Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Drake Maye Starts Off Pivotal Week Struggling | Big Patriots Return

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

Patriots' QB Drake Maye faces pivotal week as joint practices with Vikings loom. Will his rough start in training camp impact New England's offensive strategy?Host Nick Cattles breaks down Maye's struggles, particularly in red zone drills, and analyzes Josh McDaniels' play-calling adjustments to protect the young quarterback. The discussion covers offensive line concerns, defensive player updates, and the return of cornerback Carlton Davis to full practice. Key topics include Craig Woodson's first-team reps at safety and the potential reshaping of the Patriots' defensive backfield.Tune in for expert insights on how New England's training camp developments could shape their upcoming season and impact their standing in the AFC East.Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPatriots?sid=YouTubeLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL#patriots #newenglandpatriotsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Yahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Play Now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Drake May has a rough start to his biggest week of camp in 2025. That's where we begin on this episode of Lockdown Patriots. You are Locked on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked On Podcasts Network, your team every day. What's up, Patriots fans? I am your host Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England, also host of the Everything Pats podcast. co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels and a sports talk show host veteran. On today's episode, Josh McDaniels is telling us everything we need to know about this

offensive line by the way he's approaching his play calling. And the defense puts together a very solid start to their work week. But first, Drake May fights it on Sunday. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen, and for being an every day are the Lockdown Patriots podcast. is a proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And today's episode is brought to by GameTime.

Download the GameTime at Create an account and use code Lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase. This week, as we get ready for the Minnesota Vikings joint practices, is the biggest week of camp. And I'm not just saying that because of hyperbole. I'm saying it because I mean it. I've said this from the very beginning, the beginning of OTAs.

This week is the most crucial week to camp. You get to next week, third preseason game. Who knows if anybody's going to play? And then you've got the week, week and a half off before you kick off week one against the Raiders at Gillette. This is the biggest week. And if you don't want to believe me, I bring you back to a Karen Geregian column in early June when she sat down and spoke with Brian Hoyer.

here's what garee in row the second week of august joint practices with the vikings circle those dates on the calendar why for anyone wondering the best time to get a read on drake may and if he's going to make a year two leap with a new offensive coordinator and new offense see where he's at during those joint practices see how he looks then that'll be the best barometer at least that's the view of brian hoyer who played for nine different teams and had to learn nearly as many offenses along the ride. Here's what Hoyer told Geregian. Quote, when he gets to the week of practicing against the Vikings, and of course, that's this week, that'll be a great barometer. You'll be able to sit there and watch multiple practices against a different defense and you'll have a really good feeling.

If he goes out and has a Mack Jones type of day against the Giants, they should all feel really good about where he's at. Now, I know some people might freak out with just the idea, the notion of a Mack Jones practice against the Giants. But if you go back to Mack's rookie season, 2021, he lit up the Giants. And that's where people thought, hey, he's a starting quarterback. He's ready to go. And we know that Mack was better in 21 than he was the following two years.

But the thought of Brian Hoyer is, does Drake May have his best practices against the Vikings in the joint practice environment because if he does, he has taken all the steps he needs to take to feel good about a year-two leap. Everything building up to this week has meant an awful lot, but this week means the most. He has to put it all together

against a tough defense in Minnesota. And frankly, May started off the week, not great. It was a rough start on Sunday. Andrew Callahan posted, bad day for May, five of 13, possible pick, two sacks fumbled snap. Doug Kide, not his best performance. Mike Giardy, not the offense's finest day. May struggle.

Now, again, what we saw at this practice was the Red Zone, working on Red Zone offense, not really using the run a ton. And when we look back at this camp, the offense has had some issues in the Red Zone especially when they don't get the run game going or don't even try to get the run game going. If they are specifically working on the red zone passing game, they've had issues. They've been a little bit better in the high red zone. Low red zone's been a nightmare. So again, on Sunday, May had a rough practice and it was a red zone practice.

