Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Roller Coaster: Patriots' Drake Maye Must Deliver Consistency to Contend

Starting point is 00:00:00 Drake Mays riding the roller coaster early in 2026. It needs to consistently be better for the Pats to contend. This is Locked on Patriots. You are Locked on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening? I am your host, Nick Cattles. On today's show, the Pats reportedly lose a key member of their offense for the rest of the season

Starting point is 00:00:34 and need his backup to be much better than he was on Sunday. In the second segment, two young pets make me dance. But first, Drake May's highs and lows versus Pittsburgh after watching this film. Today's episode is brought to by Game Time. Download the GameTime at Create an account. Use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. All right, watching the film, I've got to tell you, Drake May was not as shaky as I expected him to be.

Starting point is 00:01:04 when I watch the game in real time. And that's why I always say, watch the film, see what actually happens, the all 22, you see the entire field, you understand decisions at a higher level, et cetera, et cetera. Drake May was on a roller coaster against Pittsburgh. That's the best way I would describe it. Now, Josh McDaniels last week, as I was watching this film, I thought to myself, what Josh McDaniels said last week about Drake May being patient. was dead on.

Starting point is 00:01:36 If you remember, following the Seattle game, May said he just needed better patience, right? He needed to show better patience. And when McDaniels was asked about that late last week, he said, quote, we will see different things and it will require us to be, I would say, in my words, discipline because patience sounds like a passive word to me. The fine line there is protecting it

Starting point is 00:01:59 in doing the right thing when they take things away from us and being really aggressive and not taking away one of May's greatest attributes, which is to be able to do things down the field and be wonderful throwing the ball. So I think you can do both. I think we'll see a development from him as he sees how people play him now differently. But this is an extremely exciting opportunity for us to live through this and to see the differences and then mature, grow, and continue to get better. Not patience.

Starting point is 00:02:31 Discipline. understanding when to take the shots, believing in your own talent, not being so patient that it actually bites you in the tookus. And when you're watching this game, as I'm watching this film against the Steelers, at times you see Drake May, the aggression, the natural talent, you know, three or four examples against the Steelers, obviously the Romeo Dobbs chunk plays, both of them. But when you look at that 63-yard play, that's just a, terrific play from your quarterback. And that's the type of stuff that McDaniels is talking about,

Starting point is 00:03:08 not taking away one of May's greatest attributes, which is to be able to do things down the field and be wonderful throwing the ball. On that 63-yard completion, Romeo Dobbs, May evades the rush. He extends the play, rolling out to his right. And he uncorks a football off one, foot on the run for 50 air yards. So no, I'm not worried about Drake May's arm strength. I've had people ask me, are you worried about his arm? What's going on with the arm strength? You don't throw a football 50 air yards off one foot as you're rolling out if you have an arm problem. There are times when

Starting point is 00:03:53 May hangs in the pocket, makes a play. There's a Hunter Henry seven-yard gain on the very first play of the third quarter. I actually tweeted a screenshot of this play because there's a problem. I don't know if it's Pop Douglas. I don't know if it's Romeo Dobbs, but one of those two guys runs the wrong route. And there is literally a pack of three Patriots in the middle of the field. On the first level, there's Pop. Second level, there's Dobbs. Third level, there's Henry. and they're all perfectly aligned within a couple of yards of each other. Dobbs and Pop Douglas are separated by like a yard, yard, and a half. That's not supposed to happen.

Starting point is 00:04:40 But May doesn't freak out. He doesn't panic. He doesn't take a sack. He doesn't throw it away. He doesn't bail from the pocket. He stays patient. And he actually hits Hunter Henry on a pretty tough throw for a seven-yard gain on that very first play of the third quarter.

Starting point is 00:04:55 So there are instances when May. it looks like the best of Drake May. There are instances when May is good in the pocket, he's clean, he hangs in there, and he makes a play. But then there are times when May's internal clock seems to be off, he's a tick late on a certain pass, he misses somebody on a certain route. There are times when he just loses his fundamentals. Now, not every single time when May's internal clock is.

