When the Drake Maye Era begins on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, nobody, least of all Patriots fans still clinging to the memory of Tom Brady playing quarterback for them, should not be expecting miracles.
Rookie coach Jerod Mayo decided that after four games of watching Jacoby Brissett struggle, it was the right time to throw the third-overall pick of the draft to the wolves.
Given the sorry nature of the New England offensive line and the paucity of weapons, there are skeptics expecting Mayday, an internationally recognized radio word to signal distress. Not Mayeday. Mayday.
It doesn’t automatically mean that Maye will be more Bryce Young than C.J. Stroud or Jayden Daniels, but at least the king of NFL draft experts believes he possesses the physical and mental toughness to weather the impending storm.
“The only thing you hope is he doesn’t go out there and have this offensive line getting hit and hurt, and have a shoulder or a knee or something that’ll hamper him going into the offseason into next year,” ESPN’s legendary Mel Kiper Jr. told Serby Says.
Of course, if Maye wasn’t such a tantalizing prospect, Giants general manager Joe Schoen wouldn’t have attempted to trade up with the Patriots to land him.
“Drake’s got all the talent in the world,” Kiper said. “I mean, there’s nothing he lacks. He’s smart, he wants to be successful, he’s going to do everything he can to be a great quarterback — he’s going to put in all the time, he’s going to be the first one in the building, he’s going be the last one to leave. He’s going to do all the right things from an intangible standpoint. Kid just turned 22 years of age. He said he needed to sit a little bit. He sat a little bit.
“Is he coming into a great situation with that offensive line? No. You just hope he doesn’t get hurt. You just hope he can survive behind this offensive line and at least get some experience.
“Troy Aikman told me, and Peyton Manning told me: You got to play. You got to play through the rough stuff, the rough spots. Those two didn’t think you got a lot by sitting. Now, Patrick Mahomes sat, and look how it benefitted him. Aaron Rodgers sat, Jordan Love sat — there’s been a lot of quarterbacks who have sat, and it’s helped them: sit, watch and learn.”
Patriots fans can at least be heartened somewhat that Maye is a better prospect than Mac Jones, who excelled as a rookie then fizzled when Bill Belichick saddled him with play-caller Matt Patricia.
“Grade-wise, Drake Maye has a significantly superior grade to what Mac Jones had coming out of college,” Kiper said. “Drake Maye drew comparisons to Justin Herbert. He’s got everything you want from a size standpoint, from arm strength, quick release, mobile, athletic, smart, tough, hard worker, wants to be great, will do everything he can to be great. There’s nothing he’s lacking. Is he Jayden Daniels as a runner? [No], but he can move and he can run, he can beat you with his legs. On third-and-8, he’s dangerous, he can go get it.”
If Maye hadn’t had accuracy hiccups in several games at North Carolina, he might have gone second overall behind Caleb Williams (Bears) to the Commanders instead of Daniels. Belichick drafted Jones with the 15th pick.
“Drake Maye in any draft would have been viewed coming out of college as an elite prospect,” Kiper said. “Drake has superior, like well-above average talent in those key areas where he is in kind of a class by himself. It just so happened you had Jayden and Caleb came out. In a normal draft, Drake Maye’s going No. 1 overall.”
Giants safety Tyler Nubin was at Minnesota last September when Maye threw for 415 yards and two touchdowns to beat the Gophers, 31-13.
“He can make all the throws,” Nubin told Serby Says, “all the off-platform stuff, really good on the run, make good decisions, so yeah, he’s a good quarterback.”
If the Giants didn’t believe that Maye could have handled the New York market, they wouldn’t have coveted him.
“Daniel Jones has handled the New York pressure and scrutiny and criticism very, very well,” Kiper said, “and Drake, I think, could have handled it equally as well. But that’s a projection. Daniel Jones has already proven he could handle it. I’m thinking that Drake Maye could have as well.”
Here is Kiper’s message to Patriots fans about Maye:
“Be patient. They say patience is a virtue, it’s lacking in terms of a lot of the way we deal with young quarterbacks now. We chew them up and spit them out. We expect quarterbacks in their first or second year with eight starts or five starts or 12 starts playing like a veteran. It’s just unrealistic expectations. You can’t start scrutinizing rookie quarterbacks and acting like they’re going to be judged like a 5-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 15-year guy. Every situation’s different. Say last year, Bryce Young should have been just as good as C.J. Stroud. That’s a bunch of B.S.”
Kiper references the 1983 NFL draft when John Elway, the first-overall pick, was benched in Denver for Steve DeBerg while Dan Marino, the 27th pick, threw 20 TD passes in nine starts.
“Don’t expect Jayden Daniels-type performance, or C.J. Stroud-type performance from last year when he was a rookie,” Kiper said.
Will offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt successfully develop Maye?
“Developing is how you handle a quarterback,” Kiper said. “What do you put on the plate for that quarterback? Who’s there mentoring that quarterback? What’s the infrastructure around the quarterback? What‘s the personnel like around that quarterback? All those things are critical in terms of the development of a quarterback.
“When Bryce Young was drafted last year, they brought in Frank Reich, they brought in Josh McCown, they had Jim Caldwell. … Are you kidding me? He had ***** everybody ***** around him. It was supposed to be the great quarterback gurus, and how’d that work out?”
A dream come true for Drake Maye. His parents and two or three of his brothers will be there.
Mayeday for them. Hopefully not Mayday.
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