And on the balance of it, it's been pretty tough, pretty tough sledding for this offense inside the red area, whether it's, you know, 11 on 11, 7 on 7s, whatever they're trying to do. I don't know if Drake May got too excited. That does seem to be something with him. Sometimes he gets a little bit too amped up and it backfires. So maybe he was a little too excited coming off Friday night. Maybe he was trying to prove to the team that he has figured some things out after that fumble. We know that Vrable in the post game did not, did not miss words with

with Drake May in that fumble. He let everybody know that he wasn't happy with that. Terrible decision. Needs to be better. Now, of course, May recovered within the game, scored a touchdown on a scramble, but maybe he went out there on Sunday and said, I'm going to prove to these guys,

I'm going to prove in the red zone that I know what I'm doing, and I'm going to have a great practice, and maybe he got into it a little bit too excited and got too far ahead. Now, the question is whether or not May will respond this week to the rough start on Sunday. that he had because I'm sure he understands. I'm sure the entire team understands coaches, players, how big of a week this truly is.

And what we need to see from May this week, number one, we need to see him be decisive and be under control. Being decisive and throwing pick after pick is not good. If he is being decisive this week and he's under control, taking care of the football, that's what we need to see. we need to see him truly understand what is happening before the snap and after the snap as well, because that was part of the issue on that play Friday night when he fumbled. Evan Lazar wrote about it at Patriots.com. Washington's second string defense used a post-snap rotation showing single high, so single high safety at the snap before falling into a cover two on the strip sack.

Lizar writes, typically you don't want to work the slant flat concept to May's left against a too high safety defense because the corner in that flat and the linebacker are well positioned to defend the concept. You've got too many guys on the left side to worry about. May could have IDed the post snap rotation into cover two and worked the right side where he had Pop Douglas on a stick option route versus a linebacker. or like Vrable said, post game, taking a sack and punted the ball away on fourth down. So May made one mistake, and that was the fact that he wasn't looking to go right after the post-snap changed by Washington's defense. And then, of course, secondly, he didn't take the sack, he didn't throw the football in the fifth row, he fumbled the ball. And as we mentioned last episode, the bonus episode, that there was some confusion with Campbell, and Wilson on the left side as well. So you marry all of those issues and it results in a disastrous

play. So we need to see May be decisive. We need to see him under control. We need to see him, of course, limiting turnovers, whether it's fumbles on the snap or throwing it to the other team. We need to see him understand what's happening before the snap and after the snap so he can adjust to the defense so he doesn't walk into these mistakes. You need to see overall progression for May. this week. You need to feel good at the end of this week, not just talking about Saturday because I don't know how much he's going to play in the game. But he has to walk away from this week feeling good about himself and proving that he is taking the steps, proving that he's doing what he needs to get done

by week one against the Raiders. This is a critical, pivotal week. We can't say it enough. And the questions for Drake May, you know, does he trust his offensive line. Does he fully trust the O line? We'll see. What wide receivers are going to be quote unquote running with May during joint practice? Is this going to be a consistent rotation? Or is McDaniels and Vrable going to stick with their top three? Is Diggs going to be out there for the entire joint practice? Are you going to have a pop and booty with Diggs? Or are you going to put Holland's in there for booty. So what receivers will be working with May the most?

That's important. And let's not forget, Vrable said after the Washington game, he was mostly happy with what he saw, but one of the things that he didn't like on the offense was the passing offense. And he mentioned that in the post game. We need to work on our passing offense.

So will they put a lot of emphasis on that this week? heading into the Minnesota joint practices. And will they put a lot of emphasis into that during the Minnesota joint practices? So Big Week, May can certainly respond, come back if he has great joint practices. Nobody's going to care what happened on Sunday. But it was a rough start for Drake May. And the rough start during the biggest week of his camp. And you could argue the biggest week of the team's camp.

Josh McDaniels is leaving clues to how he really feels about this offensive line. We're going to explain next as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is presented by Yahoo! Fantasy. It's the best time of the year NFL kickoff almost here, and that means fantasy football season is back in full swing. And this year, Yahoo Fantasy is turning things up with a fantasy football. experience like never before. Maybe you're playing Yahoo Fantasy right now, and you should be,

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announcements and start playing yahoo fantasy football now at yahoofantasy dot com slash lockdown NFL a coaching staff truly tells us how they feel about certain personnel by the way they handle said personnel and Josh McDaniels if if you go back and you watch Friday nights game if you go back and start thinking about certain instances and what the OC is doing and what he's calling he's telling us Josh McDaniels is telling us that he doesn't quite trust the offensive line to hold their water one on one man to man he doesn't trust the old line just yet he might get there he might get there this week But just looking at the joint practices, and then especially the Friday night game against Washington, it tells us.

