After he tried on his crisp, new New England Patriots cap, and after he received his official Roger Goodell hug, Drake Maye spoke these words on worldwide television: “Oh, it’s a blessing. I’m blessed.”
Later on, during a video session with Patriots media, he said, “I’m stoked. I’m super pumped. I can’t wait to give New England … I’m looking so forward to it.”
Of course. Maye isn’t merely headed to the NFL, he’s being whisked to the big time on a magic carpet, which is the standard mode of transportation when you’ve been picked in the first round. As was widely speculated, the Patriots selected the 21-year-old North Carolina quarterback with the third pick, meaning he’s being looked upon as New England’s “quarterback of the future.”
But before discussing the quarterback of the future, it’s worth discussing a couple of New England’s quarterbacks of the past. One of them is Tom Brady, the other Mac Jones.
Brady? Sorry, that’s just the way it’s going to be, forever, when a newly minted quarterback pulls into Gillette Stadium.
But not to worry: Maye knocked the Brady question out of the park.
“Tom Brady’s the GOAT,” Maye said. “It’s easy to say that. He’s the best that ever played this game. I’m not going to be Tom Brady. I’m just going to try to be Drake Maye. And from there, I’m just trying to learn from him, hopefully get to know him a little bit.”
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And then there’s Jones, the former Alabama quarterback who was selected by the Patriots with the 15th pick in the 2021 draft. No need to go into a lot of film breakdown here; the Jones era in New England was a disaster. Jones is now back in Jacksonville, his hometown, and anyone with a heart hopes his tenure with the Jaguars turns out to be the launching pad that provides a reboot to his NFL career.
It’s often been said that Jones was set up to fail with the Patriots, and that things can only be better for Maye now that Bill Belichick and his revolving door of offensive coordinators have moved on. That’s wildly simplistic, of course, beginning with the sobering reality that Maye will be joining a team that as of this moment has some of the same problems that helped doom Jones in 2023: A faulty offensive line and a lack of receiving depth. Maye touched on that a little Thursday night, but did so via some clever deflection when it was put to him by a media type that there are plenty of NFL analysts out there barking that the Patriots’ situation for a rookie quarterback “… if it’s not the worst, is one of the worst.”
“I think they’re wrong,” was Maye’s quick rebuttal. He noted that “a lot of teams have low points,” and that, “I’m looking to help any way on the offense … and I’m just looking forward to being with coach (Jerod) Mayo in his first year. Congrats to him. And I think anybody who’s saying that, hopefully we’ll find out this season.”
Maye Day 😃 pic.twitter.com/XCHTanhaKY
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) April 26, 2024
The Mac Jones mess was a total team effort, of course, and that includes Jones himself. He was rarely a quarterback who could take his team into the red zone at crunch time, and the on-field whininess quickly grew tiresome. (And please don’t chime in to point out that Brady, too, did plenty of sideline caterwauling over the years. The man had earned his right to be a diva whenever it suited him.)
But Belichick never seemed to have the kid’s back, lowlighted by his 2022 decision to hand the offense to Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, two FOB who had limited experience on that side of the ball. It was disgraceful.
It’s easy to state that Maye won’t suffer these types of slights in 2024 and beyond, given a new Patriots regime that includes Mayo as head coach, Alex Van Pelt as offensive coordinator and somebody not named Bill Belichick building the roster. (Presumably Eliot Wolf.)
But no assumptions should be made. Oh, we can be assured things will at least be improved in terms of respect and dignity. As for actual management know-how, Mayo will be in his first year as head coach, Van Pelt is new to the organization and Wolfe needs to rebuild the offensive line and find receivers who can both catch the ball and advance the ball. It likely won’t all come together in 2024.
LIVE: Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo Draft Day 1 Press Conference#PatsDraft on @nflnetwork https://t.co/KDjmh5Ibjl
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) April 26, 2024
But there’s one thing Mayo, Van Pelt, Wolf and, yes, the Kraft Family Round Table, can do that Belichick & Co. could not bring themselves to do. They can respect their quarterback. Make that quarterbacks, since Maye has already made it known he’s built a relationship with veteran Jacoby Brissett, who began his career with New England under Belichick and now has returned to New England.
Belichick, by the way, was a presence Thursday night in his role as an analyst on “The Pat McAfee Show Draft Spectacular.” For those of us watching on YouTube, the first 10 or so minutes of the program were rather unspectacular, as the lack of sound made it seem more Charlie Chaplin than Pat McAfee.
But the sound arrived in time for Belichick to put it out there that Brissett is going to be “great” with the Patriots.
Nice of Belichick to ladle out praise for one of his players from the good old days. Too bad he had such a hard time with that during the bad old days.
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
