Taylor Kyles from CLNS Media is joined by The Athletic Football Show’s Derrik Klassen to break down the good and bad from Drake Maye’s preseason tape, what Jacoby Brissett brings as the current starter, and when we could see Maye take the reigns.
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SportsTranscript
00:00I am joined by Robert Griffin III, James Whitefield, Yates, Mina Kimes.
00:13All right, so first play we're going to look at, second and two, one of the Patriots' first
00:17offensive plays.
00:21What's going on, everyone?
00:22Taylor Kyle's here for CLNS Media coming at you with another episode of Paths Daily, brought
00:27to you by our good friends at PrizeFix and GameTime.
00:29Today I am joined by a friend of the show, Derek Klasson, now of the Athletic Football
00:34Show, very cool, my friend, to talk about the Patriots' quarterback situation because
00:39in case you haven't heard, Jacoby Bursette has been named the Patriots' quarterback one
00:43despite Gerard Mayo telling us that Drake May outplayed him.
00:47So since we're probably not going to see Drake May for quite some time, I wanted to sit down
00:51with you, Derek, go through some of the things that Drake May did well, some of the things
00:54he can improve on so we have some good perspective heading into the season.
00:58And then we could also reference for the next time we actually see Drake May.
01:02So before we get into all that good stuff, buddy, new gig, start of a new season.
01:06How are you doing?
01:07Where's your head at?
01:08How are you feeling?
01:10I'm feeling great, man.
01:11Yeah, I've been on this show, what feels like a dozen times now, I'm always happy to join.
01:15But yeah, this is the first time being part of just the Athletic.
01:18You know, we were talking a little bit before we turned the cameras on.
01:21I used to have, you know, three, four places that you would have to shout out for my work
01:24and now there's just the one.
01:26So much simpler season for me this time around.
01:29That's awesome, buddy.
01:30You deserve it.
01:31I'm so glad.
01:32Extremely well deserved.
01:33Not easy filling in for somebody like Nate Price, but if it had to be anybody, I'm so
01:37glad it was you.
01:38All right, let's get into it because, you know, I could just sing your praises all day.
01:41First, before we get into the tape, I want your perspective on the decision to start
01:45Jacoby Berset because once again, like I was there, I think it's why you're not me specifically,
01:51but the beat was there.
01:52We all knew that Drake May was the better quarterback towards the end of the summer.
01:55And that is why Drogh may acknowledge it, but at the same time, there is value in starting
01:59Jacoby Berset, a guy who's won games in the system, is very familiar with it.
02:03Also somebody who has voted a captain actually today, the day of recording, so clearly has
02:07a lot of command in the locker room.
02:09And one thing the coaches have mentioned a ton is he will have answers to the problems
02:12that he will be presented.
02:14So what were your thoughts on the decision to go with number seven, Jacoby Berset?
02:19It's conflicting, right?
02:21Because on the one hand, I want to see Drake May, man, and we'll talk about all the reasons
02:25why.
02:26But like, I just want to see him go out there and play.
02:27I thought he was a fantastic prospect.
02:28I think even beyond just being a great prospect, he's just a fun player.
02:32And so I think when he does get out there to play, it's going to be a great time for
02:35everybody involved.
02:36On the other hand, Jacoby is, he's probably about as good as you can do in terms of that
02:41spot starter veteran presence, understands how to bring the locker room together.
02:45And I actually do think that that's valuable for a team like New England, where there's
02:49an obvious shifting of the guards when you have to, you know, Bill Belichick is on his
02:53way out the door.
02:54And like, you kind of need this when you're going through all this turbulent change.
02:58Even though Gerard May obviously is a Patriots guy, and I think he's a good coach when there's
03:01so much change, it's kind of nice to have a veteran who's been in the building, who's
03:05been in this offense, who's played a lot of NFL football.
03:08And like you said, going to have more, you know, of the, the simple built-in answers
03:13to plays and to problems than Drake may might like Drake may better athlete and better arm.
03:18So he, he might eventually get to some answers, but in terms of actually understanding what's
03:22going on, pre-snap and all that, Jacoby is going to, going to have this, these, these
03:25guys, right?
03:26So I think it'll be fine for the first, I don't know, four or five, six weeks or whatever,
03:30but still, still on Drake may watch.
03:33Then we got to move the train along a little bit, get to get to the future.
03:36I'm also curious because one of the burning questions that we've been getting from fans
03:40is what is the value of having Drake may start out on the bench and what can he really learn
03:44from not playing?
03:45Because even Gerard Mayo told us the best way to get better at football is by playing
03:48football.
03:49But again, like we mentioned, there are going to be some things that he's going to face
03:51that he's never even seen before.
03:53And while of course it's one thing to actually do it versus seeing it, having some familiarity
03:57with what you could face could be a beneficial.
03:59So again, from your perspective, what do you think Drake may can get better at behind the
04:03scenes as a guy who's going to be the scout team quarterback going to be in these meetings
04:07learning week to week?
04:09I think it's two things.
