Bill Belichick (Indirectly) Sums Up Patriots’ Drake Maye Preseason Dilemma

In a perfect world, rookie quarterback Drake Maye would be getting his feet wet in Patriots preseason games. This team is far from a perfect world, as evidenced by a 4-13 record in 2024.

If you blinked, you might have missed Maye's professional debut. The North Carolina product logged just one, six-play drive in New England's preseason opener last week against the Panthers. Despite head coach Jerod Mayo's insistence the No. 3 pick would play "more" in Thursday's second exhibition against Philadelphia, it might not be entirely surprising to see the Patriots limit his opportunities again.

Coincidentally, longtime Patriots coach Bill Belichick might have indirectly shed some light on the decision-making process for Maye's playing time. The coaching legend is a rising media star with appearances across multiple platforms this season -- his first without a coaching job in decades -- and on an appearance with "The Pat McAfee Show" on Monday, Belichick talked about how teams approach preseason playing time.

While the question from A.J. Hawk wasn't regarding Maye -- it centered around starters getting preseason playing time -- there is some useful information that could be applied to his former team's current thinking with what it hopes is the franchise quarterback.

"If you want to put your starting quarterback out there, you probably want to put him out there with your starting offensive line, you want to put him out there with, you know, the receivers he's going to be throwing to," he explained. "If your depth is not good at those positions at that particular time -- maybe you've got a couple of guys banged up, whatever it is -- is it really worth it?"

Applying this to Maye and the current Patriots takes a little nuance. Jacoby Brissett is the starter, but he's not long for the job. This will be Maye's team before too long. That tantalizingly tiny bit of playing time in the opener, though, points to the Patriots taking it slow with the No. 3 pick.

The Patriots entered the offseason with three major deficiencies: quarterback, offensive line and receiver. By drafting Maye that high, the Patriots hope they remedied the first. The other two are very much a work in progress. As Belichick noted, putting a quarterback out there without the other two can do more harm than good. The Patriots might not want to risk Maye getting hurt or even stunting his growth in a bad situation.

Patriots coach Jerod Mayo has essentially admitted as much.

Belichick also pointed to new restrictions on how much teams can practice in the summer as a reason for taking it slow. With less time to get up to speed on a system, teams can't afford to rush players onto the field without proper time to prepare for an opponent.

Instead, Belichick said what most football fans have already begun to accept.

"When you go in joint practices, you can go ahead and put your best players out there and let them compete against the other team for a couple of days and get a lot of reps and a lot of quality work. Then do you really want to come back and play those guys two days later on basically no rest and put them in a contact situation?"

Unsurprisingly, Maye got plenty of looks Tuesday during the first and only joint session between the Patriots and Eagles. He impressed at times, showing off the skill set that made him a top pick, but there was still one major issue, according to those observing the lengthy workout.

And to the original point, it's something Maye can't control.

Tough two-minute drill for Drake Maye’s offense. Maye was sacked three times in four plays, the only other being an incomplete pass with the pocket collapsing around Maye.

Maye was behind the second-string offensive line all practice.

— Sean T. McGuire (@BySeanMcGuire) August 13, 2024

One could argue Maye should get a look at some point with the starting offensive line, but that unit isn't exactly "The Hogs," so there's no sure thing in the trenches right now.

Going back to Belichick, though, it's also clear he believes there's merit in getting young quarterbacks on the field in the preseason.

"They should play and get a feel for the game, the speed of the pass rush," he said. "Some of them who are a little undersized, just the height and girth of the defensive linemen and all of that, that's good for them to experience in a live game situation, not just practice."

However ...

"(You) just want to make sure you can protect those guys with both their linemen and also with receivers and backs who know what they're doing out there so if there are any types of adjustments that needed to be made, you've got the guys out there that are going to do the right thing."

Based on practices and a small taste of game action, it appears the Patriots might have made a significant step in boosting their receiving room with Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker joining the fray. When it comes to one-on-one play on the practice fields, those guys (particularly Polk) have dazzled at times, but can they be trusted to make the sorts of adjustments Belichick believes are important?

There is some irony, especially in the wake of JuJu Smith-Schuster's release, that a lot of these issues stem from Belichick's roster building -- but that's another conversation.

While Patriots fans want to see more of Maye -- especially after watching fellow rookies impress in bigger sample sizes -- it might be in the best interest of the organization for the long term to continue to take it slow.

That, however, just underscores how much work still has to be done before the Patriots resemble the sort of team Belichick would recognize in Foxboro.