It tells us what McDaniels thinks. Now, I'll explain how. Number one, the passing offense against Washington. The number one priority for the passing offense was to avoid pressure. Evan Lazare wrote the following. The Patriots, understandably, didn't want to put their starting quarterback in harm's way by scripting. mostly quick passes with May's average target depth five and a half yards and time to throw 2.46 seconds reflecting that. Eventually we'll have more concrete takeaways when they open the

offense up. Now again, they might open the offense up against Minnesota. They might get there this week. And this might have just been Josh McDaniels easing the offensive line into actual game action, easing Drake May into action. But when you call, that type of passing offense, what you're telling all of us is that you're not necessarily super confident in the idea of the offensive line being able to hold up in pass protection for longer than two and a half seconds. You want to get the ball out quickly. And you want to get the ball out quickly like that over and over and over again because as Lazar wrote, you're not putting your quarterback in harm's way. So that tells me there's not, there's not

the ultimate trust from the OC right now in his offensive line. And when you call that type of passing offense, you're, of course, going to limit big plays. What you need is big time yak, maybe some trickery. That's how you get the big plays. But when you're throwing quick game, you're not looking for huge chunks of yardage. You're looking at trying to move those sticks. Pick up five, six, seven yards at a time. Get rid of the football quickly. Pick up some positive yardage onto the next one. That's what you're doing. So you're limiting the big plays, but you're also theoretically limiting the messes. And McDaniels, he doesn't have to look any further than that play we discussed in the first segment with the fumble and how Wilson

and Campbell get all muddled up there. And he could look at that and that's justification alone saying, yeah, I don't want to put Drake May in that kind of situation again. Not yet. I need to see more from that all line. I need to see. better pass protection. Another, another hint as to how McDaniels feels about this offensive line right now is the fact that he focused during that first preseason game, he focused on helping the tackles. That was one of his top priorities in that game on Friday night. Back to Lazar, the Patriots either wanted to work on chipping the ends or it's a sign of things to come because they gave their tackles chip help throughout this game when they were dropped back passing.

That's not a bad idea when facing longer down and distances with tackles who could be vulnerable and pass protection. Maybe some live in-game reps to develop chemistry between the backs and the tackles for future endeavors. So maybe McDaniels is just working on shipping. And that's why he consistently had his backs chipping for the tackles. Or maybe he has his backs chipping consistently. because he doesn't quite trust the offensive line yet.

I go back to last season. One of my biggest issues with that offense with Alex Van Pelt is the fact that he did not help his tackles enough, not nearly enough. Way too many times that we see Vedarian Lowe or Demontre Jacobs on an island. Way too often, we saw those tackles on an island against some of the best pass rushers in all of football. It was inexcusable. It was illogical.

So if it's, we're not going to help our tackles and we're going to leave him on an island, and they're going to keep getting beat. Well, if that's the option, you don't go with that option. You go with the other option, which is we help our tackles. We help our tackles to make sure that they're not getting toasted every single snap or every other snap. So I would rather have McDaniels helping the tackles with the running backs and chipping than have it the other way around and see what we saw last year with AVP. I don't need to see that.

If you have some concern that your guys could be a turnstile, whether it's Campbell, whether it's Bryant, whether it's Jacobs, whether it's Moses, whether it's low, whichever tackle you're talking about. If you're afraid or concerned, that guy is going to be a turnstile, then you have to adapt as a coach. And the fact, the fact that McDaniels was chipping to help the tackles on Friday night, I think speaks volumes because not only were you doing that in the preseason game and doing it consistently, but you were also doing it in a game where Washington sat 30 dudes. those were pretty much the twos on the defense. So if you're not chipping just to work on the chipping, if you're chipping because you've got concern about your pass protection on the edge, and you're doing that during a preseason game where you're facing the backups,

that's interesting. And if that is the case, if McDaniels was concerned going into the first preseason game against the twos, concerned about pressure on May and the tackles not being able to stand up, then that tells us a lot where McDaniels is right now, and where those young offensive linemen in the offensive line as a whole is right now. Now again, all of this is subject to change. We continue to practice throughout the week.

