FOXBORO, Mass. — In just one week — less than one week, actually — Drake Maye has been transformed from untested rookie to a man who has found his place with the New England Patriots.
The Patriots detailed three of their players for podium visits in the Gillette Stadium media room Wednesday morning, and, yes, tight end Hunter Henry and defensive lineman Deatrich Wise Jr. delivered good humor and eloquence. When Wise was asked what the Patriots are doing to correct mistakes as they prepare for Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, he supplied an answer that every high school coach in America should copy down and use at the next practice: “One thing that my dad told me was repetition’s the father of learning, doing something over and over and over so that it stays in your head and becomes second nature.”
Henry is in his ninth NFL season. Wise is in his eighth season, and all of his NFL time has been with the Patriots. That means there’s a Super Bowl ring lying around atop his bureau, mixed in with spare change and the odd cufflink. But Maye? He’s 22 years old and this is his first season. He’s appeared in just two games, one of them a garbage-time how-do-you-do against the Jets in mid-September, the other his inaugural NFL start last Sunday in which he threw three touchdown passes in New England’s 41-21 loss to the Houston Texans.
So he’s new to all this. And yet, to look at him, not so new. You know what that means? It means we have our first official, albeit monumentally far-fetched, comparison with Tom Brady. Like Brady, Maye chooses not to tip-toe around Foxboro showing a look on his face that makes you think he’s overwhelmed. He’s not overwhelmed. Nor was Brady. There’s an old story that Patriots owner Robert Kraft likes to tell, something about meeting Brady for the first time and the sixth-round pick telling Kraft, “I’m going to be the best decision you ever made,” or something like that. In most retellings, Brady is holding a pizza.
There’s no record of Maye making any such declarations. But what matters is that he comported himself like a veteran during Sunday’s losing cause against the Texans. Even after throwing his first career interception. Even after getting sacked four times.
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This apparent confidence by Maye isn’t going to take the Patriots on some kind of crazy run, a la Brady in 2001. He doesn’t have the supporting cast, and, if the early concerns about the very earnest Jerod Mayo are any indication, he doesn’t have the coach, either. Leastways, not yet. There’s lots of learning on the job taking place at Gillette Stadium this year.
But at a time when so much is going wrong with the Patriots, guess what? Maye’s very existence — that is, as starting quarterback — provides a season to kick back and talk football without being dragged into All The Other Stuff. And let’s be frank, there’s been a lot of Other Stuff going on with the Patriots these days that would have you believe the team is still owned by Victor Kiam and playing its home games at old Foxboro Stadium.
Let’s begin with the owner — the current owner, Robert Kraft. The should-be Pro Football Hall of Famer went on “The Breakfast Club” this week and took some blame for the Patriots’ fall from grace as national primetime viewing, but did so in a way in which he took no blame. Explaining his decision to fire Bill Belichick — yes, it’s a “firing” now, not the “mutual parting of ways” it was labeled last January — Kraft said, “Our record the last three to four years wasn’t what I wanted. And I had given him so much power. He had full control over everything. And shame on me, I should’ve had some checks and balances better.”
#Patriots Owner Robert Kraft discussing why he chose to fire Bill Belichick — Kraft regrets giving Belichick so much power without “checks and balances” in place.
“I kept him for 24 years. I didn’t enjoy having to fire him… I tried to do it in a classy way. And what he did for… pic.twitter.com/rFguq0Ccrw
— Carlos Talks Pats (@LosTalksPats) October 14, 2024
Bill Parcells stormed out of Foxboro in 1997 because, he said, the Patriots wouldn’t let him “shop for the groceries.” And now it’s Belichick getting fired because he did shop for the groceries. If that’s the reason Kraft made a coaching change, fine. But it’s not clear why Kraft is saying that now, with the 2024 Patriots lugging around a 1-5 record.
Next up is Tom Brady, who has been confirmed as a part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. It’s not the first time Brady has owned the Raiders, of course, except this time it’s on the executive level, not the field level. It’s a reminder that Brady never should have left Foxboro in the first place; had he been a Patriot for life it’s not unreasonable his ownership stake might have been delivered by the Kraft family.
More sobering is the news that defensive lineman Christian Barmore, who has been out of action since being diagnosed with blood clots earlier this season, was cited by police in Providence, R.I., early Wednesday morning for driving an unregistered vehicle. Barmore later posted on X that “I just experienced for the first time 5 Providence cops being very unprofessional racism at its finest.”
Mayo, speaking with the media Wednesday morning, said, “We’re aware of the situation. I had a conversation with him this morning. But like I said, at least for this time here with you (media), I just want to focus on Jacksonville.”
Considering the emotional toil Barmore no doubt is undergoing — he’s a gifted 25-year-old athlete who’s on blood-thinners, and his playing career is on hold — this is a don’t-rush-to-judgment story. It was impossible not to be moved earlier this year when a video was posted showing Barmore showing his mother the new house he’d bought for her. Now it’s impossible not to be moved watching body cam footage from the Providence Police Department, in which Barmore’s mother can be heard speaking with the police via speaker phone.
Everybody understood this would be a building season for the Patriots. And building seasons can sometimes be peculiarly fun, with fans seeing pieces fall into place and positive glimpses of the future unfolding.
This is not turning out to be that type of building season. Except at quarterback. It was the biggest question coming into the season. The early returns are limited — just that one start against Jacksonville — but it’s a good sign. But with everything else going on, it doesn’t feel like a return to the recent past by the Patriots, but to a long-ago past that nobody wants to revisit.
Required reading
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
