Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Nightmare: How Drake Maye and the Patriots Frustrate NFL Defenses

Starting point is 00:00:00 Not only is Drake May leading the MVP race, but he's also becoming a mystery that can't be solved by defensive coordinators. Let's start there. This is Locked-on 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 happening? I am your host, Nick Cattell's. born and raised in New England. I've been covering the paths for the past 16 years. Also, the co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels and a sports radio veteran.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Welcome to Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network. That's right, your team every day. And on today's show, with Milton Williams sitting out for most of the game against the Jets, someone needed to step up. We'll tell you who that was. Also, we'll tell you how the O-line really looked against the Jets pass rush on Thursday night. But first, Drake May, creating migraines. Today's episode is brought to by Fandul. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app.

Starting point is 00:01:17 Drake May is becoming more of a problem that defensive coordinators just can't solve. It feels like week after week after week there is improvement from Drake May and there is also adjustments being made by Drake May and Josh McDaniels to combat what defenses are trying to do against the young quarterback. I rewatch the game on Friday. I watched the all 22 and I've got to tell you, I grade the plus and the minus. You know how I do it following the footsteps of one Greg Bedard and charting Drake May's. game against the Jets, I only had him for two minus plays. Now, maybe he had three, maybe he had four, but I only saw two minus plays. He had three to four elite plays. I mean, he was just awesome against the Jets, even better than I thought he was when watching the game in real time.

Starting point is 00:02:16 And I have the habit of saying that over the past few weeks. You watch him in real time, you feel like he's playing well and then you watch it on film and you say he played even better than I thought and that was the case against the Jets and I'll tell you why that is important in just a few minutes but let me first just address Drake May and why he is continuing to make defensive coordinators want to bang their head up against the wall. Tom Brady was known to have a supercomputer in between his ears. Everybody talked about Tom Brady's supercomputer, reading what defenses do, what they want to do, how they do it, the ability to learn, and not only to learn, but learn quickly. Drake May has a supercomputer. His ability to learn, learn from mistakes, learn what defenses are trying to do against

Starting point is 00:03:13 him and how he needs to adapt game in, game out. Tampa Bay dropped eight and to coverage against Drake May a number of times. Okay, only rushing three, they dropped eight. They wanted to test the patience of May. And May had not seen that very often. That was a change. Tampa did it. And wouldn't you know, the New York Jets, they went into Thursday night as a team that played lots of man coverage. They played some of the most man coverage we've seen in the NFL in 2025. But against Drake May, they decided to play less man coverage. Evan Lazard, Patriots.com, the Jets came into the week with the sixth highest man coverage rate in the league, 37.4%.

Starting point is 00:04:01 But against Drake May and the Patriots, the Jets only played man-to-man on eight of May's dropbacks, which results in 21.6 percent, well below the average. They came into the game playing man coverage at above 37% against Drake May, 21.6%. And guess what? The supercomputer figured it out. Back to Evan Lazare. In the advanced metrics, May added plus 0.29 expected points, which is in the 78th percentile, pretty darn good, with an outstanding completion percentage over expectation of plus 13.1.

Starting point is 00:04:44 and how did how did drake may do it decision making understanding what the jets were doing he showed really good patience in the pocket which is no doubt a step forward for him he was more than willing to take the checkdowns which you have to do when teams are playing coverage against you he showed that he was willing to take the checkdowns more against the jets than we had seen in any prior game from Drake May. And also his ability to extend plays. Extending plays allows receivers, tight ends, running backs to become uncovered. That's how May fought back.

Starting point is 00:05:29 He saw more coverage against Tampa. He learned from it against the Jets. The Jets decided to not play a lot of man coverage or as much as they usually do. They wanted to drop back and test his patience. And he said, okay, I'm going to be patient. I'm going to take the checkdowns. when I can extend plays and end up getting a big chunk play out of the extension, I will do that.

Starting point is 00:05:50 I will show you that I can make the right decisions. And again, watching the All-22, there were really only a couple of decisions that you might second guess, at least for me, watching it. Maybe somebody else will disagree with me. May only took two deep shots in the game, really. There was that one weird throw to Kyle Williams. don't really know what happened there. The second deep throw was the absolute dime to Mack Hollins.

Starting point is 00:06:19 And if it wasn't for the great defensive play, that would have been a huge play downfield. But it's not like he was forcing it downfield. And so what you have right now in Drake May is a defensive coordinator's nightmare. That's how this is playing out. You play coverage against him. He's patient. You play man to man against him.