You get into the joint practices and you get into the second preseason game, maybe you see less chipping. Maybe the offensive line builds a little bit more confidence. McDaniels feels a little bit more confident in them and you're not seeing it as much. But right now, early stages, what we're seeing is an offensive coordinator trying to protect, not only his quarterback, but protect his offensive line. And the other way to do that is to lean on the run game. And you saw the Patriots run the football a lot right away in that first preseason game.

Now, that could just be setting the tone. but you had Henderson and Stevenson running the football early on. Drake May scrambled. And, you know, you had some good success with the top offense. It gave you almost 60 yards on eight rushing attempts. But the run game is another way to make sure you're protecting your offensive line if you have questions about their ability to protect your quarterback. It's kind of simple.

Now, the history of McDaniels and Vrable also tell us, and I did a podcast on this a couple of months ago at Everything Pat's on the YouTube channel if you want to check it out. The history tells us that McDaniels and Vrable, they're going to run the football. Their history tells us that. But it also fits the offensive line strengths right now. Because what you have is you have a very athletic offensive line,

especially left tackle, left guard, and center. Bradbury, Wilson, Campbell, those guys are excellent athletes. And we all know that Bradbury's had issues with the pass rush, and you get those two rookies on the left side having a deal with the pass rush. So not only does it help protect the offensive line, but it fits their strengths, run blocking and athleticism right now. But McDaniels, with the passing offense, getting rid of the football quickly, constantly helping his offensive tackles,

And making it an absolute priority to establish the run game, those three things tell us. He's not supremely confident in that O-line right now and their ability to protect Drake May. We'll see if that changes this week. We'll see if it changes throughout time. And of course, Minnesota, there are no joke, this defensive line, Grenard, Van Ginkle, Hargrave, Allen, Brian Flores, calling the defense. Tough assignment. A critical pat returns to practice, the details of that and more next as we continue

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Download the GameTime app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guarantee. So we talked about in the first segment, the bad news. Drake May had a slow, rough start to his critical week. But here's the good news. the other side of the football. May struggling means the defense played fairly well. And there was no Christian Gonzalez.

And according to Coach Rable before the practice, we should not expect Gonzalez to be on the field this week. So it looks like at least for this week, Gonzalez will remain out with that hamstring. But even though Gonzalez won't be returning, we got a big return during Sunday's practice because Carlton Davis, yes, that Carlton Davis that you signed in the offseason, the guy who's been mostly MIA for the past couple of weeks, Carlton Davis was on the practice field. And he wasn't just on the practice field watching practice.

He wasn't just standing around in his pads taking in the day. No, Davis was out there. Davis was participating. Evan Lizarre posted Carlton Davis was taking live 11-on-11 reps for the first time in a while. How long? If you look back, about two-plus weeks, the last time we saw Davis taking actual 11-on-11s. Taylor Kyle's posted, Carlton Davis, getting extensive action. And by the way, Davis did have a pass breakup during this practice.

And Davis, he just, he adds physicality. He is a very physical corner. He's a physical corner in coverage. He's a physical corner at the line of scrimmage. He's a physical corner against the run. He is a perfect fit for a Vrable Terrell Williams defense because of that physicality in violence. He comes downhill, not worried about anything. He's going to smoke a back if he can smoke a running back.

So he's going to add to the physicality. He is obviously the second best corner the Patriots have on this roster aside from Gonzalez. He's a legitimate corner who can play man coverage. So great to have him back. Let's see if he stays on the field. Certainly feels like the Patriots are trying to ramp up this week, getting ready for Minnesota because of what we discussed in the first segment.

They know how important this week is. So Davis is back on the field. He's back practicing going through 11 on 11s. That is a very, very positive step for this defense. You're going to need Davis, especially while Gonzalez is out. You're going to need Davis. But Carlton Davis wasn't the only defender who returned to practice. The guy who was having the best camp until an injury slowed him down,

he missed the last few practices. Kalevon Chase-on was back at practice on Sunday. That's another positive step. And right away, he gets credit for a sack during practice. This guy has been awesome in camp. He's been one of the best stories during this training camp. And the fact that he was back and that he was participating on Sunday means an awful lot. It means the injury that he was dealing with is not a long-term injury.

