposed to the first couple OTAs that we saw, the four-interception one, then even the next one where it was clunky – like he’s now in these last two sessions that we’ve seen, he is going out there knowing exactly what he expects to see.”
“He’s been decisive. I’m not saying it’s perfect all the time. He had a throw in the left flat, I think to TreVeyon Henderson, where it was sort of a continuation of his poor footwork, where he was going to go maybe to Hunter Henry in the left seam, but it wasn’t there. And then instead of getting his feet right and throwing to the left flat, he just flung it out there, and he turfed it. It wasn’t a pretty pass.”
“But for the most part, he seems very much in control at the line of scrimmage with what Josh [McDaniels] is putting on his plate, making adjustments, calling out the mic, seeing the defense, knowing where his outlets are going to be, and being very decisive. And to the point, it’s just like we talked about last OTA, Nick, where I’m no longer noticing the hitch. I’m sure it’s there, but the way it’s coming out, and that’s when I can tell Drake feels good and he’s being decisive, because I don’t notice it anymore. And that’s what we continue to see from him.”
That is an area where, looking back at the interceptions from last season, there were several times where his footwork was absolutely an issue, especially given that several came where Maye was off balance and the ball got away from him.
However, again, we all know was how bad the protection was last season, which, all things considered, it’s sort of amazing that things weren’t even worse. That should hopefully be better this year.
4) WEEI’s Meghan Ottolini had a good piece this morning on Efton Chism III, with Ottolini getting in touch with the undrafted free agent’s former high school coach, Michael Bumpus.
His former player remains someone Bumpus remembers fondly, noting that his work ethic remains something that absolutely stands out during their time together.
“[He’s] the hardest working kid I’ve ever coached,” Bumpus told Ottolini. “And I’ve coached for 14 years at my facility. We have at least 100, 120 athletes come through a year that play football. He just works his butt off, man.”
Chism has had a solid spring, opening up some eyes with his insane change of direction and becoming a favorite target for each of New England’s quarterbacks over that span.
Mike Vrabel talked about that last week, noting that anytime you see a player seeing a lot of targets, there’s a good reason for that.
“I think he’s a talented player,” said Vrabel. “I think he has a certain skillset. He’s dedicated. He studied extremely hard. He has a good feel for what we’re asking him to do. I think the biggest thing for a receiver is that there’s trust from the guy that throws the football. When you earn the quarterback’s trust, any one of them that we have, any one of the three, it doesn’t take you long to figure out who the quarterback trusts. It’s the ones they target. That’s a good indicator.”
For now, Chism will look to hopefully try to continue what momentum he’s already built to this point when things do resume just over a month from now. And if he does, Bumpus believes the Patriots need to make sure they make the right decision heading into the season.
“The Patriots would be freaking silly not to put this kid on the 53-man [roster],” he said.
There’s a ton more in this piece, so definitely take some time to read it if you haven’t seen it.
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I do think it’s fair to question Maye and how quickly he’ll turn the corner. For now, mostly what he is is potential. Until he proves that he can win a game putting the team on his back, he’ll always be a question mark.