Mike Vrabel praises Drake Maye’s poise in Patriots’ first joint practice with Vikings
"We didn’t execute all the time, but I didn’t see any panic from him."
The Patriots’ offensive line looked somewhat disjointed lining up against the Minnesota Vikings defense in Wednesday’s first session of joint practices. But the pressure didn’t seem to rattle second-year quarterback Drake Maye.
It shouldn’t be all that surprising given that he’s seen his fair share of shaky line play in front of him, but Maye had little trouble extending plays on Wednesday to keep his offense in gear.
After a preseason game in which Mike Vrabel was somewhat critical of Maye’s decision-making, the Patriots coach was happy with what he saw on Wednesday.
“I thought he did well,” Vrabel told reporters. “It’s easy to go in the blender when you’re seeing a bunch of this stuff and kind of scrambling, and turning one less-than-favorable play into a real [expletive]-storm. I didn’t see that.”
Maye had a good feel for when the pocket was collapsing and where he could escape to, which at times translated to big-hitting plays rather than de facto sacks. At one point during the 11 on 11 portion of Wednesday’s practice, Maye extended the play to his right — after Garrett Bradbury got beat quickly up the middle — and placed a perfect ball deep downfield to Stefon Diggs near the sideline.
“I thought he was able to process. I mean, we didn’t execute all the time, but I didn’t see any panic from him,” Vrabel said. “I thought he was able to communicate and get the things that he wanted, and then hit some plays because of it. When we blocked them, we were able to make some plays.”
Maye’s offensive line is still a work in progress, and although it appears to be an improvement over last year’s group, there have been growing pains throughout training camp.
Namely, both of the consistent starters on the left side of the offensive line are rookies. No. 4 overall pick Will Campbell has been the primary left tackle, and fourth-round selection Jared Wilson has been taking the majority of the first-team reps at left guard. That kind of inexperience does not favor Maye early on, and Vrabel thought the matchup against a tough Vikings defensive line was a good learning experience for the younger group.
“It’s for the quarterback to be able to communicate and get us in the right protection, communicate and go from there, but execute, right?,” Vrabel said. “And I think the big thing is, once you communicate, we have to execute with the fundamentals and make corrections quickly and go from there.”
New England will continue to work with the Vikings on Thursday, and the teams will meet in a real game setting on Saturday for Week 2 of the NFL preseason.
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