The Patriots lost to the Commanders, 20-10, in their final game of the preseason Sunday night. It was a classic good news, bad news scenario.
The good news? Rookie quarterback Drake Maye, whom New England selected with the third pick in the draft this spring and hopes represents the future of its franchise, had another solid preseason outing. In his five drives, Maye threw for 126 yards and a touchdown and generally looked the part of a starting NFL quarterback. The touchdown pass showed off his arm talent, as he threw across the field on a rope to running back Kevin Harris. Another pass, off play-action with his back to the defense, to rookie wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk on a crossing route, provided a vision of what this Patriots offense wants to be. Crucially, Maye also scrambled 17 yards to convert a third-and-14.
Why did I say “crucially”? Well, here is the bad news. This offseason was supposed to be about kick-starting Maye’s development and finding out if and when he might be ready to play. But it’s starting to look like whatever progress Maye has made might be on hold as long as getting him in the game means putting him behind the offensive line responsible for those third-and-longs, one that could be among the league’s worst and has repeatedly put New England’s quarterbacks in harm’s way.
The offensive line has proved to be a glaring issue throughout training camp. I visited Foxborough earlier this month, when the Patriots were hosting a joint practice with the Eagles, and whew, boy. It was rough. It was just one day, and I thought that practice would have to be the low point for this team’s offensive line play this summer. But then came Sunday night. I’m not sure how you stack a practice session in which the first- and second-team offenses allowed more sacks than the offense had completed passes up against a game in which protection errors contributed to multiple injuries, including one to quarterback Jacoby Brissett, and the starting linemen generally struggled to execute basic plays. But to break the tie, the Patriots’ offensive line was so poor and so haphazard Sunday night that referee Shawn Hochuli couldn’t resist needling tackle Chukwuma Okorafor for his second of three illegal formation penalties in the game.
“Illegal formation, once again, left tackle no. 77,” Hochuli said.
Getting sassed by a Hochuli is rock bottom. Sorry. I don’t make the rules.
Of course, the offensive line was a problem last year, too. A big one. New England fielded an offensive line that ranked 32nd in pass-block win rate and finished 22nd in expected points added per rushing attempt during the 2023 season. Its tackle play, in particular, was poor—New England ranked 21st in total pressures allowed and 26th in average time to pressure last season—and a big part of the offensive mess that defined Bill Belichick’s last year as head coach.
Yet in the offseason, even as the Patriots tried to reset for the Drake Maye era while they were flush with cap room, their roster moves to address the offensive line were relatively minor. New England signed former Steelers tackle Okorafor to a one-year deal and drafted two players: former Penn State tackle Caedan Wallace in the third round and former Texas A&M guard Layden Robinson in the fourth.
That meant that, going into training camp, the offensive line consisted of Vederian Lowe and Okorafor at left and right tackle, respectively; Sidy Sow and Mike Onwenu as left and right guards, respectively; and David Andrews at center—an underwhelming albeit experienced group. The rookies Wallace and Robinson were expected to mostly work with the backups, while 2022 first-rounder guard Cole Strange continued to rehab from a serious knee injury from last season.
But throughout the preseason, that group has been in flux. Lowe has been dealing with an oblique injury for the past week, which forced Okorafor to move from the right side to the left, Onwenu to kick out to right tackle, and Robinson to move into the starting group at right guard. Then, on Sunday night, Sow went down with an ankle injury, and backup Michael Jordan entered the game in his place.
Andrews at center is the only settled position, and even if everyone gets healthy soon, the line still leaves a lot to be desired. Okorafor and a couple of mid-round draft picks were never going to be major upgrades.
It’s not like anyone thought the Patriots would field a top-five line this season. And preseason results are nothing to get too worked up over. New England still has over $50 million in salary cap room this year—though those deep pockets make their limited free agency acquisitions all the more curious. But New England’s offensive line issues have stood out not just because they’ve been especially glaring, but because they suddenly seem to be standing in the way of Maye’s development.
If the Patriots had better protection to offer him, it sure seems like Maye would be the starting quarterback in Week 1. He’s been better than Brissett through training camp practices despite taking fewer reps with the starters, and his performances in preseason games have been significantly better. Even Mayo said as much in a radio interview with WEEI on Monday.
“Drake has outplayed Jacoby,” Mayo said.
Yet it seems as though Maye will open the season on the bench, as long as Brissett is healthy. (Brissett, who started Sunday’s preseason game, hurt his shoulder getting sacked on New England’s first drive on a play where multiple Patriots players ran into each other.)
New England hasn’t officially named a starter, but multiple reports have suggested the team is leaning that way. Last week, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt called Brissett the team’s “starting quarterback.”
If that’s the case, even though Maye has outplayed him—something that is true according to the head coach and certainly was true the day I watched practice—it stands to reason that the entire offensive ecosystem is a factor. Even if Maye might be ready to go, the rest of the team simply isn’t. It’s a fair point of view, especially considering what New England went through with their last first-round pick at quarterback, Mac Jones.
To a degree, the Patriots prepared for this by signing Brissett. He arrived in New England as a known quantity with a lot of goodwill—he was a well-liked backup for the Patriots in 2016, and he played his best season as a starter in Cleveland in 2022 under offensive coordinator Van Pelt, who is now calling plays in New England. Brissett is an ideal bridge quarterback—competent and genial—to play until a rookie like Maye is ready.
But the thing is, Brissett hasn’t had a good camp. That’s in large part because he’s just not the type of quarterback who can do much to mitigate a porous offensive line. During that 2022 season in Cleveland, Brissett played behind a line that included two Pro Bowl guards (Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller) and a line that finished the season third in pass-block win rate overall. Any quarterback would find a situation like that helpful, but especially one like Brissett, whose mobility is limited.
That’s not to say Maye’s game is perfect against pressure. His college tape reveals a mixed bag—his pressure-to-sack rate of 19 percent was lower than Caleb Williams’s and Jayden Daniels’s, the two quarterbacks who went before him in the draft, but it’s still higher than ideal. Too often, Maye found himself running into pressure.
Still, Maye’s game simply has a lot more mobility and athleticism than Brissett’s. He’s better suited to run away from pressure. And in college, he was especially accurate throwing from outside the pocket.
The Patriots are facing a bit of a paradox. They want to protect Maye from their offensive line, but Maye is actually better suited to the type of environment that line is likely to create.
They may try to hold off as long as possible, but my money says all this means Maye will get in the lineup sooner rather than later. Mayo is a first-year head coach, and holding on to the locker room will be essential. And there’s only so long a coach who told his players there would be a competition at quarterback can sit the guy who by all accounts won that competition—even if it’s for his own good. Even if the team brass is thinking about 2025 or 2026, the players are thinking about success this year, the team’s and their own.