Patriots QB Drake Maye

PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK DRAKE MAYE

PRESS CONFERENCE

October 16, 2024

 

 

Q: You’ve had some days now to reflect and look. What kind of things did you take and would like to take into start No. 2 coming up on Sunday?

 

DM: I think, first off, is protect the football. We kind of hurt our defense, put them in some bad spots. But other than that, we’ve got some stuff to build on. We’ve got some stuff to build on on film. We’ve got to run the football; I think that’ll help. Then for me, I thought I was seeing it pretty well, just missed that first one across the middle to Pop [DeMario Douglas], and then kind of grooved later on with Pop. But we’ve got some guys in the huddle that can make some plays, and my job is to get it to them and let them do their thing.

 

Q: You mentioned Pop. What has it been like getting a chance to work with him, and what are some things that you have to look for with him that maybe you don’t necessarily have to consider when it comes to throwing to some of the other guys?

 

DM: Yeah, Pop, you can’t guard him in a phone booth. He’s tough to guard in man coverage, and he’s got a knack for finding zones. So, he’s a great guy to have out there and makes my job a little easier. Any time you see a man matchup, Pop is somebody that you want to go to, and we have guys on the outside that can make plays, which you saw on Sunday as well. So, looking forward to the guys we’ve got, and also with our tight end group, we’ve got some mismatches. So, we’ve got a lot of stuff that makes it tough on the defense, just got to kind of find the right ways to do it and do my part.

 

Q: With Pop, he had mentioned after the game, he said that ‘He’s got that swag; I’d run through a wall for him.’ What’s it like to have that kind of support from one of your receivers?

 

DM: It means the world to me. It gives me confidence. I think those guys do a great job of pumping me up. They were pumping me up throughout the game on the sideline, before the game, in the huddle. They do a great job. I think wide receivers, they’ve always got the most swag. Our guys always got some swag. So, it’s nice to hear something like that, just know for those guys and try to do the same for them.

 

Q: Drake, do you see the offense evolving around you and your skill set?

 

DM: Anytime with the quarterback, I think the offense is tailored towards who’s under center, who’s getting the snaps and getting the ball every play. So, I think AVP [Alex Van Pelt] has done a nice job asking me what I like, what I don’t like and what I feel comfortable with. I think that’ll continue to grow as the weeks go by, so that’s something that we’re kind of trying to figure out. At the same time, it’s something that I think can make it tough on the defense because I feel like we can do a lot of different things. I can kind of make it hard for the defense doing some different stuff.

 

Q: Players say that your confidence gives them confidence. I’m just curious, where does your confidence come from?

 

DM: My confidence comes from, I think, just moving the football. Moving the football and just finding completions. I think any quarterback, you kind of get more confident getting first downs, finding completions, making a good throw or making the right throw. That’s the biggest thing, making the right throw. At the same time, you get confidence from others. It’s just like, anybody wants to get pumped up, and I try to remind myself on the sideline to kind of be the voice that pumps some guys up. Other than that, just try to kind of build my role as a leadership role each and every week as I try to earn the guys’ respect.

 

Q: Is there one thing that seemed a little easier for you as the game went along than you expected? Is there maybe one thing that was a little bit harder than you expected?

 

DM: I think, obviously that first game with the Texans, you can see kind of – we call it ‘the flavor of the day.’ What do the Texans want to do? They want to kind of heat us up, play man, kind of what these defenses are trying to do to us that day. I think it’s kind of easier to get a picture of what they want to do, whether it’s down and distance or certain guys, what they want to do, or hey, they want to kind of put a spy on me, what they want to do defensively. I think it was easier for me to kind of see what the Texans were trying to do to us as we got down the road in the game. I’m sure some teams would try to mix it up down the road, but kind of easier for me as the game went along like, ‘Hey, they’re trying to do this. We can exploit them these ways.’

 

Q: And that must have been a byproduct of the confidence that you had?

 

DM: Yeah, no doubt.

 

Q: You trust what you’re seeing here? Is that definitely what you’ve seen?

 

DM: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and the [tablet] helps too.

 

Q: Is having been through a week, having seen the game now at NFL speed, been through it, done there, had some success, does that give you more confidence this week now as you prepare for your second game?

 

DM: No doubt. I think it’ll just – as the weeks go on, I think I’ll get more and more confident, especially with the game plan stuff. It’ll be a little different this week going overseas, but I have to figure that out. But at the same time, going out there, understanding the plan and understanding, ‘Hey, I liked studying this last week,’ and can carry that on, or ‘Hey, I’m going to ask T.C. [McCartney] to do something different in the quarterback room so we can get on the same page with different looks.’

 

Q: Have you ever been out of the country?

 

DM: I have, yeah. I had some family that lived in London. My uncle did, and me and my family went to the Olympics in 2012 out there.

 

Q: What are the nerves like just taking your second start on the international stage?

 

DM: Yeah, I think it helps getting that first one last week, going overseas to London to play in front of a big crowd out there. It will be pretty cool to see the NFL side of it playing overseas, so I’m excited to go over there. We’ve got a chance to get a win and hopefully start stacking them.

 

Q: You said you had a family that lived in London. Still there?

 

DM: They recently moved to California.

 

Q: And your brother who plays basketball –

 

DM: Yeah, he plays in Japan. It’s far away from London.

 

Q: Was he able to watch you on Sunday? How did he follow –

 

DM: Yeah, yeah. He does a nice job of supporting.

 

Q: Drake, I’m just curious. When you reviewed your first game the other day, were there moments or were there plays that you looked at and you maybe look back now and say to yourself, ‘I’m not sure I would have been able to do that had I started Week 1.’ Were there moments like that for you where the time that you had to sort of sit and watch behind the scenes really helped you out in a certain moment in that game?

 

DM: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is kind of the run checks and the different looks that get us in the best run. I think that’s the biggest thing. Watching Jacoby [Brissett] do it, watching how he does it and bringing in guys that block the right guys, I feel like that’s kind of the thing that I didn’t really look at until I look at the film. I feel like in the run game, I did mostly everything that got asked and the right execution. So, I think that was the biggest kind of sigh of relief of seeing all the different run looks under center, seeing it and getting the guys blocked up. So, just got to continue to do that. I think the passing game, I feel like I was seeing it well, just got to make some better throws.

 

Q: Drake, I know your first completion was an under center, play-action move. You had pressure right away. That’s something new relative to what you were doing in college, under center, turn it around. How comfortable have you been in those settings, understanding sometimes when you do turn your back to the defense, the picture can change from what you saw pre-snap?

 

DM: Yeah, no doubt. I think that’s something that in practice that you get. We’ve done a nice job of getting some under center reps off of play-action. Our defense does a good job of flipping up the coverages and changing the picture post-snap, and that’s something that I’ve really started to kind of understand and learn. The picture I’m seeing when I first get the snap versus when I turn my back and look at it may be different. So, just trying to find my check downs or find an outlet, that’ll be something that I’ll kind of build towards. Then, other than that, try to exploit them with matchups.

 

 

 

 

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