Starting point is 00:06:41 He will show off his legs and scramble you to death. If you think you're going to try to take away the deep ball, his deep passing accuracy is off the charts. If you think you're going to try to create some really tough throws underneath, well, guess what? He has shown the ability to fit the football into the tightest of windows. So what do you do? And this is not to say that Drake May is going to be flawless every single week or that he's unbeatable. But the point is he's learning so fast and he is showing defensive coordinators across the league that he can be any defense they throw at him. He's faced the amoeba defenses from Rahim Morris in Atlanta.

Starting point is 00:07:24 He's dealt with the headache of Jim Schwartz in Cleveland throwing the kitchen sink at him. He dealt with Todd Bowles throwing the change up and not blitzing as much in throwing eight into coverage. He dealt with all of it. And he came out with his team winning four games and losing a 0.0. He's solving every single test that is put in front of him. And not only is he a defensive coordinator's worst nightmare right now, he is just frustrating to play. Imagine if you're a defensive player.

Starting point is 00:08:00 If you get pressure on Drake May, he's great. If you blitz Drake May, he's great. If you get him into third and long, guess what? He's really good in obvious passing situations, as we have discussed. If you want to try to disguise coverages post-snap, guess what? He's one of the best quarterbacks in football this season against disguised coverages. So when you're a defensive coordinator and you're getting ready to defend Drake May and the Patriots, you sit there and you say to yourself, all right, what do I do?

Starting point is 00:08:34 If I try to heat him up, he can beat us. If I try to test his patience, he can beat us. If I try to test him underneath with tight windows, he can beat us, or he can beat us over the top. And even if I play a two safety shell and want to back up, he has still shown the ability to have impeccable accuracy downfield. If I get him into third and long, what do I do? He's proven he can consistently beat defenses in that kind of situation. And by the way, this is what's a lot of fun.

Starting point is 00:09:09 He's 23 years old. He has started 23 games in his NFL career. 23 games. It's crazy. It's bananas. He's not even a year and a half into his NFL career when you go off starts. Do you think he's going to get worse or do you think he's going to get better? Especially if Josh McDaniels continues to hang out.

Starting point is 00:09:34 out by his right side. He is a headache for any defensive coordinator. Again, not saying he's flawless, not saying he's incapable of having bad games or making mistakes. But when you are preparing for Drake May, you have to prepare for everything because he has shown as defensive coordinator try to throw the kitchen sink at him, he throws the kitchen sink right back at them. All right.

Starting point is 00:10:01 Part of Drake May's success on Thursday night against the Jets was thanks to the guys up front. We'll talk about that and more on the all 22 offensive takeaways next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. If you're still overpaying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no. At Mitt Mobile, their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees, no BS. You can say yes to making the switch and get. get premium wireless for just $15 a month.

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Starting point is 00:11:21 Patriots your first listen of the day. And thank you for making lockdown the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. And don't forget, if you're watching us on YouTube, Help us out. Click that thumbs up. Make sure you like the podcast, like this episode. Make sure you throw a comment in as well. Drake May being a defensive coordinator's worst nightmare. How are you feeling about it? And don't forget to subscribe as we inch closer to 7,500 subs. And yes, I did a little dance for the people watching the video.

Starting point is 00:11:53 All right. I'm watching the All 22. I will tell you it was a good night for the offense, but it could have been better. I thought the end of the half was a little weird going back and watching it over again the tempo was off there wasn't as much urgency as there should have been and if you were watching the game

Starting point is 00:12:11 as I'm sure all of you were if you're listening or watching this podcast you saw Mike Vrable on the sidelines doing the old Steph Curry the little nap thing right to Drake May and what he's telling him is don't nap don't nap at the end of the half

Starting point is 00:12:26 get going get to the line of scrimmage get tempo going. And so I don't think it was a Mike Vrable's strategy to slow things down almost to a snail's pace at the end of the half when the Patriots had not one, not two, but all three of their timeouts. So it was a little bit weird of an end of a half situation. You know, I thought the run play before the field goal was way too conservative. I mentioned that on the live post game late Thursday night, early Friday morning. I also thought the Patriots did not take advantage of the Justin Fields fumble off the bad snap. Their offense kind of ran into a wall.

Starting point is 00:13:06 The first down play was just bad blocking, frankly, by two or three guys. And then the second play was a half-field read off the play action bootleg. And both Hunter Henry and Mack Hollins were defended. Good job by the Jets. And then the third play, it looked like May had Hunter Henry in the end zone. and he was trying to get it to him. But Michael Clemens made a really, really good individual play, got his hand up, batted it at the line of scrimmage.

