Former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe not too long ago supplied some recommendation for rookie signal-caller Drake Maye after New England made Maye the third choose of the 2024 NFL Draft.
“He’ll need to have thick pores and skin and be affected person,” Bledsoe mentioned about Maye throughout a chat with Mike Reiss of ESPN. “It isn’t going to occur instantly. He’ll need to be very mentally and emotionally robust to get by means of among the exhausting occasions — in the event that they even begin him immediately.”
It’s unknown if first-year head coach Jerod Mayo will begin Maye immediately this September. Maye first met veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett final summer time, and New England signed Brissett in March. Mayo acknowledged that Maye “has loads to work on” earlier than he is able to face dwell defenses in significant video games. It is assumed Brissett will start coaching camp because the group’s QB1.
“You’ve Jacoby there; they are not in a scenario the place they need to throw him on the sphere immediately,” Bledsoe continued. “So I will be curious to see what they do.”
New England made Bledsoe the primary choose of the 1993 draft years earlier than the Patriots constructed a dynasty that gained six Tremendous Bowl championships throughout the primary twenty years of the 2000s. Nonetheless, New England missed the playoffs thrice throughout the previous 4 campaigns following the departure of residing legend Tom Brady in March 2020.
“It is completely different in that the Patriots by no means actually had a ton of success [when I got there],” Bledsoe defined. “They went to the one Tremendous Bowl [in 1985], however apart from that had not been persistently related. Whereas it wasn’t that way back that they have been operating the world, so there nonetheless is a lingering stage of expectation that exists from all that success. That half is just a little bit completely different. However shoot, they earned the best to select the place they picked; it wasn’t a lot to take a look at final yr, that is for certain.”
A perceived lack of expertise on offense is one purpose some analysts suppose Maye wants to sit down and develop as a backup by means of not less than a portion of this coming fall. As of Monday, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Patriots’ over/underneath win complete for the upcoming season at simply 4.5. That very same outlet had Maye as a +2200 betting underdog to assert the Offensive Rookie of the Yr Award.
