Pats Pulpit
Breaking down Drake Maye’s performance against the Rams in Week 11.
Through his first handful of NFL starts, Drake Maye has been one of the league’s best scrambling quarterbacks. The playmaking quarterback knows he has that skill in his bag, but also knows that's not where he wants to consistently win.
“I’m a passer first. I want to be a passer in this league and you got to be a passer in this league to be successful,” Maye said earlier this month.
Despite coming up on the wrong side of a 28-22 game versus the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, winning as a passer is exactly what Maye did en route to perhaps the best performance of his young New England Patriots career.
Against a Rams defense that entered the week as one of the top unit’s in the league, Maye set career-highs in completions (30), passing yards (282), adjusted completion percentage (86.5 percent), and EPA per drop-back (+0.27). With New England operating a quick-passing attack, Maye’s success mostly came with his quick decision making as he won in structure — an area that was supposedly a weakness coming out of college that required ample time on the bench in some opinions.
With the 22-year-old already flashing his high-level playmaking ability early in his career, watching him play on time with consistent accuracy and anticipation were extremely encouraging signs on Sunday. Pair those abilities with the physical skillset, the out of structure work, and hopefully a better supporting cast and New England could be cooking with gas.
There was, however, more turnover issues that reappeared again we’ll discuss as we get into some of his most notable moments from Sunday in this week’s Maye’s Plays.
As mentioned above, Alex Van Pelt has focused his offense in the underneath area of the field to help fit his personnel. On Sunday, that led to Maye posting a season-low average depth of target (5.7 yards) and quickest average time to throw (2.55 seconds) as he primarily played in the rhythm of the offense.
Even when dealing with pressure — which Maye felt heat on nearly 40 percent of his drop backs against LA — the rookie stayed strong in the pocket and knew where his answers were.
On an early 28-yard completion to Pop Douglas, Maye beats a creeper pressure to his left to find his receiver in stride. Even with the rusher (No. 39) coming in virtually untouched, Maye drifts to his right to buy enough time for Douglas to clear No. 97 over the middle of the field and makes the throw back to his left while getting hit for a big gain.
Later on the drive, Maye again reads things out perfectly to find a touchdown. With two Rams players following Stevenson out in the flat, a passing window opens to Kendrick Bourne. Maye is on time and is starting his throwing motion before Bourne is even breaking out of his route. Perfect throw for...
