The Patriots kicked off their week of preparation to face the Jags in London on Wednesday and with it comes the start of Drake Maye's second week of practice as the team's starter.
Last week provided plenty of learning experiences for the young player and it ultimately translated into a promising debut for Maye to build off of. Now, he'll look to take another positive step forward against a Jaguars defense that should provide opportunities for the Patriots to move the ball.
"For a guy like Drake, or really any other player, you want to see him get better in practice," said Jerod Mayo kicking off the morning press conferences. "Obviously you get to the game, you want to see the confidence. You want to build off the things from the previous game or the prior game and just continue to erase the mistakes that he made in this past game."
Maye wasn't hesitant to lay out which mistakes needed to be erased, starting with the turnovers that led directly to 10 second-half points that changed the game and turned a tight one-score contest into two quarters of chasing a double-digit deficit.
"First off is protect the football," said Maye. "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 [Doulgas]. 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."
Douglas led the team with a career-high six catches for 92 yards, including the first touchdown of his career. Along with Kayshon Boutte, the second-year receiver helped make Maye's first day a success.
In the locker room, Douglas complimented Maye's steadiness.
"Drake's just Drake," said Douglas. "He's the same guy no matter where he is. He's always been encouraging. Always speaks when he feels like he needs to speak. I've just seen that change, like the confidence, just gaining and gaining. And as games go by, I feel like [he's] gonna gain more confidence, and gonna play with that swag."
While Maye's confidence continues to grow so does the knowledge of his coaches of how to tailor their gameplan to his strengths and preferences. Last week, there was a notable shift into more shotgun and similar shifts should continue to be implemented with each passing week.
"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," said Maye. "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.
"As the weeks go on, I think I'll get more and more confident, especially with the game plan stuff."
That's good news for a Patriots offense that still didn't find much of a stride until the second half of Maye's first start. It wasn't quite an overwhelming display of offensive firepower... yet.
"He got better as the game went on and that was important to see," said Mayo. "Hopefully we can build off of that."
Get Your Pop-corn Ready
DeMario Douglas and Kayshon Boutte notched the first touchdowns of their careers against the Texans, a positive sign that the young receivers have a growing chemistry with Drake Maye that should only continue to grow.
Douglas in particular had a strong rookie season in 2023 and now appears poised to take a new step forward in his development.
"Look, [Douglas] is one of our best route runners," said Jerod Mayo on Wednesday. "He can really run any route, and he does a great job getting open. Now we're finding him, and the quarterbacks are making good throws to him, and he's picking up a lot of yards."
This week, Douglas will face his hometown team in the Jaguars, and though it will be in London and not Jacksonville, he was still excited to take the field against the team he grew up rooting for.
"Playing my hometown is a blessing," said Douglas. "I grew up watching them, and to be able to be on the platform to play against them is amazing."
His favorite team might look to focus a little more closely on Douglas than the Texans did. The second-year receiver has been coming on in recent weeks before the team even made the switch at quarterback and now, he could be redefining how defenses choose to deploy their coverages.
"If they give me more attention then I got some guys on the outside that are going to get open," said Douglas. "I mean, show me attention my other teammates gonna have a fun day."
Perhaps the greater key, a common refrain heard from just about every player and coach who spoke on Wednesday, was the need to get off to faster starts. Jerod Mayo said the team was taking specific steps like starting off practice with an immediate competitive period to make sure guys showed up ready to go right out of the gate.
"We got to start fast and at practice," said Douglas. "Start fast at practice, and then we'll have it translate to the game."
"We have a start fast period where it's just offense versus defense, and we're rolling out of the gate, and that's the plan [today]," said Mayo. "Today we'll do it in the red area, though, because I think that's a place that we need to do a better job offensively and defensively."
Most would acknowledge the 2024 season was going to be about building a foundation and the early returns from Week 6 are trending in a positive direction. Fast starts, red zone finishes and cleaning up the turnovers are areas to focus on, but the renewed energy from last week's switch to Maye appears to have not only carried over to Week 7 but is now starting to grow.
"It excited me, just to see a quick glimpse of what we can do when we put it all together," said Douglas. "I feel like it's gonna be scary. We got a young team, and our vets did a great job showing us the way."
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