Pats Pulpit
Notes and thoughts on the Patriots’ training camp, Drake Maye’s summer, Kendrick Bourne’s status, and more.
The New England Patriots’ 2025 training camp is underway, with the first eight practices (two walkthroughs) already in the books. This week, that included the team’s first fully padded sessions and an in-team scrimmage inside Gillette Stadium Friday night.
Needless to say, our entire focus this week was on those sessions. To tie up any loose ends, welcome to our latest Sunday Patriots Notes.
Patriots quarterbacks Drake Maye and Joshua Dobbs have been on the move early and often during training camp.
That has been by design.
“Josh [McDaniels] has explained he wants to use our skill set and athleticism at the QB position as another way to keep the defense on their heels,” Dobbs said Tuesday. “And so obviously, situationally, when we need it, we’ll be able to pull it out and make plays with our legs. But outside of that, we’ll make sure we’re in the right play to pick defenses apart. And definitely, we just want to have forward momentum every time we take the field.”
Head coach Mike Vrabel added: “It’s critical that those plays are available to us, and we do a good job of picking and choosing the appropriate time.”
During New England’s fully padded sessions, Maye and Dobbs have both found themselves outside the pocket. In the second period of competitive work in Tuesday’s practice, Maye’s first snap saw him play fake and then complete a pass to Stefon Diggs off a bootleg.
Two plays later, the mobile 22-year old quarterback pulled the ball out of his running back’s stomach and kept it himself on the ground.
“He’s athletic,” Dobbs said of Maye. “I mean, I think our entire QB room is athletic, and that’s why it fits us well. We watched a couple of his tape from last year, like scrambles, making throws on the runs, and we all know the type of arm that he has. He’s able to make plays outside of the scheme of the offense. I think we all bring that skill set to this offense, and that’s what’s really exciting.
“And so now it’s like, ‘how can we use that situationally when the defense gets us, rarely, how can we make a play when something isn’t there, but also take care of the football?’”
Though the mobile Maye was one of the more productive scrambling quarterbacks in football over his 10 starts last season, most of his 421 rushing yards weren’t by design.
As Dobbs noted, that will change moving forward to better utilize both quarterbacks athletic ability — and they’ve spent time this offseason studying Cam Newton in Josh McDaniels’ Patriots offense back in 2020.
“I think it’s an even balance of gaining an extra hat. You having the quarterback be able to run the football, you get an extra number. You make it 11-on-11 instead of 10-on-11,” Maye said Thursday. “So, I think it’s always useful...
