Reading between the lines: Patriots could be gearing up for Drake Maye originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
FOXBORO — It’s not just that the Patriots are losing. It’s how they’re losing that could spark a change for them at the game’s most important position.
After a 15-10 loss that dropped the Patriots to 1-4 on the season, could head coach Jerod Mayo opt to play Drake Maye as early as this coming Sunday against the Texans at Gillette Stadium?
Starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett finished the game completing 18 of 34 passes for 160 yards (4.7 per attempt), giving him a passer rating of 65.8.
When Mayo was asked Monday morning to assess Brissett’s play on Sunday, he did nothing to squelch speculation that the Patriots could be looking to make a change.
“It just wasn’t good enough,” Mayo said. “I thought we played well enough defensively and on special teams to win the football game. As the quarterback, and he understands this, he touches the ball on every single play and we didn’t win the game or score enough points to win the game. I think he would echo that same sentiment, that it wasn’t good enough.”
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The numbers speak for themselves. The Patriots need to do something offensively to change the direction in which they’ve been trending.
They’re 31st in the NFL in points per game (12.4), yards per game (239.4) and yards per play (4.3). They’re tied for last in the league in touchdowns (five). Their passing game has been especially unproductive, averaging just 3.7 yards per pass play, which is 31st in the NFL. They’re 30th in EPA per pass play, per NextGen Stats.
After allowing 18 pressures on 37 dropbacks against the Dolphins (49 percent), the Patriots have a 48.3 percent pressure rate, which ranks last in the league. Their offensive line has been an issue all season, but the pressure issues on Sunday weren’t solely related to the blockers up front.
On their 18 pressured dropbacks, the average time to pressure was 2.96 seconds. That’s not an unmanageable number. For reference, the Chiefs have the second-longest snap-to-pressure time in football this season at 2.99 seconds.
While there were six dropbacks that were generated in under 2.0 seconds, there were five more pressures that came 3.5 seconds (or more) after the snap.
Not all pressures are created equal. And not all pressures necessarily mean the offensive line was beaten. Mayo seemed to agree Monday.
“I actually think they did a pretty good job,” Mayo said of his line. “Obviously there was pressure throughout the day, but there were also some pockets that seemed pretty clean… I did think they showed some progress there.”
The line helped the Patriots run for 7.9 yards per carry, and they appeared to leave the game healthy, which could open up the chance for them to have some consistency from Week 5 to Week 6 against the Texans.
The combination of the passing game’s performance and some “progress” on the offensive line could open the door for Mayo to make a change to Maye.
The question is — especially with the team still in the early stages of moving forward without center and captain David Andrews — does Mayo feels comfortable playing Maye behind this line as currently constructed?
It’s a unit that still hasn’t had the same starting lineup in any of its five games. And it’s a unit that is about to go against a Houston defense that in Week 5 hit Bills quarterback Josh Allen nine times and held him to a 30 percent completion rate.
There aren’t many obvious soft landing spots on the schedule for Maye to begin his career as Patriots starter. But after hearing Mayo’s commentary from Monday morning, and looking at the way in which they’ve performed offensively, the rookie’s debut could be on the horizon.
