Sunday Patriots Notes: Salvaging increasingly lost season about more than wins and losses

Notes and thoughts on the Patriots at 1-6, Drake Maye’s footwork, and more.

Having put their cross-Atlantic trip behind them, the New England Patriots will be back at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. Hosting the New York Jets in their third AFC East game of the season, the team of first-year head coach Jerod Mayo will try to put an end to the longest active losing streak in the NFL.

Naturally, most of our attention over the last few days was on that particular game. As for everything else, here are this week’s Sunday Patriots Notes.

Salvaging an increasingly lost season is about more than wins and losses

The 2024 season so far has been anything but smooth sailing for the Patriots. At 1-6, it is seemingly slipping from their grasp, and they are already virtually eliminated from playoff contention.

But while the NFL is a wins and losses business at the end of the day, the Patriots salvaging what is an increasingly lost season will be about more than just their final record. The organization, after all, has embraced undergoing a major rebuild after the Bill Belichick era came to an end back in January.

How that process will go will determine whether or not the 2024 season will eventually be determined a success or failure.

Seven weeks in, the results have been all over the place. The most important development, though, might be Drake Maye looking competent as a starting quarterback; the first round rookie has definitive room for improvement still, but has been impressive in both of his career starts up until this point and is also emerging as a leader in the locker room.

Maye will be the single most important piece of the puzzle, but he cannot alone carry the team back to relevance. Other next generation players need to step up and establish themselves as foundational pieces as well.

Luckily for the Patriots, a few candidates seem to be emerging. Outside of veterans such as David Andrews and Ja’Whaun Bentley, the team will likely continue building around the likes of Christian Gonzalez, Christian Barmore, and Brenden Schooler — all of whom having shown their blue-chip potential either this year or, in Barmore’s case, in the past.

Obviously, more players need to be added to that group either by internal development or external acquisition. Still, a core including Maye, Gonzalez, Barmore, Schooler and the team’s established leaders is not necessarily a bad one to cultivate.

Going hand-to-hand with that is re-establishing a culture under Mayo and Wolf. Both have made it clear that they are trying to run the ship differently than Belichick did rather successfully for two decades, something Wolf referred to as having “less of a hard-ass vibe” in the offseason.

Whether or not that alone will be sufficient to build a culture remains to be seen, especially in light of Mayo’s recent comments about the Patriots being a “soft football team across the board” (comments he has since tried to walk back from). Whatever the top duo is aiming for, it needs to start manifesting itself regardless of New England’s win-loss column this season.

From the outside looking in, this aspect of the rebuild in particular seems to be a work in progress and something not going entirely smoothly. However, the fact that Drake Maye is buying in might just be enough.

“Coach Mayo always preaches, ‘Hard work works.’ Working hard and dropping your ego at the door, I think we’re learning that,” the rookie QB said this week.

“We have a really young team, so guys are starting to figure that out and buying into the process. We always preach process and payoff. And also, there are some things that come along; we’ve had some bumps in the road. But these guys are starting to figure it out and he started challenging us. Really, what is the identity of this football team? What do we want to be this year as the season go on?”

The questions to those answers will, ultimately, determine the success or failure of the Patriots in 2024; and, by extension, what the future will hold for Mayo, Wolf and the rest of a staff seemingly learning on the fly as well.

Drake Maye crediting coaches with improved footwork

When the Patriots selected Drake Maye third overall in this year’s draft, they did so knowing that they would not get a finished product. One of the biggest areas of development was his footwork: playing almost exclusively out of shotgun at North Carolina, he needed to show that he can adapt to a more nuanced, under center attack in New England.

While there still is room for improvement, Maye is trending in a positive direction. According to the man himself, his support staff — offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and quarterbacks coach T.C. McCartney — deserve praise for that.

“I think it’s a credit to the coaches here, AVP and T.C. They’ve really hammered it home,” Maye said. “At the same time, I think some things, some different drops that I’m taking now, weren’t really asked of me in college. Some of these five-step under-center play-actions, we didn’t do much of those. So, it probably really didn’t give me a chance to show off some of the footwork stuff. There’s two ways to look at it.

“But, credit to these guys here. I think we’re still working on things throughout the week. T.C. puts it up on the board, little things throughout the week that I keep in mind. I feel comfortable back there.”

Drake Maye has been an elite deep passer since taking over

The sample size obviously is limited, but two games into his career as Patriots starting quarterback Drake Maye has shown promise in many facets of the game. Throwing the ball deep is one part of that.

According to Pro Football Focus, he is ranked in the top four in various categories since entering the lineup in Week 6:

In his two games, Maye connected on deep passes to Kayshon Boutte twice as well as Hunter Henry and K.J. Osborn. One of his throws to Boutte and his pass to Osborn ended up as touchdowns.

Playing successful NFL football is all about consistency, and Maye has yet to show that his success throwing the deep ball can be sustained over a longer period of time. Still, as with plenty of his game the early signs are encouraging.

