Patriots QB Drake Maye
PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK DRAKE MAYE
PRESS CONFERENCE
December 18, 2024
Q: Drake, kind of a thought on heading to Buffalo. What’s the coldest game you’ve played in, experience wise, coming into your career? And then just the opportunity with the marquee matchup; they moved the time up to 4:25, having an opportunity in Buffalo.
DM: Yeah, I think, first off, we heard about the atmosphere, and what a cool place to play. I’m sure it’ll be a challenge for us, getting the snap count going with the crowd level and kind of getting our communication. We always talk about operation with AVP [Alex Van Pelt], getting that, studying that up and working on it all week. So, that’s an emphasis for us this week, but also an opportunity with a division opponent. I think they’re having a great season, so a chance for us to get a good challenge. The coldest environment I’ve probably played in is back in North Carolina, probably low 20s, maybe teens. It gets cold back home, it does, and it gets real hot, too. So, we kind of get both worlds back home. But yeah, it’ll definitely be different. I think it gets – obviously, cold weather games here up in Boston, but different for me. I’m excited to probably wear long sleeves for the first time and kind of embrace it.
Q: Did you plan on going to the North Carolina bowl game at Fenway, and now are you a little disappointed that you can’t go now that the game has been changed to Saturday?
DM: No doubt. It is disappointing. I think we probably would have been over here. I think it was an early game start. I think it was – yeah, 11 o’clock in the morning. We’re over here on Saturdays, usually until about noon. So, I would have probably been late for the second half or something. You can’t control when our game gets moved to, but definitely a bummer I won’t be able to check out my guys.
Q: Drake, the opponent this Sunday, Josh Allen, how much of him have you watched growing up? How much have you really – is he someone that you’ve kind of looked up to as you’ve grown up?
DM: Yeah, what a special player. He’s playing at a really high level. It’s been fun to watch some of his highlights in some of the games. They’ve got a lot of prime time games, so anytime Josh is on, I’m a big fan of his, a big fan of his game. I got to meet him a couple times throughout my time just crossing paths, and he’s an awesome dude. He’s a great player, and what he’s done for Buffalo and how they embrace him is pretty cool and pretty admirable.
Q: How do you personally feel about some of the comparisons that have been drawn between your game and Josh’s game?
DM: I think I’ve got a long way to go. What a player he is, playing at an MVP level. I think the biggest thing is just the progression he’s made. I think what he dealt with, whether coming out of college or his first years here, I feel like everybody was just kind of not giving him the credit he deserved. Now, you can see kind of the full fruition of what he’s doing and the level he’s playing at. Just, like I said, fun to watch, and I think I’ve got a long way to go to get to anywhere close to playing at his level.
Q: Drake, there’s some questions about your head coach’s job security at this point in the season. First of all, I wanted to get your take on that, and maybe what do some of the guys in the locker room feel about what Jerod [Mayo] might be going through right now?
DM: Yeah, it’s his first year. His first year coaching, being a head coach, it’s a tough challenge. For the New England Patriots, like I said, it’s a lot of responsibility being the quarterback, same as head coach. It’s a lot of responsibility. He’s figuring it out, and I think our players, we’re behind him. We’re backing him. We trust the plan he’s got for us, and we trust what he says in the team meeting rooms and all those little sayings that he has. We believe in it, and we’re bought into it. I just think the results are coming. I think they’re coming. I think everybody wishes they were now, and I think we’re kind of striving for that. But sometimes, it doesn’t work out that way. But I think we’re overcoming, and the winning is coming in the near future.
Q: Do you feel the same way about Alex Van Pelt? I imagine that’s –
DM: Oh, 100%. I spoke on AVP – I think I was on the radio show about AVP – just what he’s done for my development and just a quarterback-friendly offensive coordinator. I think you want that in that room. He [isn’t] easy on anybody; he’ll coach you up, he’ll coach you hard. He’ll let you know when my part of the job or my part of the play is not done right. He’ll let you know. He’ll be the first one to let me know, but the first one to pump me up. So, he’s been awesome and huge for me. Him and T.C. [McCartney] both have been awesome, and I can’t say enough about those guys.
Q: With Jerod, what have you noticed about his coaching style this season, now that we’re kind of toward the end of the season? Can you tell us a little bit about it?
DM: Yeah, he’s a player’s coach. He gets it; he played. He knows how to take care of us and take care of our bodies and knows what it’s like to, shoot, get injured and play through it, or have to do a lift on a Friday, two days before a game, and you’ve got to get through it and get through it for just your body and the rest of the season. So, Coach Mayo is – I think that first one was special for him, that first week – and I think since that point on, I think we’ve just had some things, some little focus things and a few plays that haven’t gone our way. But we’ve been in a lot of games. We always talk about one-score games. We’ve got to finish better in those critical moments. Situational football, he always preaches. He’s big into that of playing better and playing complementary. I think turnovers, me protecting the football and us getting more turnovers would help. So, I think there’s a lot of things that go into it, but with Coach Mayo’s coaching style, it’s been player-friendly, and I appreciate what he’s done for still kind of bringing me aside and kind of coaching the quarterback. I think that’s pretty cool for a head coach to do, especially a defensive head coach. So, that’s been cool for me.
Q: Drake, Jerod was just telling us about how he saw Josh develop, and he thought Josh’s evolution was kind of keyed by this idea of just taking the profit. Like, pass up the bucket; you can take the completion. Where would you put yourself in that part of your development, taking a profit, being patient in what the defense gives you?
DM: I think I’ve been trying to work on that each and every week as I go on. I think last week was a good testament. At some point, you need to take a shot, though, to keep the defense kind of honest. So, I just try to take what they give me. I think AVP and those offensive guys have done a good job of finding easy completions for me. I think a lot of underneath stuff and letting our guys get the ball and run with it. So, I think that’s been a huge process for me. Kind of the deeper stuff, I kind of get fooled into taking the deep shot or taking the intermediate shot. I feel like I’ve done a better job of checking it down or taking the completion. As the year goes on, I think you find that, and trying to find more completions and realize just a completion sometimes is the best play, whether it’s a 2-yard gain or a 3-yard gain. I think that gets us better in third-down scenarios where we’ve been struggling. So, I think that’s a big part of me, of my game is figuring out when the time is to do that and when the time is to maybe push the ball down the field.
Q: Drake, is it tough for everyone to stay motivated through these last three games when you know that there’s no playoffs or anything at stake?
DM: I wouldn’t say so. I think the biggest thing is it’s another chance to play in the NFL, play on Sundays, and we’re playing great opponents that will have some more games down the road. We’re getting a chance to play against a playoff-level team and really see what it’s like to, ‘Hey, these guys are there and where we want to be at.’ It kind of gives us a level of, ‘Hey, who can make plays for us in these moments?’ and it checks the gas tank for ourselves, where we’re at and what we’re building on. So, it’s a good test for us, a big test. We’re going to have a lot of games, hopefully, in Buffalo and with this team in the future, so I think it’s an awesome opportunity.
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