Mike Vrabel pulled his starting quarterback in the fourth quarter of a 35-6 loss, then told everybody exactly how he felt about it.
“My concern level is very high for this football team,” Vrabel said.
He is not wrong, and Drake Maye is the center of it.
The Line Is Ugly
Maye went 14-of-25 for 199 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions against Jacksonville, one of them in the end zone. He took three sacks and fumbled twice, losing one. His passer rating was 48.6, the second-lowest of his career.
Vrabel replaced him with Tommy DeVito in the fourth quarter. That is a coach deciding the starter had seen enough, not a mid-game rotation tweak.
The Season Totals Are Worse Than the Game
Through three games Maye has one touchdown pass and six interceptions. Last season he threw 31 touchdowns against eight interceptions.
Nothing about a quarterback’s talent evaporates in nine months. Something about his process did. New England is averaging 12 points per game and has scored two offensive touchdowns all year, which means the problem is bigger than one player even if one player’s turnover count is what shows up in the box score.
Vrabel’s Diagnosis Is Specific
Vrabel said Maye wants it too badly and forces plays, and he put it more memorably elsewhere: stop trying to choke the life out of every single play.
That is a coach describing a quarterback who has decided the offense is his personal responsibility and is now playing like a man trying to win a game on every snap. It produces hero throws into coverage. It produces end-zone interceptions.
Maye took it on the chin. “I’ve got to look myself in the mirror and take this as a turning point,” he said. He also said he has no shoulder problem, which kills the convenient injury explanation.
Is There a Rift? No
Headlines floated the idea that Vrabel and Maye are at odds. Reporting out of Boston found nothing to support it, and Vrabel’s comments read as a coach publicly stating a standard rather than a coach undermining a player.
Harsh is not the same as hostile. Vrabel played 14 years in this league for a coach who did not hand out compliments, and his version of support looks like this.
Buffalo Is Next, Which Is Terrible Timing
New England is 1-2 and heads to Buffalo, which has not lost. Whether Maye starts has not been announced.
Benching him for a week would be defensible and probably counterproductive. A quarterback who just got pulled in front of a national audience does not need a demotion. He needs an offensive line and a reason to believe the next checkdown is good enough. New England has not given him either this season.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.