04:10One, just some of the technical stuff, and this has always been the big thing with Drake
04:14may, whether it's footwork, some of his release mechanics at times can get a little bit weird
04:19and like short arms.
04:20So just making sure that he's a little bit cleaner in that sense, and there's nothing
04:23wrong with that.
04:24I mean, you look at guys like Patrick Mahomes, Jordan Love, even Lamar Jackson, when he first
04:28came out of college, these are all guys that took at least a half a season, if not much
04:31longer in Jordan Love's case to kind of fix some of the mechanical problems they had coming
04:35out of college and are now considerably cleaner throwers than they were.
04:39So I think if Drake can just get a little bit more cleaned up in that area, that would
04:43be nice.
04:44And then just there is some degree of, you know, I think playing post snap, you obviously
04:49just need real reps.
04:50You just need to see how the bullets feel.
04:52But in terms of like understanding how things are going to go pre snap and all that, I think
04:55you actually can get a good understanding of that on the bench and just being in the
04:59quarterback room with a guy as smart as Jacoby Brissett.
05:01So I think those are probably the two areas Drake can get a lot of value, even while he's
05:05not playing.
05:06And for a guy like Drake May, where the coaches raved about his progress and you didn't even
05:10have to hear about it from behind the scenes, you saw it on the field where the footwork
05:14looks significantly improved.
05:15You can really tell he took to Alex Van Pelt's coaching with the left foot up.
05:19You want it to be more like, you know, jazz, the metallic, all that coaches raved about
05:23him.
05:24And then mentally, like you said, being able to learn from Jacoby and having Drake already
05:27be a really smart guy.
05:29That should do wonders for him that I don't think maybe we can be as appreciative behind
05:32the scenes, but even small things like how Patrick Mahomes has talked about Alex Smith
05:37and how he literally just learned how to be a professional where it's like entering a
05:40new job.
05:41You don't know what you don't know.
05:42Same with freaking Gerard Mayo.
05:43He said, I don't really know about being head coach.
05:46I'm learning every day and to have someone like Jacoby who can get you through the day,
05:49get you through a game prep week is going to be huge.
05:52But enough of that talk.
05:54Let's get into some dang film.
05:55Now we're going to go in chronological order in terms of the games starting out with the
06:00Patriots versus the Panthers.
06:02This is actually not going to be one of Drake May's better plays from the preseason, but
06:07still starting off on something that he can get better at.
06:10So what do you got for us, brother?
06:12Yeah, you mentioned earlier, and I actually agree.
06:14Drake May's footwork overall is probably better in a better spot than I think it was
06:18coming out of college.
06:19Still needs to clean up some of that stuff, and I say specifically he does a really poor
06:24job sometimes of when he goes one, two, three throw.
06:28Sometimes that last step into the throw can get a little wonky, and I think this is a
06:31good example.
06:32This was early on in the Eagles game.
06:33He's going to try to throw this, uh, this flat route over to Keyshawn Booty.
06:38Throws it high, almost puts it in the sideline, and to me, the biggest issue is, um, you watch
06:42him get to the top of his drop.
06:44His last step here, um, his lead foot, it's so cut off from the target.
06:50Look at where he's trying to throw.
06:51He's trying to put this ball on, what, the 34-yard line, but the front, like, his toes
06:56are pointed at, like, the numbers here, like, almost inside the numbers.
07:00Like, it's just, it's so hard to get proper, clean rotation when you're kind of cutting
07:04off where you're trying to throw to beforehand, and this is why he kind of gets a little bit,
07:09like, short-armed at the top of his release.
07:11Everything just ends up really clunky.
07:12So, overall, better footwork, but he needs to fix some of that stuff.
07:16Is this similar at all to when we talked about J.J. McCarthy, where we're talking about the
07:19wild misses to his left, where it was really, like, when he would open and plant that foot
07:23and that would lead to some of the spray misses because things weren't really aligned?
07:27So it's actually the opposite problem, where Drake, I'll try to get to exactly where it
07:32is.
07:33Drake here, his foot is a little bit tight to the target, like I said, his toe here,
07:38whereas J.J. McCarthy, his left foot would almost be in line with his right heel.
07:42Like, he would open up too far and swing around too far, and Mitch Trubisky had this problem.
07:49All the Trubisky-can't-throw-left means were not for nothing, it was because he had the
07:52mechanical issue of swinging too far out, so if May and McCarthy could somehow merge
07:58together and find the middle ground there with how they open their flam foot, they'd
08:03be in a great spot.
08:04A little Trunks-Goten fusion action there.
08:06Now, last thing on this, because I did notice, kind of parsing through all right, three-step,
08:11five-step, whatever, quick game seemed like the place where Drake was the least consistent
08:15and it was when he had to plant and then throw.
08:17Was that something you saw as well?
08:19And is improving there really just more about comfort, reps, getting it done enough, or
08:23is there something else maybe that he's going to have to do to be more consistent?
08:27Because quick game obviously is a massive part of the West Coast offense and what Alice
08:30Van Pelt wants to do.
08:32I think it's just coaching points and then reps, because we're going to have a clip here
08:36in a second where his footwork is actually really good when he goes one, two, three,
08:41and then he gets to hitch and progress into something else.
