Patriots' Mike Vrabel pumps brakes on growing Drake Maye hype

Drake Maye hype has continued to build after another encouraging summer with the New England Patriots. Mike Vrabel would prefer everyone take a breath before turning successful practice completions into evidence that his quarterback has conquered the NFL.

Drake Maye hype ignores important context

Maye reportedly impressed during New England’s joint practices with the Philadelphia Eagles. His completion percentage was high, and he repeatedly connected with A.J. Brown during team drills.

Those reports created another wave of excitement around the young quarterback. Vrabel believes they also left out some inconvenient details.

During his weekly appearance on WEEI, the Patriots head coach explained that completions do not always tell the full story during practices where quarterbacks cannot be tackled.

“Some of those are sacks, and everybody gets this thing overblown,” Vrabel said. “I hope we don’t read everything that’s out there on the internet and social media.”

A completed pass can look terrific from the sideline. If the quarterback would have been buried two seconds earlier during an actual game, the result becomes considerably less impressive.

Vrabel has a much better view than anyone attempting to evaluate practice through scattered clips, social media posts or completion totals.

“Everybody says we did [have a good day offensively],” Vrabel said. “I said, ‘You guys should stand where I’m standing.’ I appreciate the optimism, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

That hardly means Vrabel is disappointed with Maye’s overall development. He simply refuses to let encouraging headlines conceal problems that would punish New England once the regular season begins.

Patriots struggled inside the red zone

Vrabel’s largest concern was New England’s performance near the goal line. The Patriots spent a significant portion of the joint practice working in the red zone, where space disappears and small mistakes become much harder to overcome.

Protection problems, poor alignment or one mistimed route can destroy an otherwise promising play.

“The timing and the precision, it just wasn’t our best day in the red zone,” Vrabel said. “That’s unfortunate because a significant amount of practice was in the red zone.”

Maye’s connection with Brown provided a bright spot. Vrabel praised the veteran receiver’s growing comfort in the offense, saying Brown is playing “big and fast.”

New England still failed to execute consistently enough as a complete unit. Vrabel said the team corrected those mistakes and would revisit similar situations during its next practice.