The Patriots are installing a new offense for the first time in a quarter-century, and hoping to develop a rookie into a franchise quarterback for the first time in 30 years.
Which is to say, there’s a lot going on at Gillette Stadium, particularly in the offensive coaches’ meeting rooms.
In addition to learning a voluminous playbook, No. 3 pick Drake Maye must improve his footwork, learn how to read pro defenses, and absorb some of the basic operations needed to play NFL quarterback.
The coaches say they aren’t going to rush Maye into the lineup; that’s why they signed veteran Jacoby Brissett.
“It’s a process, and a marathon,” new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said. “So we’re really going to take our time and do it the right way.”
Don’t assume that Maye will sit his entire rookie year, though, or even long into the season. Maye ultimately will determine how soon he gets into the lineup with how quickly he masters the offense and learns the protection adjustments at the line of scrimmage.
Operations
First, Maye must learn how to crawl. He has little experience with seemingly mundane things such as getting in a huddle and calling a play. Like most college quarterbacks, Maye didn’t do a lot of that at North Carolina, running a no-huddle attack and reading the play calls at the line off poster boards on the sideline.
“We did [huddle] a little bit in the red zone, and obviously peewee football you’re calling plays, but other than that, yeah, not at this level,” Maye said. “More and more, the huddle calls are coming together. I don’t sound like I’m fumbling words in there.
“Good thing I’m a pretty big dude in there — kind of looking those guys in their eye and not just looking down. Getting a good break, a good clap, kind of gets you in a good mood, about, ‘Hey, this is going to be a good play.’ ”
The huddling is the easy part. Regurgitating the play call to teammates is less so. The Patriots’ new offense is a word salad.
“There’s some long calls — play calls with 12-14 words in it that you have to spit out, get the cadence down, then come up and execute,” Van Pelt said. “So there’s a lot to it, and there’s area for growth there. But he’s a smart guy, studies when he’s out of the building, and he’ll nail that.”
Maye, who played in a shotgun-oriented offense at UNC, also is learning how to take a snap and drop back. This spring, the Patriots ran a drill each practice in which the quarterbacks looked like ostriches, taking long, exaggerated steps when dropping back.
“It’s just learning to get away from under center,” quarterbacks coach T.C. McCartney said. “A lot of these guys haven’t played from under center, and you’ve got to be able to get away, so we call it ‘get-aways.’ Just overexaggerating the steps and just training them to get them away.”
Footwork
It was no secret when the Patriots drafted Maye that his biggest concern was inconsistent footwork. The new offense is based on timing and yards after the catch, so teaching Maye the right footwork is everything.
“I want to get his feet right, with the foundation being set first — moving with base, moving with the correct foot first, your back foot first, just trying to train their movements in the pocket,” McCartney said.
“My biggest focus is, can we tie his eyes and his feet together? Even though he’s been improving at that, there’s still a lot of work to do, so that’s the focus. Because once you can do that, all the other little nuances will come.”
“Taking the footwork from that system and carrying it over, I think, has been a big part,” said Van Pelt.
One adjustment for Maye is his stance in the shotgun. At UNC, he stood with his right foot in front. Van Pelt wants him to switch to the left.
“In our system, it’s all based on timing and rhythm in the pass game, and I think the left foot forward has always given this offense the best chance to play on time and in rhythm,” Van Pelt said.
Scheme
Finally, Maye has to learn an NFL playbook, which is far more complex than the one he ran in college. The Patriots are joining nearly half the league in switching to a West Coast offense, which features the outside stretch run, zone blocking, and a lot of play-action passes from under center. It’s a marked difference from the power scheme they ran for 24 years under Bill Belichick.
“We’re doing a lot of different things, which was hard for me at the beginning,” center David Andrews said. “But it’s been a fun challenge.”
Van Pelt said his goal was to get through the entire offense in the spring — which he accomplished.
“We’ve gone through it now twice,” Van Pelt said. “So I feel like as we come back to training camp that third time, we should have a good grasp of what we’re trying to accomplish.”
“Sometimes it’s hard — you’re doing an install each day, and you get one or two reps for each play,” Maye said. “As it kind of got more into minicamp, doing the plays over and over, kind of got a good grasp of it. I picked it up well, and just trying to translate it to the field.”
