When Mike Vrabel took the reins of the New England Patriots in January, he had a huge task on his hands. He knew he had a top young quarterback in Drake Maye, who needed to be surrounded by better players. He also needed an offensive coordinator (OC) who'd take advantage of the dual-threat passing and running skills Maye possesses.
He hired former Patriots' OC Josh McDaniels to engineer the team's new offense. While McDaniels had little experience coaching running quarterbacks, as Patriots analyst Greg Bedard theorized, he'd evolve into the role. While that's not necessarily the best option, Vrabel hired McDaniels, and the collaboration began.
After an initial rocky start, trying to shoehorn Maye into the drop-back passer role he employed for almost two decades with Tom Brady, McDaniels finally got the message. Maye was a dual-threat quarterback who could pass and run equally effectively. He began to adapt his offense to take advantage of it.
Obviously, it's worked well. His "Letting Drake Maye be Drake Maye" has made all the difference the past nine games and catapulted the Patriots to the top of the AFC East and more.
Josh McDaniels has more to do to maximize Drake Maye's skills
As the weeks have ensued, McDaniels has begun to diversify the offense, after initially employing an almost entirely vanilla style that resulted in a 1-2 record at the outset. As McDaniels has adapted, he's introduced more deception into the offense designed to take advantage of Maye's mobility to create difficulties for defenses.
While the current offense is still too predictable, it's evolving. We're now seeing some end-around plays and rudimentary read-pass-options (RPOs) at which Maye is very proficient, though not enough to make a massive difference in game-planning for opposing defenses.
Getting to that level has to be the next target. Maye's running skills can't compare in dynamic power to Josh Allen's or in sheer speed to Justin Fields. Yet, he still can gash defenses for solid yardage with his quickness and ability to spot an opening on a broken play and turn it quickly into an unlikely first down.
Certain limitations on the Patriots have stunted the offense's growth
Drake Maye's overall skills have made up for a host of offensive deficiencies, making a strong case for himself to win the NFL's highest individual award, the Most Valuable Player (MVP). Yet, both Maye and McDaniels still have a huge challenge ahead, especially now that injuries have taken the left side of the offensive line off the field for the foreseeable future.
Hopefully, backups Ben Brown at left guard and either Vederian Lowe or Marcus Bryant at left tackle will provide adequate cover until starting left guard Jared Wilson and left tackle Will Campbell return to action.
Now, it will be even more incumbent on McDaniels to "let Maye be Maye" and to implement more options that allow his mobility to dictate play. That should include programmed quarterback runs such as reverses, used so effectively off RPOs by Fields against the Patriots' defense, as well as a whole host of other deception plays to confound opposing defenses.
None of this will be easy, especially with the O-line injuries. Regardless, McDaniels has the unflappable Drake Maye, and it's his responsibility to fashion an offense, whatever the adversity, to best utilize his pinpoint passing and nimble running to the Patriots' advantage. How well they perform on that assignment over the next five games will determine their playoff standings in 2025.