The Patriots have every right to be freaked out after Drake Maye suffered a concussion in last Sunday’s win over the New York Jets.
New England is going the other way, though.
Maye’s injury can easily be categorized as bad luck, as Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood made helmet-to-helmet contact despite the rookie already being in the process of a slide. New York probably should have been penalized, and even though it wasn’t, you couldn’t have asked for much better from the 22-year-old quarterback.
Maye was just a victim of poor luck, and his coaches don’t want that to influence any major changes to his game.
“You would hate to take (running) away from a player,” Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said on Thursday, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “It’s a strength of his, being able to move out of the pocket, but the one thing we talked about was being safe with the slide.
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“You know, oftentimes you get into space, and you feel like you’re clean, you go feet first. It’s what we coach in open space, but you never know what’s coming from behind. The quarterbacks who avoid injury, oftentimes they find space and go head first and go down in that regard. It’s something we continue to work on with him, just understanding what’s around (him) in those situations, and ultimately we ask him going into every game to protect the ball and protect himself.”
Maye has remained in concussion protocol since Sunday, though he has progressed rather quickly through the first few stages. The Patriots listed him as a limited participant in practice Wednesday, which at least opened the door for him to clear the five-step protocol in time for this Sunday’s road matchup with the Tennessee Titans.
New England will take its time with the injury, but once Maye returns, it sounds as if he’ll be running around like usual.
Featured image via David Butler II/Imagn Images