Starting point is 00:13:33 So there were some missed opportunities, but with all of that said, the Patriots, I mean, if we talked about this last year, how many times the team scored 27 points last season? Not many times. I mean, I can't remember how many times. Couldn't have been more than a couple, if that. So even with some missed opportunities,

Starting point is 00:13:55 you still drop 27 on the Jets, on a short week. So let's break down the All-22 a little bit, give you my thoughts on the rewatch and start with the offensive line. The offensive line pass protection was really good, really good. Let's start with Will Campbell. We talked about it on the crossover episode with John Butchco, the Battle of the Wills. Will Campbell versus Will McDonald.

Starting point is 00:14:20 Will McDonald is one of, if not the best defensive player the Jets have now. after trading sauce Gardner and Quinn and Williams. And Will Campbell passed the Will McDonald test. And it starts with the spin move. I talked about how devastating the Will McDonald's spin move can be. I mean, he just made it a miserable day at the office for the Cleveland Brown's offensive line with that spin move. He tried it a couple times against Will Campbell.

Starting point is 00:14:46 Will Campbell shut him down. Spin move. Bring it somewhere else. Evan Lazare had some of the stats on the best. Battle of the Wills. Will McDonald did not log a single pressure in 19 matchups against Will Campbell. Shut him down. Shut him down. Shut, shut him down. And yes, he got help a few times with Chips. Travion Henderson a couple times helped Will Campbell, but still, when it was Will Campbell versus Will McDonald, mono a mono, Will Campbell won the matchup. Period. End of

Starting point is 00:15:22 sentence. The rest of the offensive line I also thought was good in past protection as well. A lot of the minuses going back to the whole plus minus grade system, most of the minuses for the offensive line against the Jets, they were actually in the run game. They weren't in the past protection. So when you look at this overall, like Will Campbell, I had him at minus one, which isn't bad, obviously. A net neutral zero means you pretty much canceled each other out. You would take that from an offensive lineman, especially a young offensive lineman. So Will Campbell was a minus one. I thought he struggled some early in the game, especially with the run game.

Starting point is 00:16:00 But he finished with a minus one. You'll take it. Jared Wilson for me, finished with a minus three. I will say he was a net neutral zero in the first half. So he just missed a couple of blocks in the second half, but I didn't think he was bad. Garrett Bradbury finished as a zero. So he was good, canceled out. Michael Wenu was a minus one, and he might have even been better there, a couple of blocks, if you want to be kind to him.

Starting point is 00:16:24 Morgan Moses was a zero. He was a net neutral. So again, he canceled out Jermaine Johnson, who was the other pass rusher for the Jets on the opposite edge of Will McDonald. Morgan Moses did a pretty good job against Jermaine Johnson. Jermaine Johnson's only sack of the night was actually when he was matched up against Hunter Henry. So that sack was not on the O line. It was not on Drake May. It was on Hunter Henry.

Starting point is 00:16:46 And Evan Lazzar wrote that the pressure rate was 35.1% against the Jets. That's not bad at all. It's pretty good, especially considering that not all of that is on the offensive line. So if you broke it down individually and you wonder what the offensive line pressure rate was, I'd have to guess it was under 35%, if not well under 35%. But I thought the guys up front did a good. job in protecting the quarterback. Trayvion Henderson was even better. He was even better on film. You know, sometimes you miss a couple of the past protection snaps for a running back.

Starting point is 00:17:31 I thought Trayvion Henderson was better in past protection against the Jets than he has been leading up to the game. I thought really there was one, there was one play from Trayvion Henderson where he didn't necessarily, you know, sustain the block on the blitz and got pushed back. But he had, you know, a couple of chips. He picked up a couple of blitzes. Overall, I thought it was a positive night for Trayvion Henderson when it came to his blocking. The other significant step for Trayvion Henderson, we talked about his patience, but also yards after contact. His yards after contact were pretty impressive against the Jets.

Starting point is 00:18:13 good contact balance he ran with strong finish got a couple of extra yards one of the greatest examples of that was the final play of the night that mattered if we're not counting kneel downs when it was you know third and three and the jets knew the patriots were going to run the ball you know travion henderson finds a sliver strong finish powers through picks up five yards according to next-gen stats Henderson gained more rushing yards after contact 70 than total rushing yards, 62, and his three touchdown performance against the Jets.

Starting point is 00:18:49 So he had more yards after contact than he had rushing yards. How's that happen? Well, of course, you got minus rushes and all of that. Back to next-gen stats, Henderson forced a career high nine missed tackles across 24 touches. He played 90% of the office.

