Maye played just 20 snaps on Sunday.
Drake Maye’s third career start was a rather short one for the New England Patriots.
On the rookie’s third drive of the Patriots’ Week 8 game against the New York Jets, a scramble ended with a hit to his helmet as Maye began his slide. After finishing the drive, Maye was evaluated for a concussion in the blue medical tent before being ruled out for the remainder of the game after departing to the locker room.
“I walked in at halftime and saw him. The competitor that he is, obviously he wanted to go back out there and play. But there’s a protocol that he has to go through,” head coach Jerod Mayo said post game. “Again, can’t wait to get him back.”
Officially in concussion protocol, Maye must now go through the necessary steps in order to return to the field. As the Patriots just saw first-hand with fellow rookie Ja’Lynn Polk, it is rare players make it back within one week. That likely leaves Jacoby Brissett back under center next week against the Tennessee Titans.
Before departing with the head injury, Maye’s impressive play continued in his third career start as he flashed his playmaking ability. Within his 20 total snaps (10 drop backs), here are some of his most notable moments from Sunday in this week’s Maye’s Plays.
Mobility
Maye made the most of his damage with his legs to start Sunday’s game, as he broke off runs of 11, 18, and 17 yards — all seemingly the smart decision as well. The 17 yarder marked his first career rushing touchdown as Maye showed how his athleticism can be worrisome for opposing defenses.
As we’ve mentioned many times when discussing Maye, defenses will have to be careful with their man coverage usage due to the rookie’s mobility. With the Jets in man and nobody uncovering immediately, Maye has an escape lane to his right that he takes advantage of.
From there, he’s just one-on-one against a spy (No. 55 Chazz Surratt, who began his collegiate career as a quarterback at North Carolina) which Maye outraces to the end zone.
Play man coverage against Drake Maye at your own risk (even with a spy). pic.twitter.com/ayzhYjKWo7
— Brian Hines (@iambrianhines) October 28, 2024
Maye’s athleticism is a huge part of his game and has been on display since taking over as the starter. Unfortunately for New England, they saw the negative side of a mobile quarterback in addition to the positive as Maye left with a head injury.
On the play, it wasn’t a necessary poor decision by Maye to escape with no clear cut receiving option but a late slide after breaking a handful of tackles left him vulnerable. The quarterback shouldn’t be changing his style of play as it’s part of what makes him so dangerous but needs to protect himself going forward (something he’s done a good job of to-date, and tried to do on the hit).
Incompletions
As a passer, Maye completed just three-of-six passes for 23 yards against New York. Those completions included a nine-yard screen to DeMario Douglas, 11-yard completion over the middle to Hunter Henry, and a play-action bootleg to Austin Hooper for three yards.
While the numbers may not jump off the screen, Maye’s two best passes of the day fell incomplete due to drops — helping lead to a 83.3 percent adjusted completion percentage.
The first came on an aggressive out of structure play to Tyquan Thornton downfield. New York lets Maye out of the pocket to his right where he shows his off platform ability to fire a downfield shot to the speedster, who adjusts well to work back to the quarterback. It’s a perfectly placed ball that travels over 40 yards in the air but it bounces off Thornton’s chest and incomplete.
Maye’s last play of the day (after the hit to his head occurred) was then an impressive pure quarterback play. In a similar offensive play call as his first third-down incompletion, Maye opens to his three receivers on left which New York has covered.
He then works back to the middle of the field where Boutte — who is now running a dig instead of the early incomplete go route — is open on a backside dig but drops the ball.
The end zone angle below shows a clear view of Maye’s eyes starting to his left before working to his right, where he then delivers an accurate ball to Boutte.