08:43It's like he somehow cleans himself up when he does that, but when he's just one, two,
08:48three balls out, there's just something about that final step into throw that he just gets
08:53really wonky with.
08:54Yeah.
08:55Okay.
08:56So we're on the same page.
08:57So with that little segue, rather, intro, those are different things, let's get to the
09:01next play.
09:03This is going to be the play heard around the world in New England.
09:06Everybody raved about this.
09:07It's actually one that Drake told us he messed up in practice and then came back in the game
09:12and executed it.
09:13Everybody was really excited for him.
09:14I could have sworn I saw him completed in practice.
09:16Maybe I'm crazy, but still being able to see that tangible growth, taking it from practice
09:20to the field is huge.
09:21So break this one down for us, buddy.
09:23Yeah, there's two things to me that really stand out about this play.
09:27First, he's going to open obviously to the boundary side.
09:30He's going to try to throw.
09:31It looks like a sale corner route, but this safe or this outside corner here is going
09:35to kind of cap it.
09:36So I'll play the clip a little bit.
09:38See, he opens here.
09:41He wants to throw this, but he sees 30 just has outside leverage on it.
09:44I mean, that's that's closed every day of the week.
09:46That's just not happening.
09:47And you can see he quickly as soon as look at how he bounces at the top of this drop,
09:51gets to the top of his drop, boom, instantly comes off of it, doesn't waste any time, knows
09:55where he needs to be.
09:56And that to me is the most important part of this play is that a lot of the times with
10:00rookies, you'll see they'll get to the top of the drop here and they won't turn yet.
10:03They'll they'll wait and they'll be like, is this close?
10:05Is this close?
10:06Is this close?
10:07And then they'll finally get to the next play.
10:09Drake doesn't wait, instantly goes over, makes the throw.
10:12And that to me is like I said, when he goes one to two to three and then resets, he looks
10:17pretty clean.
10:18It's just he's got to clean up those other throws.
10:20But right there, that's as good as it gets.
10:22And that end zone angle shows it perfectly.
10:24This was really the poster child for me of him tying his eyes to his feet.
10:28One thing that T.C.
10:29McCartney said that was really the focus in the spring and in the summer.
10:32When I asked him about it later in the summer, he's like, oh, yeah, no, Drake did a great
10:34job.
10:35And it really did show in camp, in practice, in practice and in the games, him being able
10:41to do this.
10:42And it just makes this entire operation more efficient.
10:44I think it was also something we kind of briefly touched on that he can improve when we went
10:47through his draft.
10:48Definitely like like you saw the flashes, right?
10:52But you still wanted to see like, OK, can he actually do this consistently at the NFL
10:56level?
10:57Based on preseason, I'm pretty confident you can actually.
10:59Oh, yeah.
11:00All right.
11:01So we're talking about process and getting through your reads.
11:03Another very good example of Drake may understanding what the coverage is doing to him and taking
11:07what the defense gives him.
11:09Yeah, this was, again, part of the last play is just he did such a good job of as soon
11:15as he realized he needs to come off of something, boom, gets there, knows what his next option
11:18is.
11:19That's exactly what he does here.
11:20Before I run it, they're going to they're going to take this kind of in a condensed
11:24split here.
11:25He's going to run, I don't know, 12, 14 yard, one of those deep crawl routes over the middle.
11:29That's what Drake is going to want to throw.
11:32But he gets to the top here.
11:33I think as soon as he brings his eyes back to this right side of the field, he feels
11:38that he's getting a little bit of pressure here, potentially from the running back picking
11:41up the linebacker.
11:43And he realizes as soon as he does that reset, he's like, all right, I need to know if this
11:47guy's open right on this reset step.
11:50And if it's not, I need to go to something else.
11:52Doesn't feel like this is going to be open.
11:54So he immediately just pulls it and throws it to the flat, takes a few yards that he
11:57can get in.
11:58Polk takes it from what would have been like a completion for zero or maybe a yard, obviously
12:03into more yards.
12:04But, you know, good offenses, they'll take plays that should be zero yards and eventually
12:09go into five.
12:10So just credit to Drake for trusting his guy to go make a play there.
12:13Can we go a little bit deeper into the footwork in this West Coast offense?
12:17Because what we talked about at UNC, especially in that second season, Drake's footwork was
12:22just not ideal in terms of sometimes he wouldn't.
12:25We already talked about it.
12:26He wouldn't always have his eyes and his feet together, but also it just felt like things
12:30weren't really in sync or it didn't feel like, OK, this hop means this.
12:34This redirect means that.
12:35So in this West Coast offense, maybe using this as an example, how do you see Drake's
12:39eyes kind of showing you where his brain is going in the play?
12:43Yeah.
12:44So at UNC, it was it was nonsense, like there was nothing tied to anything.
12:48It was all air raid BS.
12:50So you'll see in this clip, you can see he uses his first step out of the break.
12:56What's the safety doing?
12:57OK.
12:58He gets an eye on the safety.
12:59Then he comes back to whatever his first read is, which is here.
