Inside Drake Maye’s first Patriots start, from a trust-earning meeting to his alluring, roller-coaster day

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — As the New England Patriots shifted to the two-minute drill, their rookie quarterback settled in.

Drake Maye knew this collection of calls. He knew that the Houston Texans were playing man coverage and creeping toward him. And the third overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft knew that the receiver he’d warmed up with until the final substitution for his first series had asked for a shot.

So Maye exploited the Texans’ belief that his first-quarter interception had quieted the downfield passing game. He exploited the separation he trusted Kayshon Boutte to find against another third overall pick, cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.

Dropping back in a pocket cleaner than most Patriots pockets this year, Maye sailed a 40-yard touchdown to Boutte’s back shoulder.

“I felt like in this group, we can push the ball downfield and make plays in the passing game,” Maye said. “Tried to let one ride and give Boutte a chance.

“That was my thought process: Give him a chance.”

The Patriots did not win Maye’s first career start. The 41-21 loss to the now 5-1 Texans showed New England how far it is from rallying around a highly drafted quarterback to contend as the Texans are doing with C.J. Stroud.

And yet, Maye’s goal for Boutte on his first touchdown might as well have described Maye’s own role in his first professional start.

Give them a chance.

Even as the Texans outpaced New England, Maye seemed like he will do just that.

New England head coach Jerod Mayo praised how Maye controlled the huddle and read the defense, the quarterback’s ceiling flashing even as his floor sometimes quivered.

The Patriots have a long way to go — but against the Texans, Maye hinted at how much further he might be able to take them.

“It’s definitely encouraging,” Mayo said. “From a team-wide perspective right now, we let him down. It was his first game, and I feel like I let him down.

“We’ve just got to be better.”

Maye’s ceiling, floor sparked Patriots style differently from Jacoby Brissett

The Patriots’ decision to start Maye this week was controversial.

Few disputed that their offense was floundering with veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett. But was the league’s worst passing team, second-worst scoring team and worst pass protection unit really ready to support prime draft capital?

Decisions like this have ruined quarterbacks.

Maye wasn’t immune from rookie moments, from his initial three-and-out to sacks that seemed to catch him by surprise and a case of happy feet that prompted an illegal downfield pass.

“I was a little amped at the start, for sure,” Maye said.

Slowly he started to realize how he could have checked the ball down in times when he threw it away. He realized pass rushers like Will Anderson Jr. could tip balls well enough to set up interceptions and that misfiring or miscommunicating on a first-quarter overthrow of DeMario Douglas would also play quite literally into the opponent’s hands.

“I missed a little high, and you can’t miss high over the middle in this league,” Maye said.

He tackled Texans rookie safety Caden Bullock on the 29-yard return.

Even as a two-interception, two-fumble day positioned Houston to score 17 points off turnovers alone, Maye also sparked the Patriots’ offense in ways it had not seen all season.

Maye’s initial touchdown to Boutte traveled 51.7 air yards, per Next Gen Stats, the longest completion by a Patriots QB in the past three seasons.

His 6-yard touchdown to tight end Hunter Henry seemed to reflect a defense respecting the mobility that he powered to a team-high 38 rushing yards, Maye picking up three first downs on five carries in Rhamondre Stevenson’s absence with a foot injury.

In all, Maye found three different receivers for touchdowns, giving Boutte the first of his season and Douglas the first of his 20-game career.

The quarterback took pride in finding Douglas in stride for the score after the earlier interception on an earlier Douglas target. Why not rebound with a second explosive-play touchdown?

Maye and his receivers had been taking extra reps every day after practice and were eager to translate them to game day.

“Sometimes out there, it was a lot of fun on offense,” Maye said. “That’s what I told the guys in the huddle at the end: We’ve got the guys in the huddle. We’ve just got to make a few more plays and play complementary football.”

Inside meeting that helped Maye build trust — and where Patriots go from here

Dating back to training camp, Maye’s creative arm angles and scramble-drill fluency impressed the Patriots. But until this week, his rotating cast of offensive linemen had limited insight into the quarterback’s mental acuity.

Did the 22-year-old understand the why behind plays, or just have the physical gifts to excel regardless? How deeply did he understand protections?

Wednesday, Maye’s protectors got a crash course. He led their post-practice pressure meeting and blew them away.

“For a rookie to come in and run that meeting was impressive,” left tackle Zach Thomas told Yahoo Sports. “He was just running the show [which] builds a lot of trust.”

Three different linemen spoke on how Maye navigated checks with his centers (the Patriots have started three already this year), how his linemen would slide to take on some of Houston’s pressures and with which assignments they would counter the Texan rushers’ twists.

Left guard Michael Jordan described Maye’s meeting presence as “assertive” and “confident,” ensuring the standard Brissett set did not waver.

Sidelined center Nick Leverett (ankle) reflected on an earlier week when Maye asked Leverett to explain a call that he had told Brissett. Then Maye realized he knew the answer.

“So as soon as I started to say it, he finished it, and I was like, ‘OK, all right, you might know this,’” Leverett told Yahoo Sports. “As a veteran guy, I’ve been around veteran quarterbacks: Tom [Brady], Jacoby, Baker [Mayfield]. Just to see how much knowledge he has is good.

“To be that young, he’s very smart.”

Perhaps that acuity contributed to the decrease in pressure rate the Patriots saw vs. the high-pressure Texans, TruMedia recording New England’s pass blockers as allowing a 33.3% pressure rate after Brissett had absorbed pressure at a 50% clip.

Maye knew he still needed to find more success on first and second downs to avoid the third-and-longs that doomed the Patriots to a 3-of-13 day on third. But he also gave the Patriots a season-high 243 passing yards and 291 total yards, Maye’s three touchdown passes in one game surpassing the two that Brissett had thrown in five outings.

The Patriots needed to look no further than their day-of opponent to dream of the best-case scenarios for the rest of Maye’s rookie year.

Stroud arrived in Houston last year as a top-three pick to a similarly struggling Texans team, losing his rookie debut as he threw for 242 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions.

It wasn’t long before he’d thrown 23 touchdowns to five interceptions, his Offensive Rookie of the Year season catapulting Houston from 3-13-1 to division champions.

Will Maye follow Stroud’s path? The Patriots’ supporting cast and NFL history call that premise into question.

But Stroud’s entrance to the league speaks to how far a rookie can come from his first start to the end of his rookie year, much less the end of his career.

Stroud’s advice to Maye: Focus on completions, positivity, elevating his supporting cast and discipline.

“It doesn’t happen overnight,” Stroud said. “You’ll have bad days. You’ll have good days. There’s days where you’ll look at yourself like, ‘Man, I’m the worst quarterback in the world.’ But it’s always about getting up the next day [to] keep going.”

In a postgame on-field exchange, Stroud encouraged Maye.

“I told him how much I believed in him,” Stroud said, “and I hope to see him do well in this league.”