Patriots OC responds to Kurt Warner's concerns about Drake Maye

Retired quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner raised eyebrows when he said during a midweek appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show" that he feels New England Patriots second-year signal-caller Drake Maye relies too much on "backyard football" tendencies. 

While speaking with reporters on Thursday, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was asked about Warner's remarks. 

Drake Maye often "makes a play" for New England Patriots offense

"Well, when it works ... players make plays," McDaniels said, per Karen Guregian of MassLive. "Sometimes the design of the offense either isn’t good enough on a certain play, and the player extends it, or the defense does something to stop us from doing what we’d like to do initially, then the player makes a play. I think that happens a lot in football. It just gets talked about a lot more when it’s the quarterback."

Maye made plenty of plays during New England's 23-20 victory at the previously unbeaten Buffalo Bills this past Sunday night. Most notably, he completed 13-of-14 passes for 184 yards over the contest's final two quarters before Andres Borregales kicked a game-winning field goal with 15 seconds remaining in regulation. 

That said, Warner warned that Maye has "got to be able to consistently live in the pocket when the situation dictates that and then go create and be that special playmaker beyond that." McDaniels seemingly isn't losing sleep over the fact that Maye goes off-script more than Warner would like to see from the 23-year-old. 

Josh McDaniels reminds Drake Maye to sometimes give up on certain plays

"Hopefully it ends in a play that either doesn’t hurt us, or we have an opportunity to extend the drive," McDaniels explained about his mindset. "And I thought (Maye) made a few good decisions the other night, and made some plays out of it. There will be times when he’s just got to throw the ball away, which he’s done that plenty of times." 

The StatMuse website shows that Maye enters the weekend ranked seventh in the NFL with a combined 1,371 passing and rushing yards on the season. He's also tied for 10th with nine combined passing and rushing scores. 

Maye will look to build upon his Week 5 outing when 3-2 New England plays at the New Orleans Saints (1-4) this Sunday. As of Friday morning, ESPN BET had the Patriots as 3.5-point road favorites for that matchup.