13:01He thinks because this safety is I'm assuming what he's thinking here is because the safety
13:05is on the far hash.
13:06He wants to try to at least get his eyes to the opposite hash and go here.
13:10So he's going to hold on to this.
13:12And then the timing is you get one hitch and you see it here.
13:15You get one hitch where, OK, is this guy open?
13:18He would if this were going to be open, he felt it would be open.
13:22He would throw it at the top of that hitch.
13:23But again, he doesn't.
13:24And so it's OK.
13:25Top of the hitch.
13:27Not their transition straight to my other option.
13:30And that's more the timing that you want is like, OK, I get one hitch per whatever my
13:34next thing is.
13:36And that's basically the operation that he's going with here.
13:39And last one, I'll ask before we end on this, because talking to Gerard Mayo today, he mentioned
13:43that Drake is going to be the scout team quarterback.
13:45And one thing I was like, oh, so Jalen Ragers mentioned that that allowed him to emulate
13:49some of the best receivers in the game.
13:51And then he got to take things from them.
13:52So obviously, the first month of the season, the Patriots are playing some very good quarterbacks,
13:56especially mechanically.
13:57Gino Burrow, Brock Purdy, Aaron Rodgers, who is one of the guys he looked up to so much
14:02growing up.
14:03But he also said there's a distinction because they're still going to do in terms of progressions
14:07with the Patriots want to do.
14:09So there isn't like something getting lost in translation there.
14:12Can Drake still improve in the ways that we're seeing here?
14:15Like with knowing how to get through his reads and everything, can he still do that on the
14:18practice field facing the Patriots defense, even if, you know, he's not getting the same
14:23crazy pressure packages he's going to get from other teams, but still playing a disciplined
14:26defense that's going to be structurally sound?
14:29I think so, because honestly, a lot of what is going to help you as a rookie is not necessarily
14:35learning how to break down the 301.
14:37What is Steve Spagnuolo throwing at me?
14:39It's like, can you do the 101 vanilla?
14:43We're just got to keep this thing on the road when you get cover three on first down.
14:47And that's really what you just need to be able to do as a rookie.
14:49And then obviously, as you progress into the game, you can start to do the 201 301 401
14:54level stuff.
14:55So I actually think as a scout quarterback, he's going to be able to get that timing down
14:59a little bit better and all that stuff.
15:00Oh, I know we're going to clip that already.
15:03That's going to give a lot of people a little less pause for Drake starting out on the bench.
15:08All right.
15:09We are going to move on to the Panthers.
15:10Oh, not the Panthers game.
15:11We're on the Eagles game.
15:12We're going to move on to the Commanders game.
15:13But first, quick word for our friends at game time.
15:15Be right back.
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16:12Run your game.
16:13All right, we're back now.
16:15Let's break down some of Drake May's tape from the last game.
16:18We're going to see from him for a while when he faced the Washington Commanders.
16:22Yeah, this is so I wanted to include this clip because it's kind of up to interpretation
16:28as to whether or not this is the correct play from Drake May.
16:32Yeah, it is.
16:33And so what you're going to get here, I'll pause the clip here at the beginning.
16:36You're going to get a deep over like a really deep over into, you know, opposite from the
16:42opposite sideline, and then you're going to get kind of a dig around behind it.
16:46They're going to be running man coverage.
16:47So on one hand, you could think, OK, if I'm getting man coverage, they're playing single
16:53high.
16:54This guy's going to be cleared out of here.
16:55If I can just beat whatever the whole defender is here.
16:59This dig route is just one on one.
17:00If I throw it on time, it's there.
17:02And so there is probably some degree of if you want to do the spit spot textbook perfect
17:07quarterbacking thing, that's the play you're going to go to.
17:09And what it would look like would be, OK, Drake goes kind of pauses.
17:13I actually don't know why he doesn't.
17:17Get more depth here.
17:18I would think that this should probably be a three step drop, but I'm not entirely sure.
17:21I was thinking either.
17:22I thought it was so weird.
17:23Yeah.
17:24But with this concept, OK, I almost wonder if part of the problem is.
17:31It's like.
17:32They're running it to where this is almost like feels like an RPO where he's just pull
17:37and then throw to this right side.
17:38I almost wonder if like that's the footwork that he's going with.
17:43That's why this place is really, really weird.
17:45That's part of why it's really weird.
17:46It does look like RPO footwork, just really quick fake, just stand because you're ready
17:50to get it out.
17:51You don't need to get that right.
17:52It's almost like the right side of the play looks like an RPO and then the left side is
17:56more standard dropback.
17:57So the timing can get really wonky.
18:00But if he were to get to this dig, it would be like he would want to start looking at
18:04it like kind of here.
18:05Instead, he keeps his eyes down the field.
18:08And why I don't think it's actually that bad of a play.
18:12Is if Drake thinks he's getting man coverage and if he thinks with one.
18:18This little shimmy he gives to try to hold the safety.
18:22And his arm talent, he should be able to make this throw right.
18:25And so Drake is always going to be a guy that wants to go make whatever the homerun
18:30is.