Starting point is 00:19:06 offensive snaps if you're wondering. And you start to look at this version of Trayon Henderson now the past couple of weeks. And you start to look at Ramandre Stevenson. If he comes back healthy, I would think he'll be back after the mini buy. I would expect Ramandre Stevenson to be back against Cincinnati, fingers crossed. And now with Henderson what he's doing, you got Remandre Stevenson back in the mix. We start to kind of envision that dangerous one-two punch that we had envisioned before the season. So that would be nice to add with the quarterback who is a migraine for defensive coordinators.

Starting point is 00:19:46 Some other observations. The Patriots went with six offensive linemen a few times using Ben Brown. That was a bit of a change from Josh McDaniels. The touchdown pass to Trayvion Henderson, Stefan Diggs lined up in the backfield. nice little wrinkle from Josh McDaniels on that play call in the red zone. And I thought it was, again, a pretty good night for Josh McDaniels. And a really good night for Drake May and a really good night for Trayvion Henderson and a pretty darn good night for the past protection.

Starting point is 00:20:20 Find out who had a nice bounceback night and more with our all 22 defensive takeaways coming up next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. The NBA is back, my friends, and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, Fandul has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks.

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Starting point is 00:21:39 Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. We appreciate every single one of you. I'm here to be as objective as I can be, right? As fair as I can be. I thought the defense against the Jets overall was fine, little bit. bit of a mixed bag, but overall, fine. They did have some good luck, thanks to playing Justin Fields. I did not think, and we talked about this during the crossover episode last week, I do not think Justin Fields sees it well, as they say. He does not see the field well and

Starting point is 00:22:15 understand what's going on consistently and what defenses are trying to do. He is the anti-supercomputer. and I thought Justin Fields missed some opportunities. And I'm not talking about the ones that you actually saw, you know, some of the A.D. Mitchell plays, for example. But I thought the Patriots blew a couple of coverages against the Jets. And there were some opportunities. There was an opportunity for a wide open touchdown. I think it was John Mechie running down the middle of the field.

Starting point is 00:22:44 There was another shot on a wheel route down the right sideline where the Patriots were kind of flat-footed. So there was some good fortune that Justin Fields doesn't see the field well in the passing game struggles, and there wasn't Garrett Wilson out there. So that's to be fair. However, I do think there were some good things from the defense. And overall, you will take it when the defense keeps the team at 20 points or less. We've said that consistently week in, week out.

Starting point is 00:23:15 Let's start with Christian Barmore. I thought Christian Barmore had a nice bounce back. and he really surged in the second half of that football game. He was dominant in the fourth quarter. There was a stretch in the fourth quarter where the Jets could not block Christian Barmore. And that was nice to see because Christian Barmore is one of your most talented players. Of course, Milton Williams was not playing for the vast majority of the game. You needed Christian Barmore to step up.

Starting point is 00:23:46 He had been quiet against Atlanta. He had been quiet against Tampa. so it was really nice to see a Barmore bounce back. Let's talk about some unsung heroes. I love watching the film and seeing certain guys who you might overlook do some great things. Elijah Ponder obviously had the sack in the red zone. Everybody saw it. You'll go back to that.

Starting point is 00:24:08 But I actually thought that Elijah Ponder made three big plays, three big, good plays for the defense. And that's a nice step in the right direction for the UDFA. Elijah Ponder is taking Keon White's spot. And so when Keon White was traded, a lot of people wanted the Patriots to trade a late round pick and bring in a defensive end, well, they didn't. And they obviously like what they've seen from Elijah Ponder at practice.

Starting point is 00:24:36 They believe that he can play at the NFL level, and he was given an opportunity against the Jets, and he made a couple of plays. Corey Durdin continues to be A-plus. He continues to be A plus for me every single week. He has been a really good fine. The guy that we should be talking most about, though, as far as, you know, the unsung hero, even though he didn't make a ton of plays, when you look at the opportunities that he got to make plays,

Starting point is 00:25:05 it's really impressive. And I'm talking about Del Pettis. Del Pettis for me was a plus two on the night against the Jets. And I want to tell you about the two plays he made. second quarter 1327 left so really the beginning of the second quarter it's third and nine and i thought del pedd has played good responsible coverage against mason taylor and you know he allowed on the third and nine he allowed taylor some space to make the catch but he was right on top of mason taylor for the tackle wrapped them up six yard gain jets left to punt and then of course everybody

