Jerod Mayo on developing Drake Maye: ‘He has a lot to work on’

Rookie Minicamp is underway in Foxborough, and with that head coach Jerod Mayo and the rest of the New England Patriots are getting their first look at third overall pick Drake Maye.

As a quarterback taken early in the first round of the NFL Draft, there are massive expectations on Maye’s shoulders. Still, as of now, Mayo made it clear that he’s not a finished product yet and there’s a lot to work on in his development.

“Early impressions of Drake? He has a lot to work on,” Jerod Mayo said. “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.”

What Drake Maye is currently working on goes beyond just the practice field, though, as he also needs to put in hard work to get up to speed with everything off the practice field, too.

“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.'”

For the time being, the person most responsible for Maye’s growth within the Patriots building is going to be offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.

“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,” Mayo said. “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.”

Jacoby Brissett on working with new Patriots QB Drake Maye

This offseason, the Patriots brought in Jacoby Brissett as a veteran presence for the team’s quarterback room. Now, he finds himself competing with Drake Maye to be the team’s starting quarterback.

Recently, Brissett shared his thoughts on working with Maye, explaining that competition brings out the best in people.

“That’s all out of my control, so I don’t really worry about that. I’m excited to have him on the team and the other guys as well that we drafted and picked up. I think it’s gonna be good. Competition brings out the best in all of us, so I’m excited about that part,” Brissett said.

“Those things just happen because it’s not necessarily for just one specific player. It’s for the whole team. I’m seeking mentorship as well. So it’s an ongoing process. It’s just being a good teammate. I think that’s where it starts, and then everything else plays off of that.”