18:31Like if he feels like he can swing for a homerun or swing into the gap for a double, he's going
18:36to go swing for the homerun.
18:38And this is very much that type of play.
18:40So again, like I kind of said at the top, if you were doing the textbook perfect thing,
18:45he would probably want to come back and throw the dig route that's going to be running into
18:48his vision.
18:49But I have such a hard time faulting a guy for being like, I have a homerun here.
18:54I'm going to go for it.
18:56And he just happened to miss.
18:57And one of the reasons I said it was a doozy, everything you just mentioned, but also if
19:00we look at the all 22, it looks like a glance to the right, which is what they really like
19:05to do.
19:06And sometimes I do like, like the dolphins do a great job of this work.
19:09Sometimes they'll use RPL footwork, but it'll actually be play action.
19:12They're going deeper downfield and it makes it really tough as a zone defender to know
19:15because you're thinking, oh, RPL, it's coming out fast and you may be planning your feet.
19:19And then Tyree killed Jalen while we're like sprinting behind you.
19:23But because type one runs is in breaker.
19:25It ends up colliding almost with Jalen pokes route.
19:29So if it weren't for that kind of odd part of this play design, and I don't know what
19:33exactly happened.
19:34I wish I could ask Alex, they felt we couldn't talk to him after this, but I would be more
19:39comfortable with him throwing the dagger if that wasn't there.
19:43But because it is, you have two routes running into each other.
19:45I feel like, especially in a preseason game where you're trying to see what you can do,
19:48it makes sense to go with the crosser, but the combination of maybe trying, it seems
19:53like he wants to move the safety and it doesn't work and having the pocket pretty much pushed
19:57into his lap combines and it's just not a great throw, but it was one of the rare misses
20:00we've seen from Drake may like this on this type of rep.
20:04And that's the other thing.
20:05I'm glad you mentioned the pocket.
20:06If if 54 here doesn't lose in in catastrophic fashion, it's this is a pretty clean throw
20:14that like you would expect the top 10 caliber type of quarterbacks to make.
20:19Like if this throw is here for like here, if I stop it here and this guy thinks that
20:25this guy can get under the safety, Kyler Murray's throwing that Gino Smith is throwing that
20:30DAC is throwing that Justin Herbert's throwing that like the guys that are in the top, you
20:34know, half or third of the league, they want to throw that and have the arm.
20:37I don't really blame Drake for trying it.
20:39It's just he, you know, kind of gets a little crowded.
20:41Yep.
20:42It's such an interesting play.
20:43All right.
20:44Now we're going to move on to, I really liked the example of the plays you're going to use
20:47because it's not super often that you have a team run the same play twice in a game.
20:51But when you do, sometimes it goes wrong one time and it goes better than next.
20:55It's easier to see what the differentiating factors were and how one player did something
20:58better or didn't vice versa.
21:00So we pull up this one clip where it doesn't go well, then we're going to later go to one
21:04where it goes right.
21:06Yeah.
21:07So this is obviously they're in and they're in a three by one look here, kind of backed
21:11up in their own red zone, which is not great.
21:13I think this was like a third in 10.
21:16Something like that.
21:17Maybe third and like 11.
21:18They might have been a little bit pushed back.
21:20But either way, they're going to run.
21:22I'll kind of run the clip here.
21:23The two and three here are going to run kind of like a basically just two digs right behind
21:27each other.
21:28And I think at the beginning of the clip, when Drake gets to the top or like as he's
21:33going through his drop, I think he doesn't like the prospect of the number three here
21:38getting squeezed by both the linebacker and the safety who can drive down.
21:42I think he just you can tell he's not comfortable squeezing that throw in, at least not right
21:46now.
21:47Maybe it may be down the line.
21:48He feels more comfortable with that.
21:49But this kind of looks like it's going to be open like that looks like a lot of grass.
21:53But if this guy keeps moving, this safety pins down that throw is not there for very
21:56long.
21:57So I get why he moves off of it.
21:59Then what happens is he's coming down to this isolated curl, come back, whatever you want
22:04to call it.
22:05The problem is this guy runs the route to like 14 yards and eventually comes back.
22:12You can see him dilly dallying around and whatever that was.
22:14I think you can tell if you look at how long it takes this route and then how many times
22:20Drake hitches up.
22:22He's just waiting for this guy to come back to the ball.
22:24So to me, this speaks to like, OK, receiver was probably like two or three yards, a little
22:28too deep on the route.
22:30And so Drake is not allowed to get this ball out in time.
22:32But to me, you can still see Drake mostly doing the right thing where he comes off his
22:37first read and then comes back to his isolated route, tries to throw it on time.
22:41Receiver is not on time, can't fully make the throw because he's got a guy in his face.
22:43So this to me was like, you can see the inklings of a good play.
22:48And it's everybody was on the same page and couldn't finish it.
22:51Yeah, this is closer to quarterback school than receiver school.
22:54But Taekwon Thornton has been the X for the Patriots, and he's gotten better separation
22:58this season.
22:59So it seems like maybe he's, you know, putting it together in a foundation and maybe improve.
