FOXBORO — Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is quickly learning that heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Maye has taken an enormous second-year leap as one of the NFL’s top MVP candidates, and with that status comes more criticism.
Last week, it was Stephen A. Smith and Cam Newton taking shots at Maye. Now, Giants pass rusher Brian Burns is weighing in with what appears to be criticism masked as praise, or vice versa.
On Tuesday, Burns said he wasn’t “really too sure yet about how quick (Maye) is to process everything” and said the Patriots quarterback “does seem to be poised — maybe a little too poised — in the pocket.”
What exactly does that mean?
“I feel like, at times, he’s so caught up in making the right play or getting so caught up in his routes downfield, he just forgets about somewhat of who’s rushing him, if that makes sense,” Burns said. “It could be a bad thing, it could be a good thing. What I mean by poised is that he takes his time, he makes the right reads and he tries to make the right play. It can also bite you in the butt at a certain amount of times if you’ve got edge rushers coming and you’re not really too cognitive of where they are.”
Maye’s reaction: “I try to keep my eyes down the field with feeling the pressure. I think that’s part of playing the position. So just trying to make the right play. And I know he’s a great player, and he’s had a great year. So, just try to have a feel I guess of where he’s at, and I know he’s made a lot of plays. So just keep on doing of what I’m doing of trying to avoid those guys and hit our guys downfield.”
Maye has been sacked a ton this season. His 39 total sacks rank third in the NFL behind Titans QB Cam Ward and Raiders veteran Geno Smith. But a lot of those aren’t traditional sacks, and they don’t exactly reflect that Maye is unaware of pressure bearing down.
Maye’s offensive line has allowed just 11 sacks so far. Non-offensive linemen have let up three sacks. Four of Maye’s sacks came when he ran out of bounds at or behind the line of scrimmage. Three more sacks came when Maye was scrambling outside the pocket but got tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage. Twelve sacks came when Maye either stepped into or ran into sacks at or behind the line of scrimmage. He held the ball for too long on a sack by Steelers pass rusher Nate Herbig in Week 3 and lost six yards. He also evaded pressure and ran into a sack for a three-yard loss in that same game. The final two sacks unaccounted for came on busted plays.
Maye has also done a much better job of avoiding sacks over the last three weeks, when he’s been sacked just three total times.
“I think it’s just stop taking the 1- and 2-yard sacks. Some of them, I’ve run out of bounds. And I think just trying to throw it in the dirt one time, or just trying to be — shouldn’t have taken one last game on the play that the DB got me. That’s been a focus with mine. Those guys do a great job up front, just trying to reward them with with good numbers.”
He has his work cut out for him evading pressure this week with Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Abdul Carter and Dexter Lawrence rushing at him with an injury-depleted offensive line.
“Those guys are certainly impactful players that have to be accounted for every play,” head coach Mike Vrabel said Wednesday. “They rotate them through there pretty good, and so there’s a lot of juice there. There’s a lot of disruption.”
Patriots rookie left tackle Will Campbell is on injured reserve with a knee injury, and rookie left guard Jared Wilson is expected to miss Monday night’s game with an ankle injury. That elevates Vederian Lowe and Ben Brown into starting roles next to center Garrett Bradbury, right guard Mike Onwenu and right tackle Morgan Moses.
The Patriots’ offensive line ranks 10th this season in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric. Maye might not be as comfortable in the pocket this week, but his wide receivers can help him out.
“Be decisive. Get open as fast as you can,” wide receiver Stefon Diggs said Wednesday. “Being decisive and being efficient. That’s what a quarterback likes to see, especially a young quarterback. He’s had some games under his belt now, so he obviously knows what to anticipate and what to look for. So, look forward to the challenge for us, but we got to be open and we got to catch the ball.”
Maye will likely need to adjust and get the ball out faster. Of 35 qualified QBs, he has the 28th-fastest time per dropback, 29th-fastest time to throw, 30th-fastest time to sack and fourth-fastest time to scramble.
He showed a willingness to get rid of the ball faster last week when Campbell, Wilson and Moses all left the game at different times. He also showed an awareness that pressure would be coming from the right side of the line when rookie Marcus Bryant filled in for Moses.