Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDanieks met with the media on Monday and as you can imagine, quarterback Drake Maye was one of the main talking points of the session.
Maye has had a good camp thus far. He has had a couple of questionable practices if you will but so far, McDaniels is pleased in terms of what he has seen from the second year signal caller and the offense as a whole.
“I think we make progress every day. He’s done a lot of good things. Then to me, the greatest part about training camp is you have an opportunity to see different things, experience things you’ve never experienced, either with the group that you’re out there with or within our own system against different defenses, our defense, Washington, Minnesota this week. All of those, to me, are super valuable for us in terms of his growth in the system and our offense’s growth together. Just to encouraged by what we’re doing every day. I really like the trajectory that we’re on.”
Maye has looked comfortable in McDaniels system. A system that has helped the Patriots win three of the franchise’s six Super Bowls. A system that is also notoriously hard on quarterbacks. McDaniels says that Maye has been a quick study and he has avoided repeating mistakes which is key as a quarterback.
“He works extremely hard every day to be prepared for each practice. He’s a quick learner, that’s for sure. The biggest thing we’ve tried to talk about since we got to get on the grass in the spring is to try to limit the number of repeat errors. If we make an error, that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing as long as we learn from it and don’t repeat it again.” McDaniels added: “He’s a pretty quick study in that regard. He’s got a great memory. Sometimes in football, things happen one day, and they might not happen again for two, three weeks. But you still got to try to process that in the moment and do it when it counts. Again, excited about him, the whole group, in terms of their willingness to learn from their mistakes, and then come out and get better the next day.”
McDaniels was asked about Maye’s athleticism and when he decides to put the ball down and take off. He was asked if there is a fine between playing reckless and making plays.
“Hopefully, it won’t be a tough line to straddle. I think he’s still learning all of those things. He’s like… He’s such a gifted athlete. I think a lot of guys that play this position that have ability to throw it, but also to move and make plays with their legs and extend plays, they have to find that line themselves, honestly. McDaniels added: “We can tell them all we want, ‘Don’t make a bad play.’ You know what I mean? I’m going to be the first one in the end zone when he extends a play. We all saw the one to pop early in training camp. If I was telling him to throw that away, I’d have been pissed at myself. You know what I mean? I think, I would say this, he’s definitely more aware as we go into this training camp and the next practice and all that. You saw him slide a couple of times the other night, which was great. Again, there’s a fine line between holding onto the ball too long in certain situations and then doing the right thing to help the team. Those guys that were blessed with that ability, they’re the ones that have to go out there and learn how to do that and balance it.”
So far the marriage between Maye and McDaniels has been seamless. The two are a good fit for each other.
McDaniels system has been wildly successful in New England and as long as Maye keeps buying and playing within the system, he will develop just fine.