Breaking down Drake Maye’s performance against the Cardinals in Week 15.
Sunday’s loss in the desert was an interesting one for rookie quarterback Drake Maye. The box score looks like an efficient day in the office as he completed 19-of-23 passes for 202 yards and a passing plus rushing score against the Arizona Cardinals.
But for most of the afternoon, Maye’s ability to generate explosive plays was largely bottled up as he primarily played point guard by getting the ball to his pass catchers in the quick passing attack.
Entering halftime, Maye averaged -0.6 air yards per attempt. In total, the game plan called for seven passes at the line of scrimmage and nearly 75 percent of his passes to travel under 10 air yards. The result was the New England Patriots offense managing just three points through three quarters as the rookie failed to find a rhythm.
“We wanted to get the ball out, get the guys in our hands and make them tackle us. I think that was our big game plan and it was also tough for us because we really didn’t get into rhythm,” Maye said post game. “I think it’s easier when you get into rhythm to call some deeper stuff and kind of get that going, but we never had a rhythm.”
That was until the second half when New England’s staff started letting Maye air it out more. Averaging 12.1 air yards per pass attempt, Maye completed 9-of-his-13 second half pass attempts for 131 yards. While the second half success admittedly came against Arizona playing base coverages with a big lead, living through Maye is the path to any sort of competitiveness for the Patriots offense.
The desire to get the ball out of his hands in front of a porous offensive line is understandable, but New England is not currently built for long drives. The longer they have the ball just creates more time for things to go wrong — such as their opening drive where penalties worked them backwards before a missed field goal.
Instead, the best path forward is to put the ball in Maye’s hands and hope his skillset can generate the explosive plays seen late in the fourth quarter in Arizona.
“I think that’s one of the best things I do is see the ball downfield and throw it intermediate. I think we’re doing that more and more, but like I said, we have to get in the flow of the game and let those things open up,” Maye said. “I think we were efficient in the passing game, we have some big time runs and I think people can see it. Just have to stop having the same repeat errors.”
New England’s first scoring drive of the game — which came in the fourth quarter — was kickstarted by Maye letting one rip downfield. Running four vertical routes against a single-high safety look, Maye picks an outside vertical, this one being Kendrick Bourne, and drops one in the absolute bucket for 37 yards.
The Patriots found the end zone two plays later by, guess who, Maye making a play. With everyone covered, the dual-threat rookie escapes out to his left and flicks the ball to Pop Douglas once his defender steps up to play the run. Playmaker.
“Drake is a ball player,” Douglas said post game. “That was a play. I thought he was going to keep running. Then, I just moved into the spot and I made a little space that was open. He just tossed it and that was a good ball play by Drake.”
New England’s next scoring drive followed a similar script, as Maye hit a pretty pass up the seam to Austin Hooper after moving the linebacker out of the passing window (below). The next play, he beat a blitz out to his right and walked in for a touchdown.
While Maye was 17-of-17 on passes under 10 air yards compared to 2-of-6 on deep shots, the success followed the big plays. They are lower percentage, such as an opening shot to begin the second half where Kayshon Boutte appears to slow down his post route, but letting their top playmaker make plays is how New England finds the end zone at this point.
After connecting on their first two deep passes, Drake Maye is now 0-for-8 targeting Kayshon Boutte deep over the last six games. pic.twitter.com/iaSjI3FBN7
— Brian Hines (@iambrianhines) December 16, 2024
Speaking of Boutte, the duos connection has been nonexistent of late when it comes to the deep passing game. Plus, Boutte contributed to Maye’s lone interception of the game as a pass that protected the receiver from oncoming traffic went off his hands and right to a Cardinals defender.
On one of their most popular passing concepts, you could argue Maye was a tick late hitting Boutte across the middle due to pressure up the gut against Ben Brown. But, it’s good ball placement that needs to be caught and did not go down as a turnover worthy play — marking Maye’s second straight game without one. If healthy, we’d push for Javon Baker to take over for Boutte down the stretch.
The last popular talking point when it comes to letting Maye make plays is the designed quarterback run game. Sitting outside the playoff picture at 3-11, it’s fair to not want to put their most important asset in additional harms way. But they’re playing to win games and Maye’s legs — or even just the threat of such — can help them in key areas.
On Antonio Gibson’s 29-yard run on the first drive of the second half, New England leaves the backside rusher unblocked. With the threat of Maye holding onto the football, the rusher pauses for a split second which is enough for Gibson to break free.
Yet later that drive facing a 3rd- and 4th-and-1 inside the five-yard line, Maye is under center as a non-threat, handing the ball off twice to watch his running backs get stuffed.
When asked about incorporating Maye into the run game earlier this season, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt pointed to “high leverage situations, fourth-and-one, game-on-the-line maybe” as times they could run Maye. Looks familiar — maybe it was the time they let him do it in the preseason.
Over the last three weeks of the season, the Patriots do need to get Maye out of his rookie season healthy and continuing to trend upwards. But some tough matchups could force them to let the rookie air it out, which could be their only path to trying to stay competitive.