New England Patriots - NESN.com
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was far from perfect during the team’s Week 1 loss against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel explained during an appearance Monday on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” why he actually doesn’t want the second-year signal-caller to be “perfect.”
“I think that he wants to be, at times, perfect. I need to get past that. We all have to get past that. You need to be precise and not perfect. And if you make a mistake, it’s the reaction that you have to the mistake that everybody sees and then they’re like, ‘Oh, wow, that was a mistake.’ We have to clean our reactions up. Our responses have to be much better. And then getting into the flow. Because you see really good timing, precision and accuracy. And then we see some other misses,” Vrabel said, as shared on Bluesky by ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “I don’t ever concern myself with that. I just want the better performance. More consistent. And continue to grow as a leader and make sure that there is a command to what we’re doing — that this is the situation, this is the play. Those are the things that I’m focused on.”
Maye finished Sunday’s 20-13 loss 30-for-46 with 287 passing yards and one touchdown, while adding four rushing attempts for 11 yards. He also started the second half with a costly interception, however, took four sacks and committed a fumble (which the Patriots recovered) and recorded an 80.6 passer rating.
Vrabel said following Sunday’s loss that “without looking at the tape” he thought Maye had “some good positive plays and really good command of what we were doing, and then there were times where maybe we or he missed somebody, and we’ll have to see.”
The 2024 Pro Bowler addressed his third quarter interception specifically, telling reporters after the defeat, “I think my decision on the first drive coming out was the one that killed the drive.”
Sunday was a step back for Maye after multiple NFL media members pegged the 23-year-old as a possible breakout candidate in 2025, but it’s a long season.
The Patriots will face the Miami Dolphins at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday in South Beach in Week 2.