23:04But it's little things like this where sometimes you're not really sure just watching it live
23:08or from the naked eye who exactly was wrong here.
23:10Maybe you think because Drake may also face this pressure kind of has to get it out.
23:14It's on him.
23:15But great point by you.
23:16The depth is off.
23:17So it makes it look like Drake kind of short arms it.
23:19And it's one of those that live stick out to me because I'm thinking, well, he doesn't
23:22really miss those throws.
23:23There are certain ones were like some corner routes and some goal balls.
23:26You will see Drake kind of sail those to where it's kind of like, I don't really know
23:29what happened, but you live with those because he can make those as well.
23:32But this was one where live you're not sure.
23:34But yeah, that route depth really kind of hurts him and then obviously can't cradle
23:38it.
23:39But we have the clip of the receiver doing it right.
23:42And I will clip that here.
23:44All right.
23:45Yeah.
23:46So they run what is it's not the same concept, but it's very similar where, again, they're
23:51in three by one here.
23:52They have like kind of some in breakers, kind of some attack the middle of the field stuff
23:56from this side.
23:57And then again, just the isolated, you know, one on one car out over to the other side.
24:01So again, Drake, he doesn't even really honestly give the middle of the field that much of
24:05a look here, which I think is fine when if you're in.
24:09Yeah.
24:10If if there if this guy's impressed and you don't think this safety is going to be part
24:14of the throw, which obviously if you're just throwing a crow out on the sideline, he's
24:17not going to be part of it anyway.
24:18I don't really blame the quarterback for being like, I'm just going to get to my one on one.
24:22We're going to try to throw it.
24:23And you can see.
24:25The the line of scrimmage is at the thirty six, right, this receiver tries to break off
24:31the route right at the forty six.
24:33So again, he's the last clip, he was at like thirteen, fourteen yards where he's trying
24:37to break it off here is like closer to ten or eleven, which I think makes the timing
24:40make more sense.
24:41You can see even Drake is kind of ready for it this time and he pins it right where it's
24:47actually supposed to be.
24:49So one, I think you can see just because the receiver runs the right depth and runs the
24:53right route, throws where it needs to be.
24:55The other thing I want to mention, look at Mase, look at Mase pocket movement here.
24:58Yes.
24:59OK.
25:00Yeah.
25:01Yeah.
25:02Like it's amazing.
25:03And he does this all the time where he immediately top of his drop feels like, OK, the only way
25:07my right tackle can lose here is off the right side.
25:10So he immediately steps in, steps up.
25:14Falls out like that's just it's as clean as can be, man.
25:17And this is why I was so frustrated in college when people said, oh, his pocket movements
25:21all weird and it doesn't look all that good.
25:23No, no.
25:24He's every now and then he'll run into pressure, but four times out of five, he does something
25:28like this.
25:29And I'm going to take the four times out of five, even if the one out of five looks a
25:32little goofy.
25:33Dude, I swear, I think we went on like a five plus minute rant in the last video about all
25:39the misconceptions about Drake man's a prospect where actually.
25:42So now I'll use that to segue into this, because JT also one of the quarterback school who
25:46does a phenomenal, phenomenal job does really brings perspective that a lot of us couldn't
25:50possibly have.
25:51A big criticism he had for Drake may was getting himself into trouble by stepping into pressure,
25:56sometimes drifting.
25:58We've also discussed the drifting thing and how a lot of that was to compensate for the
26:01line and to just get himself into a better position based on where he was going to throw.
26:06Could still get it maybe a little more under control.
26:07Do it less because it did develop into something that he did just out of necessity or in the
26:12NFL.
26:13Sometimes you just need a subtle movement.
26:15You really don't need to go all the way to one side.
26:18How did you feel about the way that he handled some of the interior pressure?
26:21Did you feel like he was kind of getting himself into trouble?
26:24And do you think I do think it's something he could work on, but what's your perspective?
26:28I actually, so I didn't intend on showing this clip, but I actually have one more clip
26:31that actually could really segue into this, into this before we get into it, I will give
26:37you time to do that.
26:38I'm going to send it over to our friends at game time real quick.
26:41Be right back.
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28:01All right, we're back.
28:03We got a bonus Drake May clip talking about his pocket presence and maybe some of the
28:07things that are misunderstood about how he negotiates and manages pressure.
28:11So I'm going to throw this up for you, buddy.
28:13All right.
28:14Yeah.
28:15So this clip I really wanted to show because what happens a lot with Drake May is Drake
28:20May is very, it's not panic, but a lot of the times when he sees color flash in a gap
28:26like this, I mean, this guy is inside of his left tackle's right shoulder.
28:30So you see defensive color.
28:32As soon as Drake May sees that a lot of the time, he's immediately going to slide away,
28:36which is most of the time the right thing to do.
28:39Like you are like, sometimes you're going to end up pushing yourself into a looper,
28:43but like whatever, if you get the ball out in time, it doesn't really matter.
28:46But what happens here and why it looks like he fades into pressure is so he immediately
28:49he wants to take this slide.
28:51He starts sliding, but his left guard is kind of like pushing the guy back into his face
28:57now.
