The NFL doesn't give anyone a second to catch their break. A week-to-week league is ruthless, and players are often judged on their last performance rather than what they've done throughout the season.
That's why, once again, the discourse around Drake Maye is far from flattering. He had a big dud in the loss to the Green Bay Packers, and as usual, social media has been on fire since he didn't play well.
While people should know better than to listen to outside noise about Drake Maye, CBS Sports' Garrett Podell may have nailed it with his latest description of the Patriots' quarterback. He bumped him down four spots in his power rankings to No. 12, calling him Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
The Patriots need much more consistency from Drake Maye
Let's ignore the fact that Maye is now ranked behind Dak Prescott, Jayden Daniels, and Kirk Cousins, which is extremely questionable. Let's not even focus on him being outside the top ten, another aberration.
The real problem here is consistency—or the lack thereof. Maye plays the most important position in team sports, so the team needs to know what to expect from him week to week, and that hasn't happened this season.
Consistency is key in this line of business. It's better to pass for 220 yards and two touchdowns with no picks every week than to go off for 350 yards and three scores today and throw four picks in the very next game. That's not a winning formula.
Maye is a work in progress, and he'll make mistakes; everyone does. People judge him as if he had been in the league for a decade, but he's still learning the ropes at quarterback, and he'll only get better as he works on his reads and decision-making.
To be fair, it hasn't been all on him. His team has been severely decimated by injuries, especially on offense, and he's been asked to do too much with too little.
Of course, scrutiny is part of the job, and he must be mentally strong enough to handle the outside noise. This season, however, it feels like he just can't get out of his own head after a mistake; he can't seem to shake it off.
The Patriots can't afford to have him dwelling on every missed read or interception when things don't go his way early in the game. They need him to have a short memory, regardless of what happened on the previous play; it doesn't matter whether he's in a groove or struggling.
It feels like Maye will finish the game how he starts it. The team needs to make sure he finds his rhythm early with some easy completions and scripted drives, but that's on him, too. There's no doubt that he's the right guy for the job, but it also feels like he's becoming his own worst enemy.
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