This much is obvious: Game vs. Browns will show how Patriots have the QB advantage as Drake Maye has become elite
There’s no better confirmation of a quarterback’s high level of play than finding out he broke a record held by Tom Brady.
Welcome to Season 14, Episode 8 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup …
There are all sorts of ways, both anecdotal and statistical, to quantify Drake Maye’s breathtaking rise to elite quarterback status in a matter of four straight Patriots victories and four heady weeks.
Watching him play — with much-improved footwork, accuracy over the middle, poise under pressure, effortless ability to zip strikes all over the field, and absolute fearlessness in taking shots deep — has been a pure joy.
And some of his statistics are so impressive that you almost have to laugh while absorbing them. The most impressive, and perhaps telling regarding the quality of his play? His 91.3 completion percentage last Sunday against the Titans — when he completed 21 of 23 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns — set a Patriots franchise record.
There’s no better confirmation of a quarterback’s high level of play than finding out he broke a record held by Tom Brady.
Maye’s rise, which looks real and sustainable in every way, must annoy the daylights out of most other NFL franchises. Especially this week’s opponent, the Browns. Consider:
Since 2000, eight quarterbacks have started at least five regular-season games for the Patriots: Brady (283), Mac Jones (42), Maye (19), Drew Bledsoe (18), Matt Cassel (15), Cam Newton (15), Bailey Zappe (8), and Jacoby Brissett (7). That’s it. Eight.
Care to guess how many QBs have started five games in the same timeframe for the Browns? I’m setting the over/under at 23.5, Chauncey, and guess what? You should have taken the over.
Twenty-four quarterbacks have started five or more games for the Browns since 2000. Am I going to list them all? Come on, how long do you think this column is? Let’s just say that Baker Mayfield had the most starts in that span (59), and others on the list include legends such as DeShone Kizer, Seneca Wallace, Cody Kessler, Johnny Manziel, and Brandon Weeden.
The Browns’ current starter, rookie third-round pick Dillon Gabriel, should become No. 25 on that list next week. Sunday marks his fourth start since taking over for Joe Flacco (now with the Bengals), and he’s been adequate, throwing three touchdown passes without an interception while averaging 175.6 yards per start.
Gabriel is small (5 feet 11 inches), has been sacked 10 times, and has been a bit of a checkdown artist, averaging just 8.5 yards per completion. He’s probably more of a placeholder than the solution.
Most weeks, the Patriots will have the advantage at quarterback. This is one of the most obvious examples.
Kick it off, Borregales, and let’s get this thing started …
Three players worth watching other than the quarterbacks
Quinshon Judkins: If you’re a believer that NFL preseason is overrated, the Browns’ rookie running back is surely cited as evidence when you defend your take.
Judkins, drafted No. 36 overall in April out of Ohio State, didn’t sign with the Browns until the first week of September, missing the opener against the Bengals.
The delayed arrival did not delay Judkins’s rise to stalwart status, but his best performance so far is his most recent one. In the Browns’ 31-6 throttling of the Dolphins last Sunday, Judkins ran 25 times for 84 yards and three touchdowns, including one on a direct snap in the Wildcat formation. Judkins became the first Browns rookie running back since Travis Prentice on Oct. 8, 2000, to rush for three touchdowns in a game. And the last Browns back to score three touchdowns in a game previously? Nick Chubb, on Sept. 18, 2022.
Interesting seeing Chubb’s name. The Patriots’ longest-lasting lament from the 2018 draft is using first-round picks on tackle Isaiah Wynn and running back Sony Michel while Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson was still available.
But taking Michel at No. 31 over his University of Georgia teammate Chubb, who went No. 38 to the Browns, was regrettable in the long run, even with Michel’s strong playoff performance during the Patriots’ march to their sixth Super Bowl victory that season.
The more impatient among us are already wondering if the Patriots again got the worst of two options from the same college backfield.
Two picks after the Browns took Judkins in the second round, the Patriots selected fellow Ohio State Buckeye TreVeyon Henderson at No. 38. When Henderson looked electrifying in preseason, returning a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown against the Commanders on his first touch as a professional, it was easy to believe the Patriots had picked the better back.
Now? Henderson is in a rookie rut, hesitant and indecisive when he has the ball. He had just two carries for 5 yards last Sunday against the Titans, andhas just 43 carries for 153 yards (3.6 average) and a touchdown all season.
Judkins, despite missing camp and preseason, has been far better, with 109 carries for 467 yards and 5 TDs. We’ll see if that remains the case as their careers unfold.
