The Patriots got a much better look at their No. 3 overall pick on Thursday night, and Drake Maye gave New England reason for a hopeful future in his second preseason outing.
Maye, whose debut ended after just one series in a rain-soaked affair last week, played four total series in the second and third quarters, completing 6 of 11 passes for 47 yards while scoring New England's only touchdown on a 4-yard run late in the first half. The rookie quarterback led drives that were responsible for 10 of the Patriots' 13 total points in the exhibition loss to the Eagles.
On a night when the Patriots offense didn't do much without the first-round pick on the field, Jerod Mayo was impressed by Maye's "great composure."
"One of the reasons we drafted Drake was, you know, through the interview process you could kind of tell this was an even-keeled guy," the Patriots head coach told reporters after the game. "I think you guys can probably see it from the stands. This guy doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low. He was like that in college, he probably was like that as a kid, and he remains that way now, which is a good thing for a quarterback. Those guys have to maintain their composure and get the call to the huddle and get those guys out the huddle and be ready to go. He's always been like that in my mind."
Mayo added on Friday morning that he felt Maye "took a step forward" in his performance against Philly.
Maye got the opportunity to lead the Patriots' first-team offense, minus starting center David Andrews. His first pass was a 12-yard bullet to wideout Javon Baker, which moved the chains on third down and got New England into field-goal range. On his following drive, which started at midfield thanks to the Pats defense forcing a turnover on downs, Maye converted a third-and-long with pressure in his face, completing a 23-yard screen pass to JaMycal Hasty.
With the Patriots' ground game running smoothly, Maye exploited the Eagles defense with a good decision on a zone-read three plays later, faking the handoff to Hasty and running into the end zone untouched.
"I think every time you get out there you get more and more confident," Maye said. "First off, it's always gonna be the nerves running out there the first time. But other than that, the more reps (are) only gonna help me. At the end of the day, I'm just fortunate to get out there and get some reps, and try to make the most of my opportunities."
His performance in the second half was more on the shaky side, though it was then Maye played with the Patriots' second-team offense. It started with a fumbled snap, which was recovered; two plays later Maye lofted a beautiful deep ball to Baker on third-and-long, but the wideout couldn't come down with the diving catch despite securing the ball for a split-second before crashing to the turf.
Maye's night would end after another fruitless drive late in the third quarter, which ended with him getting sacked hard by Eagles pass rusher Nolan Smith as he was looking to throw deep once again.
"It's an awesome opportunity," Maye said. "Definitely some things I can clean up. I had some good things, had some bad plays, dropped snaps, you know, inexcusable for me. Other than that, probably just sometimes I'm scrambling when I can sit in there, hang on and try to make a throw. So, definitely a lot of things to learn from. Good to get out there and, like you said, get some tape to learn from. Other than that, I thought the guys fought. We played hard. Can look at a lot of things, but the one thing you can't question is our effort. That really starts it all."
Jacoby Brissett couldn't seem to get things going during his three possessions in the first quarter. The Patriots' starter got into scoring position after a short drive, but threw a bad interception in the end zone to sour his outing (3 of 7 for 17 yards).
It's part of the reason why Maye was all the buzz after a good-but-not-great performance. Asked if the Patriots' open-ended offensive line would be the barrier to Maye beating out Brissett, Mayo indicated that the rookie is still in the running, which could mean he gets more time with the 1s as the season approaches.
"For me, we always talk about competition, and that's at all spots," Mayo said. "Even if Drake beats out Jacoby, he earned that role. We don't really take that into consideration when he's ready to go. If he's better than Jacoby, then he'll play and he'll start."
