What Josh McDaniels is doing for Drake Maye that’s different from Alex Van Pelt
"This year, Josh McDaniels talks to him as much as possible."
Drake Maye has a lot more noise in his helmet this year than he did as a rookie in 2024.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has provided Maye a lot more feedback through helmet communications than former offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt did last season, the quarterback told Patriots preseason TV broadcaster Jason McCourty.
“[Van Pelt] didn’t talk in his helmet a lot. This year, Josh McDaniels talks to him as much as possible,” McCourty said during the broadcast of the Patriots’ win over the Vikings on Saturday (via the Boston Herald‘s Andrew Callahan). “So him gaining Josh McDaniels’s trust is something that — when Josh says something, [Maye] can anticipate what’s going to happen. ‘Hey, the safety’s looking like he’s going to come. Talk [to a teammate] about this.’
“Those are the things that, even as Drake is learning the offense as it’s written on the paper, [it’s] also operationally getting used to one another and building that relationship on the field on game day.”
NFL rules allow coaches to communicate with one player on the field either prior to the snap or when the play clock has 15 seconds remaining. Considering that Maye was a rookie last season, it’s a little surprising to hear that he wasn’t receiving as much pre-snap guidance as possible. However, Van Pelt was also in a relatively new role as well, with last year being the first time he called plays since 2009.
McDaniels, on the other hand, is one of the more seasoned playcallers in the league, having the ears of Tom Brady, Cam Newton, Derek Carr, Mac Jones, and others through helmet communications. Many lauded McDaniels’s work with Jones during the quarterback’s rookie season in 2021, believing he was a strong teacher for him.
Now, it’s Maye’s turn to lend his ears to McDaniels. He’s appreciated the guidance he’s gotten from the offensive coordinator so far, especially pre-snap.
“Yeah, it’s great,” he said. “I think having — before the 15 seconds goes out — constant reminders, or a little reminder here or there, it goes a long way for us because we’re dealing with a lot of stuff out there. And even a reminder in the huddle to say to a receiver, ‘Hey, get your depth.’ Or to an offensive lineman, ‘Hey, be ready for this.’ Something like that goes a long way, and he’s great at kind of giving little tidbits.
“And from there, it’s just working our communication of what I like hearing, and what [McDaniels] likes giving me before the snap.”
As McDaniels continues to work with Maye on diagnosing coverages and other pre-snap elements in the game, the offensive coordinator shared that he’s been most impressed by the quarterback’s improvement in situational moments in training camp.
“I was really excited by the way he handled these practices this week,” McDaniels told the Patriots’ preseason television broadcast on Saturday, referencing the joint practices the team had with the Vikings. “Practice, by nature, is always difficult because you put yourself in a scenario where you run the same thing over and over again, and that’s not really how a football game goes. So, there were a lot of long-yardage situations that he had to handle. A lot of two-minute drills. A lot of difficult low-red zone situations that he was a part of.
“We saw a lot of growth from him. Did a great job of taking care of the football.”
Maye, who only played two drives in Saturday’s game, put up impressive numbers during the two joint practices, according to most accounts. But, of course, what maye does in practice ultimately doesn’t matter if it doesn’t translate into positive results on game days.
As that question remains to be answered, there is one thing that’s clear about the dynamic between Maye and McDaniels. The duo has formed a close bond, even living near each other, as McDaniels has shown Maye tape from his previous Patriots stints.
“He gets on me for my landscaping,” Maye said with a laugh about McDaniels on The Athletic‘s “Scoop City” podcast. “But I’m worried about football right now.
“He sees [the game] so well,” Maye added of McDaniels. “It’s cool to watch all the old tape back of their games back in the day. He knows the down and distance, what was going on, who scored a touchdown, and what the protection was. We have plays in practice now and he pulls back old clips of that same play with something and kind of relates to that.”
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