The Patriots’ rookie quarterback has turned the ball over 15 times in 10 starts this season.
The first two quarters of their Week 17 game against the Buffalo Bills saw the New England Patriots play competitive football in all three phases. After taking a 14-7 lead into the half, however, things started to fall apart for one primary reason: turnovers.
The Patriots’ first three possessions of the second half all ended in a giveaway. Quarterback Drake Maye had an active hand in two of those plays.
First, the rookie passer threw an interception in the red zone intended for tight end Austin Hooper. Shortly thereafter, he threw a backwards pass that running back Rhamondre Stevenson was unable to haul in; the play ended up as a Buffalo recovery for a touchdown, and went into the books as a fumble by Maye.
Those two plays therefore marked the 14th and 15th turnovers this season credited to the Patriots’ young quarterback. That unfortunate output happened in just 10 starts, and at a rate of one turnover every 26th dropback.
For the Patriots to finally find their footing on offense, reducing giveaways particularly at the quarterback position is one of the primary goals. As Maye pointed out this week, however, that reduction does not have to come through a change of play style.
“I’m still going to be aggressive,” the 22-year-old said during a joint press conference with tight end Hunter Henry. “That’s the way I play, and I think it’s in the long run going to be good for us.”
Maye remaining an aggressive player, and the Patriots letting him, makes sense. His big-play potential is one of the main reasons why he was selected third overall in this year’s draft, and he has proven himself more than capable of taking calculated risks with his decisions.
In addition, not all of his 15 turnovers can directly be blamed on Maye himself. The aforementioned two plays — the interception and the backwards pass against Buffalo — are perfect examples of breakdowns not entirely within Maye’s control: on the first play, Hooper fell down to take himself out of contention for the pass; on the second, Stevenson was unable to haul the pass in, in part because of insufficient blocking up front.
Maye also knows that he has caught some bad breaks since taking over as New England’s starting quarterback in Week 6.
“I don’t think it’s really that I’m scrambling outside the pocket and heaving one up. I think it’s within the offense,” he said. “Some unfortunate things have happened with the turnovers, and I think some of them definitely fall on me.”
Nonetheless, Maye stressed the need to reduce his relatively high turnover total.
“There’s definitely a way we need to cut down turnovers,” he said. “That starts with me protecting the football and throwing it incomplete or throwing it in the dirt or little things like that.”
The Patriots’ next chance to show progress in that area comes Saturday against a Los Angeles Chargers defense ranking 14th in takeaways (19). For comparison, the Patriots are 20th in giveaways (21).
But while most of those have Maye’s name written on them, he will continue to stay true to himself and his approach to playing football. And to be fair, it has served him quite well since arriving in New England in April.
“He’s always going to try to go out there and make plays,” said head coach Jerod Mayo. “I think just the way that he’s played, how well he’s played this year, oftentimes we forget that he’s a rookie quarterback. Those are lessons learned. I’ve been very upfront about this; the intangible with Drake — besides his even demeanor — is he’s learned from his mistakes. I expect that to continue going forward.”