{"id":91752,"date":"2025-09-12T09:10:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T09:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=91752"},"modified":"2025-09-12T09:10:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T09:10:46","slug":"patriots-josh-mcdaniels-responds-to-critics-of-drake-maye-handling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=91752","title":{"rendered":"Patriots&#8217; Josh McDaniels Responds to Critics of Drake Maye Handling"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2226797235-1-e1757618671141.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2226797235-1-e1757618671141.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2226797235-1-e1757618671141.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2226797235-1-e1757618671141.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Patriots' Josh McDaniels Responds to Critics of Drake Maye Handling\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>FOXBOROUGH, MA &#8211; JULY 28: Josh McDaniels offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots talks with quarterback Drake Maye #10 during training camp at Gillette Stadium on July 28, 2025 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.(Photo By Winslow Townson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the wake of Sunday\u2019s massively disappointing 20-13 Week 1 loss to the Raiders at home, probably the first and most pertinent question that has arisen around the Patriots has been the relative readiness of quarterback Drake Maye. Which has led, in turn, to another pair of questions, both of which relate to offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.<\/p>\n<p>The first is whether, in the short-term, McDaniels is giving Maye too much to work through with his complex and read-heavy offense.<\/p>\n<p>The second is whether McDaniels and Maye can mesh and make things work at all in the long-term.<\/p>\n<p>Maye\u2019s numbers were not terrible: 30-for-46 passing, 287 yards with a touchdown and an interception. But there were times during the game when he appeared somewhat lost in the pocket, and unsure about what he should be calling at the line.\u00a0 So while there was some positive that can be gleaned from the loss, there is a lot more negative.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Josh McDaniels on Putting Too Much on Drake Maye<\/h2>\n<p>On the first point, McDaniels was blunt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. No,\u201d he said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t given him anymore than what we\u2019ve given him all year, which is not too much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If anything, the way Maye reacted during Sunday\u2019s game raised the question of whether he should have played more in the Patriots\u2019 three preseason games. He played only two games and was just 7-for-12 passing. Sunday was, effectively, Maye\u2019s first go-round in McDaniels\u2019 system, the fourth offense he has learned in four years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think, we have to understand it\u2019s his first game in our system. I think we have all learned a lot from each experience we have had. Every practice, Washington, the joint practice, Minnesota, preseason games. The little we were able to work together, obviously,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cThen the first full game that we have the opportunity to go through our operation and see things for the first time and follow our rules. Thought he made a lot of good plays, a lot of good decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Drake Maye Remains Inexperienced<\/h2>\n<p>One point that has been floating around New England in recent days has been just how inexperienced Maye is. He just turned 23, but more than that, he came into the NFL decidedly lacking in experience at the college level.<\/p>\n<p>Of the five quarterbacks who were drafted around Maye early in the first round in 2024 , he is by far the youngest and least experienced. Bo Nix played 61 college games\u00a0 and is already 25. Michael Penix played 48 college games and is also 25. Jayden Daniels will be 25 in December and played 55 college games.<\/p>\n<p>JJ McCarthy (40) and Caleb Williams (37) also played more college games than Maye, who only had 30 to his credit.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Patriots Stuck Waiting on Maye<\/h2>\n<p>The Patriots are stuck then, between waiting on Drake Maye and having spent $350 million in free-agent commitments so that they can win now.<\/p>\n<p>Said McDaniels: \u201cIt\u2019s gotta be a long-term vision of where this guy is gonna be. He is gonna be a really good player. It\u2019s just there are things that are going to happen in every game, especially at that position, that aren\u2019t going to be perfect. It\u2019s hard to play a perfect game at that spot, let alone any spot. No, I think Drake does an incredible job of preparing.<\/p>\n<p>Again, Maye is only 23.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would say the biggest thing for me is just, he\u2019s a young quarterback, you know?\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cHe\u2019s a young quarterback \u2026 He\u2019s the right guy. And so we\u2019re gonna have the opportunity to continue to grow and improve and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including &#8220;Fun City,&#8221; &#8220;Before Wrigley became Wrigley,&#8221; and &#8220;Facing Michael Jordan.&#8221; More about Sean Deveney<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patriots OC answered questions on Thursday about how the team is handling quarterback Drake Maye following the Week 1 loss to the Raiders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":91755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Patriots&#039; Josh McDaniels Responds to Critics of Drake Maye Handling - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=91752\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patriots&#039; 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