Pats Pulpit
Notes and thoughts on Drake Maye, the coaching staff and more.
The offseason rolls on for the New England Patriots and the attention now shifts to upgrading the talent on the actual roster with the coaching staff finalized.
For anything not covered on Pats Pulpit throughout the week, let’s take a look in this week’s Sunday edition of Patriots Notes.
When the Patriots drafted Drake Maye third overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, they did so with the hope that he would lead their franchise back to contention. After his rookie season, Maye’s fellow teammates see, and believe in, the vision.
“It all starts with Drake. Everybody has seen what Drake can do. We got full faith in Drake. He’s a superstar,” Christian Gonzalez said Wednesday on PFT Live with Mike Florio and Chris Simms. “Being able, as a defense, to get more turnovers — to get back to the Patriot defense everybody knows, just getting the ball back. If we do that and get the ball back to Drake a lot more times, I feel like we could have won a lot more of those games.”
Maye’s first year in New England featured his fair share of flashes. The 22-year old showed improvement in his mechanics as a passer and flashed his big-time arm talent with the ability to push the ball downfield. Then came his dual threat ability as Maye was one of the best and most efficient scrambling quarterbacks in the entire NFL.
But for all the positive flashes that found fellow teammates like Gonzalez buying into the hype, Maye now knows he must take his game to another level entering the infamous sophomore season.
“I think big thing is kind of a year one to year two — people always talk about just taking a jump,” Maye said this week on Good Morning Football. “For me just trying to improve. Improve in certain areas.”
There were some expected rookie moments for Maye throughout his first 12 career starts. That was mainly highlighted by reoccurring turnover issues as he threw 10 interceptions — including a stretch of seven straight games — and lost six fumbles (tied for a league high).
Maye highlighted removing those turnovers as one of the top areas for improvement entering year two. After that? Improving his situational football game and as a leader.
“Situational football is huge. Playing my position, you have to be in tune in every situation. It’s on you,” Maye told SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Those guys are looking at you — the other 10 guys on the field, it’s your job to get things going and get things on the right page. So I think situational football and just continuing to grow as a leader.”
The quarterback is already on the same page as his new head coach, as Mike Vrabel explained in his introductory press conference that he will help Maye “as it relates to game management and situational awareness and where we are on...
