All aboard the Maye train

It didn’t take much to get the Drake Maye hype machine charged up. All it took was two quarters for thevNew England region to be overcome with the epidemic of amnesia. Zappe Fever was nothing compared to this. This new epidemic could have longer effects.

There are a lot of deniers out there right now – among the media and fans:

I said the Patriots should have traded down with Minnesota to accumulate picks? No, not me.

I said JJ McCarthy was a better quarterback than Maye? No way.

I said Drake Maye was going to be a bust?

I said Maye was probably the sixth best quarterback in this draft?

I said Maye isn’t anywhere near ready yet and should sit his first year? I said he will wind up being a bust?

You will be hard pressed to find the people who said these things for the next few days. You would think Maye started the game 22-for-25 like Phil Simms once did in Super Bowl XXI.

No, Maye completed a little over half his passes. He was 6 for 11.

Maye must have thrown for over 200 yards then, right?

No. He threw for 47 yards.

So what is the big deal?

Everyone is gushing over his performance. Patriots’ fans have been having wet dreams the last few days reliving the deep pass over the middle that he threw to Javon Baker… which fell incomplete. Maye apologists all say Baker should have caught it despite Baker laying out for the pass. I would say the pass was a little overthrown with not enough air under it for Baker to catch up to it. I did like the way Maye sidestepped the pass rush, though. That was my favorite part of that play.

People point to another “beautiful” deep pass that Maye threw down the left sideline at the pylon again to Javon Baker, and again incomplete. Maye apologists, again, bashed Baker for being allowed to be shoved out of bounds on the pattern – ignoring the fact that the pass was thrown in the same direction out of bounds. It was a nice spiral, though.

People point to Maye avoiding the pass rush and scampering for six yards on his second play of the game as an example of his mobility. Actually, he was too quick to leave the pocket and should have been able to sidestep the rush – which he did later on the deep post to Baker – and have more time to throw.

People loved the fact that Maye scored on a 4-yard run off a RPO through a hole which even Mac Jones may have been able to score. OK, maybe not.

Don’t get me wrong – I liked what I saw from Maye, but I was always on board with drafting Maye, even over Jayden Daniels or Caleb Williams given the opportunity. I’ve argued that Maye should be the starting quarterback by mid-October. I always found it absurd that people were saying that he should sit out the whole season. A third overall pick – regardless of position – should never waste a season on the bench. Troy Aikman, Drew Bledsoe, and Peyton Manning all took their lumps their rookie seasons and all of them turned out okay.

One of my favorite seasons growing up was Bledsoe's rookie season when the team started out 0-11 and finished with five straight wins. It gave me, and all Patriots' fans, hope for the future – a future which saw a Super Bowl a couple of years later. The days of watching noodle-armed quarterbacks like Hugh Millen, Scott Secules, Marc Wilson, and Tommy Hodson were over. We now had our own Dan Marino here in New England.

The hype over Drake Maye’s performance in this exhibition game has gone way overboard. Everyone believes New England has now found their own Josh Allen.

Even 98.5 The SportsHub’s resident curmudgeons, Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti, were “pitching tents” (their words, not mine) talking about the game. Even Maye bashers, Tom E Curran and Greg Bedard, were changing their tunes and their timetables on when Maye should be New England’s starting quarterback.

Curran was one of those who said Maye should sit all year because the offensive line was so bad that they didn’t want to have a repeat of Mac Jone’s impaired development. Bedard – in his first evaluation of Maye back in January – was aghast at how mechanically flawed Maye was in college and said, originally, that the Patriots should absolutely stay away from Maye.

I am sure things were exacerbated by Jakoby Brissette’s lackluster performance the last two weeks, including an inexcusable interception thrown in his own endzone. I still think Brissette should start the first couple of regular season games. Let the offensive line gel a little more.

Maye’s preparation by his coaches this preseason has also been too much on the slow side. Bailey Zappe got more reps than Maye on the first day of camp, for crying out loud. Had Maye gotten more reps in practice and more playing time in the exhibition opener, I could see Maye starting Day One. As it is, if he performs well in the final exhibition game against Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders, I would no way be opposed to him starting the opener against Cincinnnatti. I would love it, actually.

From a fan standpoint, Patriots’ games will be far more exciting watching Maye play. How is it going to feel knowing you have this terrific talent standing on the sidelines with his helmet off and a clipboard in his hand? It would, and will, suck.

We know what Brissett is. He is Ryan Fitzpatrick, Vinny Testaverde, Nick Foles. He is a placeholder who will keep you in games and guarantee your team is competitive, but he will never make plays that will make you jump out of your seat.

Maye can do just that. He will also make you bang your head against the wall. But, that’s ok. It is better to feel something than nothing at all, right? I would rather have a quarterback who I don’t know what to expect from – either really, really good or really, really bad – as opposed to a vanilla quarterback who is going to throw short passes or get sacked all day.

That’s why I say give me Maye or Joe Milton any day over Brissette or Bailey Zappe. Watching Brissett or Zappe for any kind of a prolonged period of time would be like sitting in your backyard watching your grass grow,

And, yes, I would not rule out the possibility of starting Milton in the regular season opener if Jerod Mayo doesn’t want to go with Maye right away. Again, it would be more exciting. Did you see the way Milton ran over those defenders Thursday night? Give me more of that!

Of course, there is no chance Mayo would do something so extreme. Brissette was brought in here for a reason – to be a mentor. There is no one out there that fits that role better. Brissett accepts his role, unlike someone like Zappe who still believes he should be the starter on this team as the incumbent starting QB.

Nothing Mayo did on Thursday night should change your opinion much. If it did, you just haven’t done your homework and watched him play in college or watched his workouts. Everyone should know he has a world of talent. We didn’t just discover this on Thursday. There is a reason people – with far more football intelligence than any of us – decided he should be the third overall pick in the draft.

For many fans, it was the first time watching Maye play, in real time, for a prolonged period of time. Everything was on full display – his mobility, his strong arm, his sometimes erratic arm, his leadership, his exuberance, his charisma, his ability to speed through progressions, his intelligence, his impatience, his potential.

What Maye gave fans Thursday night is something Patriots' fans have been desperately searching for ever since Tom Brady left. He gave the fans hope.