28:58And so he's able to cross the left tackle's face again.
29:01And now he's in Drake's face.
29:02So it like ends up looking as though Drake is sliding into pressure, but he's really
29:08not.
29:09He's doing the right thing and he's making the right play.
29:11It just the end result of it is like sometimes stuff happens and the big men up front just
29:16move in weird ways and you can't always account for it.
29:19But he still gets to throw off and gets it there in time.
29:21You would like to throw to be a little bit more to the sideline and that would be the
29:24actual point of criticism here.
29:26But in terms of what he did in the pocket and what he's trying to accomplish as a pocket
29:30manager, I really love the process, even if again, like the end result looks more cluttered
29:35than it should be.
29:36Totally agree.
29:37I feel like he kind of looks out that he doesn't have to deal with the looper because of the
29:41chip from the running back where that guy looks like he's trying to get around.
29:45And then by the time he gets hit, he's like, I have no momentum.
29:47I just got to see if I can get my hands up or whatever.
29:49So you just like to me.
29:51I don't want to make it a big deal until maybe he does get wowed by a looper.
29:55And it's like, all right, see, that's what you don't want to do this.
29:58But at the same time, especially like I know JT mentioned that he could have stepped up
30:02into that gap.
30:03He's kind of got to the right.
30:04But with tomorrow, Douglas is route going left.
30:06I also understand wanting to kind of slide towards where the throw is going.
30:09All he has to do is buy time.
30:10Like this is a match coverage where it's zoned to one side and then man to the other.
30:14There's really nobody there to even get to the Mario.
30:17He just has to get enough space and buy that extra couple of ticks to be able to get on
30:21the ball over that defender.
30:23I agree with that for for two reasons.
30:26One, it's kind of like you said, if you know you're throwing to the left, I think sliding
30:32to the left is always fine just because like you, it makes it easier to make that throw.
30:37Like, whereas, yeah, if he was sliding to his right here, moving a little bit and having
30:40to throw across his body, he has the arm talent to do it.
30:43And I've seen him do it.
30:44It's just a matter of like, does a guy want to do that 12 times a game?
30:47Probably not.
30:48So I understand why he doesn't want to do that.
30:49I also think.
30:51When you're at like this point where he wants to move, I don't know if you necessarily know
30:56that your center is going to put this guy in the dirt and you know that you're going
31:00to have this much space here.
31:01So like, I think with the information he had with how fast the bullets are flying, like
31:06him immediately seeing flash of color inside his left tackles right shoulder, I totally
31:10understand why he did what he did and tried to make this throw this way.
31:14And one example where I think he actually does do that, where he kind of steps up right
31:17and then throws to the left is the Jalen Polk crossing route from at some point in this
31:21game where that would all.
31:24That's another one.
31:25That was his best throw.
31:26It's so perfect.
31:27I literally got goosebumps.
31:28Let me see if I can actually pull it up for us real quick, because that was an absolute
31:31beauty from Drake May.
31:33Try to get us the end zone angle real quick.
31:37Yeah, that there was, I almost put that one here in myself, actually.
31:43We mentioned it.
31:44I have to.
31:45We'll just clip that out and try to make it look like a better edit where I find this.
31:49Is this it?
31:50Yes, it is.
31:51OK, I'm going to record this real quick.
31:53Do you want the sideline and the end zone or just end zone?
31:58You know what?
31:59I might have actually clipped this.
32:00Let me.
32:01OK, perfect.
32:02Let me see.
32:03Let me see if I can save us some time here.
32:07I do have it and I have both.
32:09So yeah, let me let me actually pull this up.
32:13That was the thing about this is it was hard to cut down which clips I actually wanted
32:16to use because I probably had like a dozen.
32:18But I didn't want to give you I didn't want to give you homework.
32:21But also when we do this, we end up just nerding out.
32:24Yeah.
32:25All right.
32:26Yeah, this is the one I think.
32:27All right.
32:29So here's the example of Drake May throwing a crossing route opposite of the way that
32:33he's going to step up into the pocket.
32:34I think one of it's not the best throw that he had this preseason.
32:37Yeah, this was just such a beauty.
32:39And the part of it to me that is just so fantastic is you can see as soon as he gets
32:44to hit the top of his drop, he's aware that this is happening.
32:49But you don't see him panic and you don't see his footwork get out of whack.
32:52You don't see his base get really weird.
32:54Like you can see him just immediately like, OK, let me snap it up where I am at the top
32:58of my drop, two steps up, throw back across.
33:02And it's like that's probably the most in stride ball he threw all preseason.
33:07That was probably the most perfect place pass that he threw all preseason.
33:10And you can really appreciate even more from the end zone angle because it's not really
33:13a normal throw.
33:14He kind of has to contort his body here because he's stepping left, throws going across.
33:18So it's like I didn't I didn't really know how to describe it.
33:21And I didn't want to hype this part of it up too much because I didn't see anybody else
33:24mentioned.
33:25I'm like, all right, maybe I'm nerding out a little bit.
33:26But it just seems like a tough throw to make.