Kayshon Boutte wants the ball

Drake Maye’s favorite deep ball target, sophomore wide receiver Kayshon Boutte is emerging as a starting member in the Patriots wide receiver group. However, he does not seem quite happy with his usage yet.

As he mentioned to reporters this week, he feels like he shouldn’t have to “ask” for the ball coming his way.

“I’ve caught every ball that’s thrown to me this season,” he said. “So, I just feel like I would always go to the sideline and demand the ball. Whether it was that deep ball — I asked for that. The Texans game, I asked for that. So, I feel like I shouldn’t have to really ask.”

Through five in-game appearances this season, Boutte has caught eight passes for 139 yards and a touchdown.

Time of possession working against the desired brand of football

Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of their team, the Patriots entered the 2024 season with a fairly simple plan in mind: they wanted to control the flow of the game by playing stout defense and running the ball well on offense. However, that plan has not materialized as desired.

A look at New England’s time of possession shares illustrates this. In seven games this season, the Patriots have held the ball longer than their opponent only twice: in Weeks 1 and 2, arguably their best two overall games this season. Ever since Week 3, however, the Patriots have been unable to do the same.

In fact, since that game their time on the field between offense (2:04:50), defense (2:46:06) and special teams (09:04) speaks a clear language: New England has not managed to play its brand of football for some time now.

Robert Kraft’s Hall of Fame candidacy hurt by a messy 2024?

The Pro Football Hall of Fame recently updated its list of candidates for induction in 2025, with 118 people still in the running for the famous gold jackets. Among them is Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

One of 15 men on the list associated with the organization, Kraft has been in this position before. And while the highest individual honor in the game has so far eluded him, there is no denying Kraft’s résumé is worthy of a spot in the Hall of Fame: no other NFL owner has more Super Bowl rings than him; he saved the franchise from leaving one of the country’s biggest markets; he played a crucial role behind the scenes in both helping grow the league and ending the 2011 labor dispute.

And yet, one has to wonder just how long it will take for him to make it in. There has been extensive lobbying on his behalf, but the voters have been left unconvinced.

It is also no stretch of the imagination that the Patriots’ post-dynasty era, both on and off the field, is not necessarily helping his cause either. After all, if he wants credit for the team’s run of success in the 2000s and 2010s — and he very much, and desperately so, appears to be trying to shape the narrative that way — he also deserves his share of blame for the last few seasons.

The messy 2024 might just be the cherry on top in that regard. Between the split from Bill Belichick, the infamous The Dynasty documentary, and the dysfunctional nature of the team at the moment, Kraft has seen better years during his three decades of ownership. And while none of that should erase the past, it also is likely not strengthening the 83-year-old’s case.

The arrow is ‘pointing up’ for Javon Baker

Despite the confidence he exuded after the draft, rookie wide receiver Javon Baker has been quiet so far this season. In two games, the fourth-round pick has played a grand total of six offensive snaps and eleven more on special teams without registering any statistics.

The last four games, Baker did not see the field at all. However, his coaches are confident he will eventually start contributing.

“Better and better every day,” said wide receivers coach Tyler Hughes when asked about Baker’s progress. “I think his arrow is always pointing up, which is a good thing. I appreciate the way that he interacts and asks questions of me, of all the coaches, of his teammates. He wants to do a good job. He wants to get better. I think he’s improved in that area every day.”

Hughes added that he believes Baker would be “close” and eventually increase his playing time again. How will he do that, though? For Jerod Mayo, it’s all about improvement both on offense and in the kicking game.

“Just continue to get better,” he said. “Not only is he going to be a good receiver, but he’s also one of those guys that just loves football. He has to continue to improve in special teams as well. Look, there will be a time when he’s on the field, and he’ll be a good player for us.”

Patriots trying to prevent the first Jets in over two decades

For much of the last two decades, the New York Jets have been a punching bag for the Patriots. While they did have the occasional success, including a divisional playoff win during the 2010 season, they have continuously looked up to their AFC East rivals.

The tables may not have turned just yet considering the current state of the Jets. However, they are on the verge of doing something they have not accomplished since the year 2000: if they win at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, they would celebrate their first season sweep of the Patriots in a quarter century.

A change in media procedure

From the “behind the scenes” files. The Patriots have responded to an NFLPA plea about moving media access away from the locker room in order to help preserve players’ privacy.

While the locker room doors are still open for credentialed media members at select times, any video interviews are now being conducted in the New England Revolution locker room. Shots from players’ lockers, which have created some talking points in the past, are therefore now a thing of the past.

Setting up the week ahead

The Patriots’ schedule is set for the next few weeks, with Sunday’s game against the Jets the first of six straight 1 p.m. ET kickoffs. The next will come against the Tennessee Titans on Nov. 3, which will be the final game before the trade deadline.

Up until that contest in Tennessee, the Patriots will go through their usual schedule. Post-game work on Monday, including media availability for Jerod Mayo and some select players; an off day for players on Tuesday; practice Wednesday through Friday including the release of an injury report each day; pre-game walkthrough Saturday plus flight to Nashville.