Drake Maye explains why he stays at Patriots facility so late

NFL rookies have only recently started getting their work in, with things like Rookie Minicamp. Still, New England Patriots first round pick Drake Maye is already burning the midnight oil and staying late at the facility.

When asked about this, he explained that it comes down to being the quarterback and needing to learn every aspect of the offense. So, he’s staying late to put that work in and get better.

“Yeah, as a quarterback you’ve got to know what everybody’s doing on the field on the offense,” Drake Maye said. “You’ve got to know all 11, not just my job. So, you’ve got to know what everybody’s doing. That takes extra time. It takes extra drawing up. Extra questions. So, just trying to get not only myself but get the other guys around me, get them with me, staying late or getting here early.”

New England is starting a new era in 2024, with Jerod Mayo replacing Bill Belichick as the team’s head coach. The organization then used the third overall pick on Drake Maye, who is replacing another former first round pick in Mac Jones as the team looks for its first franchise quarterback since Tom Brady left. Despite that, Maye won’t be given the job, and the Patriots are reportedly willing to start veteran Jacoby Brissett over Maye.

Still, whether he’s preparing to start for the Patriots now or down the road, being as ready as possible to take over is going to be vital for Drake Maye.

“Just told the receivers to go and watch practice and hear it from my point of perspective because that’s what happens on the field,” Maye said. “The ball’s in my hands and I’m going to distribute it to them.”

Jerod Mayo says Drake Maye has a lot of work to do

While sharing some early impressions of Drake Maye at Rookie Minicamp, Jerod Mayo admitted he has plenty of work to do.

“Early impressions of Drake? He has a lot to work on. He has a lot to work on, but I have no doubt he will put in the time. You didn’t see him out here yesterday, but he was here all night trying to get on the same page as everyone else. It comes down to time. That’s the biggest hurdle. Then you work under some of these phase two, phase three rules where you don’t have as much time as you want to, so you can’t have those conversations,” Mayo said. “But it’s all about hard work works. We talk about it all the time and he’s working hard. So, day one is hard to really say, ‘This guy did X, Y, and Z,’” Mayo said.

“Across the league, most offensive coordinators interact with the quarterback — the starting quarterback for the most part. We do have a group of coaches that have quarterback backgrounds. But I would say overall it would be AVP as far as that…with Drake, with Jacoby [Brissett]. We don’t know who the starter is. So, AVP will be in all of those.”