Starting point is 00:25:40 saw the final defensive play of the night for the patriots against the jets fourth and two I'll tell you what happened on that play. So again, fourth and two, the Patriots decide to blitz Justin Fields. The Jets actually had a good play call against the Patriots defense. They ran a mesh route, but Del Pettis fought. He fought through the mesh route, and he ends up with the pass breakup against the tight end. So he read the play, he got through the traffic, he closed on the receiver, and he knocked the football away. great stuff and so he just has Del Pettis has had an uncanny knack of making plays when he's out there

Starting point is 00:26:23 and that tells me he does a great job of being ready and that's huge to Mike Vrable so you wonder why you know the Kyle Dugger trade happened I mentioned it at the time the Patriots if you're trading Kyle Dugger you have to feel really confident that Del Pettis would be able to step in and play as well, if not better than Kyle Dugger. And you see that Pettis is playing more and more. Mark Daniels has some of the numbers. Del Pettis going into the Jets game had played 34 defensive snaps. He played one snap against Atlanta.

Starting point is 00:26:59 He played three snaps against Tampa Bay. And against the Jets, he tripled that. He played nine snaps defensively against the Jets. So he's gone from one snap to three snaps to nine snaps the last three weeks. the last three weeks. He's not playing 40 snaps, okay? But he's getting more opportunity. And Mike Vrable gave him a shout-out in the post game,

Starting point is 00:27:22 talking about opportunities and that he's going to get more of those opportunities because he's been playing well when he's been out there. And that opens the door for the Patriots to play more three safety looks defensively. But I think Del Pettis is doing a fantastic job given his role. He goes out there and he makes things happen. Meanwhile, defensive ends didn't make a lot happen.

Starting point is 00:27:47 Caleb-on-Cheson had a couple of plays. Harold Landry had a play or two, but the thing that stood out to me watching was Harold Landry and Caleb-on-Chay-on not getting much pressure at all against the Jets, and that's not necessarily a shock. The Jets, I talked about it, you know, a little bit leading into the game. Olu Fashtonu and Armand Membu are two, you know, young, athletic, good tackles. And so if you're going to have trouble getting pass rush against the Jets,

Starting point is 00:28:20 it's going to be on the edges because of Olu Fashtunu and Armand Membu. And Harold Landry, he has not been the same since the Tennessee game when he got rolled up on. I don't know how he even survived that. He must be Gumby, but it did not look good. I told Kelly, my lovely wife, that I thought he was done for the year when they showed that replay. the Tennessee game. I thought he was cooked. I mean, his, his leg pretty much bent. So I don't think he's healthy. He's gutting through. And it shows he's, he's slow. And, you know, I give him credit because there's not a lot of depth there at defensive end. And I think he's toughing it out.

Starting point is 00:29:01 I don't think he's healthy because he has not been nearly the same guy that he was before that play. Christian Gonzalez, up and down against A.D. Mitchell, as you could guess, I thought he played a little too soft when he was in zone you need better christian gonzalez i mean he's supposed to be one of the best cornerbacks in football he needs to be better than he was against the jets i didn't think he was nearly at his best marty map who played one snap and i tweeted about it on thursday night when justin fields um broke contain on a third down i think it was a third and four Marte Mapu was the spy on that play, and he completely lost Justin Fields. And obviously, Mike Vrable was not happy, and he put mothballs right on top of Marte Mapu and said,

Starting point is 00:29:51 you're not playing another defensive snap tonight. It's not happening. That was the one snap he played. Mike Vrable saw enough. Kyrie's Tonga, Robert Spillane, I thought were good. Craig Woodson, I thought, took a step back. Of course, everybody saw him fall down on third and six on the John Mechie touchdown. And that would have been a big defensive play for the Patriots because if Craig Woodson, who had good initial coverage, he just fell on his face.

Starting point is 00:30:15 If he was able to stay on his feet, Caleb-on-Chayson was barreling down on Justin Fields. And that's either an incomplete or a sack. So, you know, that's a huge swing. The Jets would have been kicking a field goal instead they get the extra four points because Craig Woodson falls on his face. I thought he took a step back. I thought he was really good against Tampa. But this is going to happen. He's a rookie playing a ton of snaps, a little bit up and down.

Starting point is 00:30:41 I think he's been better lately, but he did take that step back against the Jets. All right. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everydayer. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio. And don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button and subscribe. And for your second listen, get a double dose of the Lockdown NFL podcast with Tyler

Starting point is 00:31:03 the Madman Roland and Tony Wiggins. find locked on NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great day, a great day, and we will see you tomorrow.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Nightmare: How Drake Maye and the Patriots Frustrate NFL Defenses

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