Patriots quarterbacks coach T.C. McCartney has had a front-row seat for Drake Maye's development this year. From scouting Maye at North Carolina to being in the quarterback room with him every day since the spring, McCartney has been a key part of Maye's ascension to starter alongside offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, senior offensive assistant Ben McAdoo and assistant quarterbacks coach Evan Rothstein.
With two games under his belt, the early returns on Maye have been promising, but even McCartney admitted everything is one big unknown until a young player gets into a live regular season game.
"It's always interesting, you never know until they get out there," said McCartney. "And [Drake's] played well, he's made some mistakes and he's done some really good things. So, we're excited to see him just develop consistency and help us win a football game."
The recurring theme from Friday's press conference with Jerod Mayo, along with the group of offensive assistant coaches that met with the media, is that this week is all about finding a way to get a win over a talented Jets team that will come into Gillette Stadium just as hungry to break their own losing streak. Yes, the porous run defense, the lack of production with their own running game and spotty protection from the offensive line have been issues for the team in recent weeks, but now those issues, along with the positives from Maye's first two games, are falling by the wayside with a singular focus on the Jets taking their place.
That focus can't disguise that Maye's continued development must play a significant role in a potential win and he's showing the budding control of the offense that it will take.
"I think you see his poise. I think you see the way he handles pressure, whether it's dirty pockets or coverages that necessarily weren't the number one coverages," said McCartney of the specific areas where Maye has made improvement.
Those traits also happen to be among the toughest traits to discern when scouting young quarterback prospects.
"I'd say the biggest thing is can young quarterbacks see the field and can they see the field under pressure? Can they see the field in dirty pockets? Can they see the field when the picture changes on them?" said McCartney. "We saw his toughness and him being able to hang in dirty pockets on tape. That's one of the very first things I looked for at Carolina, so I knew he was capable of that. But until you see it in an NFL game, you know, you've gotta see it and we've seen it."
McCartney also pointed out Maye's steady progress with his footwork, something that was a major part of his transition from a shotgun college quarterback to an under-center pro quarterback.
"He's very athletic and he can do whatever we ask him to do," said McCartney. I think he'll have really, really good feet and it's definitely a big emphasis no matter who it is, no matter what people were saying about him before he got here. Different offenses call for different footwork, different reads. And so what we were asking him to do was different than what they asked of him in Carolina. He's super athletic and he can get it done."
The signs are encouraging but not all that surprising to McCartney and the rest of the offensive staff.
"I mean, we picked him third overall. We thought he was good. I promise you. We thought he was really good," said McCartney. "I think he's developed, even in the off-season, very, very quickly, which is good. But like I said, until you do it on game day, until you see it all the time, You just never know what it's gonna look like."
But neither McCartney nor head coach Jerod Mayo are ready just yet to prescribe what Maye must do next, instead again focusing on the big picture of needing a win.
"I think the very first thing is let's win a game. That's the first thing in the development plans. Let's find a way to win a game," said McCartney. "As the quarterback, our job is to find a way to win the game, whatever that calls for. And so let's find a way to win a game but other than that is just continue on the path that he's doing, continuing to see different defenses, continuing to make the right decisions, play in and play out. And I think you saw that from Week 1 to Week 2, he definitely improved."
"You look for [Drake] to continue to get better and operate the huddle," said Mayo on Friday. "We always talk about limiting turnovers, whoever the quarterback is. We need to win this game right here. That's the main focus."