33:28You know, watching Mac Jones the past few years, you wouldn't really see him make this
33:31kind of throw.
33:32Mac has yet Drake has the athleticism, the flexibility in the arm to make this work.
33:38No, you're right, because look like you can see he knows because this guy still has a
33:45chance to like loop around and bend up to get him.
33:47He's hitching up really fast there.
33:49He's like, OK, I really got to make up space here and get out of the way.
33:53And because of that, he's never able to actually settle his feet into this throw.
33:57And so to your point, he kind of has to make this weird like I'm halfway running to the
34:01line of scrimmage and I have to just quick whip this out almost like a shortstop trying
34:05to throw back to first or something.
34:07And then he did.
34:08He just right on the money, man.
34:09It's such a good play.
34:11That's a course.
34:12One more time.
34:13One more time.
34:14You got to appreciate it.
34:15It's just it's so clean, man.
34:17Yep.
34:18Yep.
34:19Oh, it's perfect on literally on the face mask.
34:23Just perfect.
34:24Ball.
34:25So good.
34:26Right.
34:27That's gorgeous.
34:28All right, brother.
34:29You did a phenomenal job breaking down the tape.
34:30We're going to talk about some of the things that they can get better on, the things that
34:32he's already doing well.
34:34So final prediction, when do you think Drake may ultimately starts?
34:39What do you think it's ultimately going to come down to and what strides does he need
34:42to make before he actually gets on the field just to kind of put a bow on this whole thing?
34:47So you know, I've said this on, I think, a different show before.
34:50Usually with a rookie quarterback, you get to be like, oh, he'll they play, you know,
34:54they play some middling defense on week seven.
34:57Let's put him in there.
34:58That's just not the reality for the Patriots this year.
35:00It's a murderers row the whole way through.
35:03Like the best you're going to get is like, I think it's maybe week six.
35:07You know, there's a chance the Dolphins defense isn't, you know, geared up immediately and
35:11maybe they look just whatever for the early part of the season.
35:14That might be his best bet in terms of not throwing him into the fire.
35:17So that would be around when I start looking for it.
35:20I don't really know what it's going to come down to because I think this is probably a
35:23team that knows they're not any good.
35:25So I can't imagine that like being one in four thing to be like, oh, we got to panic
35:29and throw him in.
35:30It's like they probably know they're going to be one to four or something like that.
35:32So it's actually hard to gauge, you know, what would be the impetus other than injury.
35:38Maybe it's just I was actually talking to somebody else.
35:44Another Patriots big reporter.
35:45I think it was me.
35:46Oh, no, it's Callahan.
35:47We work for the same.
35:48Yeah, it was Callahan.
35:49Yeah, it was Callahan.
35:50I was talking to him and he made a good point that like, it might just be they want to figure
35:55out the offensive line rotation first and really get that nailed down before they throw
35:58Jake into the fire, which even for as much as I want to see 17 games of Drake may that
36:02made perfect sense to me.
36:04So it could just be that in terms of what does Drake need to fix before he gets onto
36:08the field?
36:09It's really just the footwork in a lot of the dropback stuff.
36:12You know, like I said, I think when he it's almost like the longer he holds the ball,
36:16the better his footwork is, which is like the opposite.
36:19It's like the opposite of every other quarterback.
36:22Most guys can do the drilled one to two to three, get the ball out stuff, and then they
36:25start to go haywire.
36:27But he's kind of the opposite where he has the natural instinct for the longer the play
36:30goes.
36:31But doing the drilled stuff is actually really hard for him.
36:33So if he can just clean that stuff up and then just get a little bit cleaner in his
36:37pre-snap operation, I think he's already good, especially a guy for a guy who's coming from
36:42an air raid system, which is very different from what Van Pelt is doing, obviously.
36:46But if he can just get a little bit more buttoned up there and then with his footwork stuff,
36:49I think he'll be in a pretty good spot.
36:52Derek, pleasure and a delight as always, brother.
36:54Thank you so much for coming back on.
36:56Now we are recording this on Monday, so take that with a grain of salt, but please let
36:59the people know where they can find you one more time just because I want to hear it and
37:04let them know what you got coming down the pipeline that Patriots Nation needs to be
37:07looking out for.
37:08Also play that video you just dropped.
37:09It was very good.
37:10Yeah.
37:11So you guys can find me at QB class on Twitter.
37:14You can find all my work over at the Athletic.
37:15I'm the co-host of the main podcast over there, obviously, and then I'll be doing a
37:20little bit of a column there during the season.
37:23We actually do the athletic football show season opener in Kansas City at no other pub.
37:28We're doing a live show like a live stream, you know, kind of watching along with the
37:32game and stuff like that.
37:33So I think that's going to be a lot of fun.
37:34If you guys want to come out to that, if you're in town, definitely go watch that.
37:39Look out for me in the comments section.
37:40I'll be there.
37:41All right.
37:42Once again, thank you so much, buddy.
37:43And thank you all as always for watching.
37:46Now take care of yourselves.
37:47Take care of each other.
37:48We'll see you next time.
37:49Peace y'all.