We should absolutely anticipate him being part of the joint practices against the Vikings. And that helps the pass rush. And that helps the defensive line because he's been so good. He has been a very, very, very pleasant surprise. And we see the ramp up. And the ramp up we also saw on the offensive side, by the way. Morgan Moses was back at practice and involved. So we start to see these veterans coming back this week.

And we'll see if they continue to have the level of involvement they had on Sunday. There's no reason to believe they're going to take a step back during those joint practices. At least that would not be my expectation. But we'll see. Mike Vrable clearly has a plan. The coaching staff clearly has a plan. a plan of how they're going to manage some of these veterans and we'll see how the rest of the week unfolds. But it was a great, great sign to see Chase on and Davis and Moses out there

being involved. Harold Landry was out there. So we are seeing the ramp up. We're seeing these guys get ready for the big week. Meanwhile, the defensive backs, speaking of Davis, Davis wasn't the only one showing up. The defensive backs showed up again during this practice. Doug Kide tweeted out, defensive back pass breakups. Kobe Biner, Mr. Irrelevant had a PBU. Marcus Jones had a PBU, the aforementioned Davis PbU, and Alex Austin also had a pass breakup. So you're seeing a very active defensive backfield, which is nice to see. I mean, these guys have been practiced now an awful lot without Gonzalez and without Davis.

And have they made some mistakes? Sure. Have they been beaten from time to time? Absolutely. But has it been a nightmare? No. Now, DJ James did leave practice. Could have been a hammy.

I don't know what's going on with these hammies. But DJ James, who has done a very good job, had some tough time on Friday night, did have the pick. But he's mostly been really good at camp. He came up, lame, and ended up having to leave the practice. So we'll keep an eye on that. But these defensive backs, it's not like they've been embarrassing themselves. The depth there at cornerback,

has fared better than I would have thought they would without their top two corners. Now you get Davis back and obviously you hope that Gonzalez is back during that week where they have in between the final preseason game and the kickoff against the Raiders. That's what I would expect is if he's going to be back by week one, as Rabel said, that's the week he's probably going to get active and get going. But these other cornerbacks are showing up. You know who else is showing up? Craig Woodson.

Craig Woodson. First team reps. During Sunday's practice, Kyle Dugger officially, for this practice, at least, moved to the second unit. Dugger officially on that backup defense. Woodson took the snaps. And Woodson had a good Friday night. He was flying all over the field. He was, you know, doing a bunch of different things.

Evan Lazzar points out, you know, during that game, he played center field, split field safety, he covered tight ends, he blitzed. He played in post-snap rotations, and that means this coaching staff believes Woodson can handle a lot on his plate and that he brings a lot of versatility. And it's going to be a big tell during the Minnesota joint practices how Woodson is handled. If this is a ramp up, which it looked like it was on Sunday, if this is a ramp up for the Minnesota joint practices and then that preseason game on Saturday, if we see Woodson, continually getting snaps on that first unit on the back end, we would have to expect him to be out there playing a lot of snaps with the top defense against Minnesota. It'll be a big tell.

If he's out there against Minnesota getting a bunch of snaps and Dugger remains on that backup defense, we can start talking about Woodson leapfrogging Dugger officially. Can the linebackers cover? We'll see. It's one of my questions that I have. they've had some struggles there lately Spillane and Ellis they've also made a couple of plays Alex Austin by the way playing a decent amount of nickelback Taylor Kyle's posted that

you know Rable historically likes bigger slot corners we've talked about that past episodes Austin according to Taylor Kyle's had some good tape against Washington as both a pass rusher and run defender and against the pass all three it does feel like Alex Austin is going to get snaps this year. My final question this week is, as far as we look towards this week against Minnesota, my final question for today's podcast is, how will the Patriots staff handle Christian Barmore? He's absolutely being managed. He was limited on Sunday.

He didn't play on Friday night. He's been managed all camp long. He's had a great camp. So what they've been doing has been working. Will they continue to do that? or will he get a ramp up and see him more than we might have seen him the past few weeks, the first few weeks of this camp? But he's been great, and he could have a huge impact on this defense.

Bormor has looked excellent, according to those on the ground. So we'll see how Barmore is handled moving forward this week as they get ready for the Vikings joint practices. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Don't forget to hit the like button. Give us that thumbs up and subscribe. Thank you for being an everydayer making lockdown Patriots your first listen.

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