What Patriots' Mike Vrabel wants from Drake Maye after loss to Raiders

As was the case throughout his rookie season, second-year New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye produced a mixed-bag performance as New England suffered a 20-13 home loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon. 

During a Monday appearance on Boston sports radio station WEEI, first-year Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel discussed what he'd like Maye to learn coming off the club's first defeat of the season. 

What Drake Maye needs "to get past"

"I think that he wants to be, at times, perfect, and [we] need to get past that," Vrabel said about Maye, per Tom Carroll of Audacy. "We all have to get past that. You need to be precise, not perfect. If you make a mistake, it's the reaction that you have to the mistake that everybody sees. And then they're like, 'Oh wow, that was a mistake.' We have to clean our reactions up. Our responses have to be much better. And then getting into the flow, because you see really good timing and precision and accuracy, and then we see some other misses."

Vrabel brought longtime offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels back to the Patriots during the offseason in an attempt to get the most out of Maye's talents. However, Chad Graff of The Athletic noted that Maye "was inconsistent and didn’t appear ready to take a big step forward after his rookie season" on Sunday. 

In total, Maye completed 30-of-46 passes for 287 yards with a touchdown and an awful interception that he tossed in the contest's third quarter. While speaking with reporters after the loss, he acknowledged he has "got to step into the throw and take hits and be accurate" on plays such as the one that resulted in the pick. 

"I just want the better performance [to be] more consistent, and continue to grow as a leader and make sure that there is a command to what we're doing - this is the situation, this is the play. Those are the things that I'm focused on," Vrabel continued while speaking about Maye. 

According to ESPN stats, Maye began Monday ranked 24th in the league among 30 qualified quarterbacks from Week 1 with a 39.3 adjusted QBR. He was 20th with an 80.6 passer rating. 

Drake Maye wasn't all bad against the Raiders

"I thought he had some really good decisions," Vrabel added about Maye. "I thought he was accurate at times, and then I thought there were some misses. That's how it goes. I thought we protected, for the most part, fairly well. It was never perfect, never will be. But I thought there were some clean pockets against a few really good pass-rushers."

The Patriots next play at the 0-1 Miami Dolphins on Sept. 14. The Miami defense was torched by Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones in a 33-8 loss on Sunday afternoon.