Ex-Bill Belichick Assistant Gives Scathing Indictment of Patriots QB Drake Maye

There’s a large segment of the New England Patriots’ fan base that wants to see rookie quarterback Drake Maye under center Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals.

But there’s an equally large segment of sports media analysts who think that would be a mistake, especially after watching Maye perform in the preseason.

NBC Sport’s Chris Simms is one of them, and on a recent episode of NFL on NBC’s “Chris Simms Unbuttoned,” the former Bill Belichick assistant ripped into Maye while accusing the national media of overhyping a rookie passer who he thinks is clearly not QB1 material just yet.

“This is what drives me crazy about the national media: they show one play of him running in the end zone and they’re like, ‘Drake Maye is ready to take over the New England Patriots,’” Simms said . “…He’s not ready. Again, for the second week in a row, he showed he’s not ready. New England is saying all the right things; there’s no way they’re going to f---ing start Drake Maye Week 1.”

Maye’s preseason performances have been a mixed bag.

He only attempted three passes in his preseason debut, completing two of them for just 19 yards. The 21-year-old showed signs of improvement in his second game, completing 6 of 11 passes for 47 yards along with four carries for 15 yards and a rushing touchdown.

However, Simms isn’t sold on what he saw from Maye during that game, aside from the touchdown run.

“He shows some little flashes, sure, but the consistency on the throws is all over the place,” Simms added. “But even his throwing motion in general, he has throws where he pauses, he stops, he doesn’t know if he should throw it. He left the pocket and got in bad spots in the pocket a few times. He’s reluctant to throw the ball because he doesn’t know where it’s going to go.”

Reports out of Patriots training camp is Maye is closing the gap between himself and Jacoby Brissett for the starting job, and head coach Jerod Mayo certainly seems OK with starting Maye if he beats out Brissett over the next two weeks. But that may be a big if.