Drake Maye has the immense physical talent to transform the Patriots’ lackluster offense.
Is a seismic transformation guaranteed to happen? No. This is a rookie making his NFL debut here. But the possibility for change now exists with Maye as the Patriots starter. And really, the only place for New England’s offense to go is up. This unit currently ranks 28th in Expected Points Added per play.
Maye has high-caliber arm talent and functional mobility to elude defenders in the pocket and run when nothing’s there.
That combination led to Maye throwing for 4,321 yards with 38 touchdowns and seven interceptions as a sophomore in 2022 before a volume dip in 2023 that encouragingly featured his yards-per-attempt average increasing from 8.4 to 8.5 without the springy Josh Downs at receiver.
Nothing against Jacoby Brissett’s talents — because his arm strength is part of why he’s in his ninth year in the NFL — but Maye represents a different level of talent when cranking the RPMs on the football through a closing window or lofting the football deep down the field.
Now to the elephant in the room, New England’s pass-blocking unit, a far cry from the nearly two decades with Tom Brady under center. Brissett had been pressured on 46.3% of his dropbacks through Week 5, the highest rate in the NFL. In a perfect world, the offensive line for every rookie quarterback is cohered and sturdy. That’s often not the case.
Fortunately for the Patriots, a shoddy blocking unit is familiar to Maye. He was pressured 29.3% of the time — a reasonably low number — in his final season at North Carolina. But during his burst-on-the-scene campaign in 2022, when he tossed those 38 touchdowns at threw for more than 4,300 yards as a 20-year-old, he saw pressure 36.8% of the time, the 31st-most among 144 qualifiers. In those pressured scenarios that year, only Caleb Williams (14) threw more touchdowns than…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/patriots-drake-maye-has-the-talent-refined-skills-to-transform-new-englands-passing-offense/
Author : Chris Trapasso
Publish date : 2024-10-11 12:42:49
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