Drake Maye is already getting compared to Mac Jones at Patriots training camp

Because the Patriots used the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to select Drake Maye with the intention of him becoming the next franchise quarterback, fans and reporters have decided that means he must be immediately pro-ready and impress every day on the practice field or else he's a bust.

Perhaps the negative mindset could be attributed to the lack of success in finding a suitable quarterback since Tom Brady left four years ago, with Cam Newton being the first and the failed experiment with Mac Jones.

However, some of the early evaluations and comparisons of Maye are getting out of hand.

Not all rookies come into the NFL performing at a high level, no matter how good they played in college or where they were drafted. While it's understandable to have high expectations for a player taken in the top 5, it's unfair to conclude one way or the other about his potential as time goes on.

Patience is key in a situation like Maye's in New England, as the team undergoes a drastic change of coaches, play style, and more.

Maye's early struggles in training camp are not uncommon and should be accepted as such. It does not mean he won't be good, he never was good, or the Patriots made a mistake in drafting him. That makes one of the latest evaluations and comparisons of the quarterback to Mac Jones downright foolish and shows how spoiled the New England area has become from the two decades of success.

Drake Maye's early struggles don't warrant laughable Mac Jones comparison

The questionable comparison was brought to light by NBC Sports Boston's Michael Holley, who has seemingly fallen down the rabbit hole of negative media baiting.

Although Maye has had some bad performances during summer practices so far, Holley's claim that he "saw the ghost of Mac Jones" while watching the rookie is not a fair assessment and lacks a lot of context when discussing what we're seeing from Maye in recent weeks.

It's not unjust to report what we're seeing in real-time from Maye, who hasn't been the greatest this past week.

But at the same time, knowing that the offensive line hasn't been stout, that Maye has been working with the second-string offense, and that he's a rookie with developing to do makes this an even more ridiculous take.

Unfortunately, this narrative is catching fire and becoming a talking point when discussing how Maye has been performing. Although it's not exactly shocking, given how the team has been covered in the past, it's not a great welcome for the rookie to the team he hopes to be the starter for a long time.

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