New Patriots regime accused of failing Drake Maye before first NFL start

At the start of every NFL offseason, teams who did not perform well the season before begin making significant changes to their team, whether it be firing and replacing their head coach, finding a new starting quarterback, or completely reshaping their entire roster.

The Patriots are one of those teams this year that made the crucial changes needed to get back on track as a winning team. They first parted ways with Bill Belichick, who had been the team's head coach for 24 years and helped lead the team to six Super Bowl titles.

They replaced him with a rookie head coach, Jerod Mayo, which ensured the arrival of a brand new coaching staff. That was followed up by trading Mac Jones, the quarterback for the last three years, and using their first-round pick to select Drake Maye as his successor.

Plenty of other changes were made to the roster through free agency and the draft, which Mayo and Eliot Wolf believe were the right decisions to build around the rookie quarterback. But not everyone in or out of New England believe they've done enough to set Maye up to be successful this fall or in the future.

New Patriots regime accused of failing Drake Maye before first NFL start

Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report recently published an article reviewing the teams he views as failing their rebuild plans in 2024. Unfortunately for the Patriots, they're one of the teams on the list.

Despite the seemingly overwhelming applause of the decisions Mayo and Wolf have made this offseason, outside of a few problems that have been pointed out, Ballentine shares his thoughts about why the Patriots have already failed Maye before he's even taken a snap in a regular season game.

"The more concerning problem with their rebuilding approach is that they drafted Drake Maye without the surrounding talent for him to succeed. He was the top quarterback on our big board, but the Patriots have a dearth of proven production at two of the most important positions for a signal-caller.

New England could be starting Chukwuma Okorafor at left tackle. He couldn't hold on to the right tackle job with the Pittsburgh Steelers last season and only signed a one-year, $4 million contract in free agency.

The receiving corps might be the worst in the league. Javon Baker and Ja'Lynn Polk are promising rookies from a loaded class, but Kendrick Bourne and DeMario Douglas are the most accomplished weapons."

The lack of "surrounding talent" has been a talking point all offseason, which has prompted many trade proposals to land the Patriots a top-name wide receiver to put the offense over the top.

But it doesn't look like the new regime is actively trying to pull off such a blockbuster move, and have reiterated that the plan is to go through this rebuild slowly and effectively, with the playoffs not being a priority this season.

While, in theory, that makes a lot of sense, given how difficult their schedule is this season and the questionable group for the offensive line, it's easy to agree with Ballentine about the risk of putting Maye on the field at any point this fall. It could very easily become the Mac Jones experiment for the second time, which needs to be avoided at all costs.

Based on who will be free agents next year and the number of receivers who have already been given extensions or been traded, the Patriots will have limited options to boost their receiving corps to provide Maye with an impressive group to work with. They might have to settle on selecting their next WR1 through the draft, which is far from guaranteed.

Many of these concerns might come to light during training camp next month, or they could be settled if they perform better than expected. It's fair to say that perhaps the new regime hasn't put Maye in the best position this year, but there's still time for things to improve, so we have to wait and see.

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