Robert Spillane: Then again, the way the Patriots’ run defense has performed lately, Jenkins may run into a roadblock. The Patriots, who feature the NFL’s No. 2 rush defense (77.1 yards per game), held the Titans to 39 yards on the ground last week. Most impressively, they have not allowed an opposing running back to reach the 50-yard threshold all season.
Spillane, the eight-year veteran who broke into the NFL with Vrabel’s 2018 Titans, deserves some credit for that. After a slow start in his first season with the Patriots, he has become a relentless and reliable hitter in the middle of the defense.
Spillan has three games with double-figure tackles, including a Clayton Weishuhn-like 15 in Week 3 against the Steelers. He is tied with former Patriots Mack Wilson Jr. (Cardinals) and two others for 21st in the NFL with 53 total tackles.
Myles Garrett: The Browns feature the toughest defense the Patriots have played yet. This man is the reason why.
Garrett, a six-time All-Pro and the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, has excellent statistics so far this season, with 5 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss, and 10 quarterback hits. Yet they do not come anywhere near accounting for his total impact on the game.
The 6-4, 272-pound defensive end requires a double-team on virtually every play. He is unfathomably strong and moves with the grace of a small forward. While he’s technically an edge rusher, Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz moves him all over the place to take advantage of potential mismatches, as if everything isn’t a potential mismatch.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has to be preparing for Garrett to take his shots at rookie left guard Jared Wilson, who struggled mightily against the Titans last weekend.
The flashback
In perusing the teams’ shared history(the Patriots have won 14 of 27 meetings), I was looking for a specific detail. I was wondering whether current Patriots coach/former linebacker/occasional tight end Mike Vrabel had ever caught a receiving touchdown against the Browns.
Didn’t happen, as it turns out. Vrabel, who had 12 career receptions — amazingly, all for touchdowns, including two in Super Bowls — never caught a pass against the team he rooted for growing up in Akron, Ohio.
But in his regular job as a versatile, intelligent edge rusher over 14 NFL seasons, Vrabel came through with one of the best and toughest performances of his career against the Browns.
On Oct. 26, 2003, the Patriots beat the Browns, 9-3, behind three Adam Vinatieri field goals. The Patriots began that season 2-2. The win over the Browns was their fourth straight, improving them to 6-2. They would finish 17-2, beating the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII, 32-29.
Vrabel was the defensive star of that Week 8 win over the Browns, and an unlikely one considering that he was playing with a fractured arm, which had caused him to miss the Week 4-6 games.
Because Vrabel was playing through an injury, Bill Belichick put a limit on what he was asked to do, which freed him up in a way. The Patriots used him almost exclusively as an edge rusher in nickel situations.
The result? A pass rusher unleashed. Vrabel sacked Browns quarterback Kelly Holcomb, who had come in for injured starter Tim Couch, three times, the most sacks by a Patriot since defensive tackle Henry Thomas had a trio against the St. Louis Rams on Dec. 13, 1998.
Amusingly, Vrabel — who also contributed six tackles and a forced fumble — almost had a strip-sack on Couch early in the game, at least until a certain familiar rule was again deployed correctly.
Yes, the officials ruled it was not a sack or a fumble, but an incomplete pass … as determined by the Tuck Rule.
Grievance of the week
Not much new to gripe about regarding the Patriots, so let’s play a tune from the greatest hits album of grievances:
Why is the Pro Football Hall of Fame so intent on keeping so many worthy players out?
The NFL announced this week that 52 players had advanced in the voting process for the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026, and I’d say at least 10, at a minimum, should have been awarded a mustard-colored jacket already.
Here’s a partial list of players returning to the ballot this year that should already be in: Rodney Harrison, Darren Woodson, Adam Vinatieri, Eddie George, Willie Anderson, Jahri Evans, Torry Holt, Steve Smith Sr., Hines Ward, Ricky Watters, Luke Kuechly … and did I mention Rodney Harrison, who wasn’t even among the final 15 in last year’s voting. I did?
Well, let’s mention him again, because the secretive group of voters’ failure to elect one of the greatest safeties in league history remains a travesty among travesties.
Prediction, or Tim Couch would have been a superstar with a competent franchise
Vrabel, who spent last season with Cleveland as a coaching and personnel consultant, has an insider’s insight on coach Kevin Stefanski’s approach and the strengths and weaknesses of specific players. It’s an uncommon advantage, and it’s one the Patriots will likely need. The Browns are probably the runners-up to the Jets as most fans’ favorite franchise punch line, but that defense is no pushover. The Patriots will make it five in row, but not without tension. Patriots 19, Browns 13.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com