Starting point is 00:05:28 is off, not every single time when he loses his fundamentals results in a bad play. You know, not necessarily always bad. There is a mix of bad and there's a mix of he should have had more. I'll give an example. That Remandre Stevenson checked down when Stevenson fumbles early in the game. If you watch that playback, May has Eli Raarden down the seam wide open. And if he waits just a second, not even maybe a second, maybe a half a second. if he just waits a tick longer and throws it to Eli Raarden, it's a touchdown. It's a great play call. Rairden's wide open. But May, again, he checks it down to Ramandre, and they move forward with Stevenson fumbling the ball. Now, that's not necessarily a bad play,

Starting point is 00:06:24 because as we've talked about, sometimes May has to take the profit. And on that play, he takes the profit. But he didn't have to necessarily take the profit because there was a much, much better opportunity for the offense if he just waited another tick. Some other plays. First and 10, second quarter, 644 on the clock. I think May has a whole shot to Kyle Williams down the left sideline. May turns it down.

Starting point is 00:06:52 He scrambles for seven. Again, that's not a negative play. It's not necessarily a bad decision from May, but he is not as aggressive as he could be. And he's not getting you a bigger play. If he throws that whole shot, and we saw that a lot last year, if he takes that whole shot and hits Kyle Williams,

Starting point is 00:07:12 could be 20, could be 30, could be a touchdown. But he scrambles for seven and said, again, not a bad play because it's a positive, but there was more on the field. then we get to the not good. Third and six, second quarter, 521 on the clock. May has Pop Douglas. He's got him open, but he's just a second too late.

Starting point is 00:07:36 And that goes back to what we discussed after the Seahawks game and what Julian Love said during the Super Bowl back in February. Sometimes May is confirming that the play is going to be there instead of anticipating it. And so better anticipation to Eli, Raarden down the scene would have been a touchdown instead of the checkdown to Ramandre Stevenson. Better anticipation would have been a chunk play to Pop Douglas. Instead, it's a broken up play, batted down. Then you had a first and 10 again second quarter, minute 48 left.

Starting point is 00:08:10 The bad sack that May takes. That is bad pocket management. Because if Drake May steps up in the pocket, Romeo Dobbs is wide open. If May, doesn't drift to his right. For whatever reason, he drifts and he bails to his right towards T.J. Watt. If May stands in the pocket, steps up in the pocket, manipulates the pocket a little bit better, he has two great options, hitting Romeo Dobbs wide open on a crossing route downfield or tucking and running it and getting 12, 13, 15, 20 yards.

Starting point is 00:08:46 He does neither. Kind of panics, starts to kind of bail towards and drift towards the right. into T.J. Watt, just bad pocket management, and it becomes a nothing play. And then there are issues with the fundamentals and the mechanics, the third quarter interception, which May through to Patrick Queen. If you look at it from behind the quarterback, May's feet are almost pointing towards the sidelines as he throws the football. But then you have examples of Drake May throwing dimes. First and 10, first quarter, 12-02 left.

Starting point is 00:09:20 So right at the beginning of the quarter, Hunter Henry, 29-yard game. It's a great play, great throw by May because he stays in the pocket and he puts just enough on the football to get it to Henry, even though Michael Wenu and Jared Wilson both had bad pass protection on that play. So there's just there's ups and downs. As far as the sacks, the scramble plays, I thought he mostly made the right decisions. and what I see is somebody who has to balance the aggressive and the smart. That's what I think he's fighting right now.

Starting point is 00:09:57 When he's not thinking too much, he's reacting, he's making plays off his natural talent, you see it. When he's staying in the pocket and trusting his past protection, you see it. But then there are other times where he's a tick late, he's a tick early, he's bangling out for no reason. So there's the roller coaster, there's the up and down to his play right now. I did not think he was terrible against Pittsburgh. I actually graded him out as pretty much a net neutral this week.

Starting point is 00:10:26 High highs, low lows. And the defenses haven't helped. Like Seattle is obviously a great defense. Pittsburgh is a very good front seven. Patrick Graham has intelligence on Josh McDaniel's offense and defending Drake May from last season with the Raiders. So that's what I saw from Drake May on the film. Who had me dancing after watching said film?

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Starting point is 00:13:41 Dremont Jones update. Mike Vrable during his press conference with the media on Monday sounded like it might not be a long-term issue. I don't want to read too much into it. He talked about Draymont Jones. Jones doing everything he can to try to be back out there this weekend. So we'll have to wait and see. But it did not sound too, too bad if you're trying to read the tea leaves between the lines there with Mike Vrable and the media. Meanwhile, watching Elijah Potter and Gabe Akis against Pittsburgh on this film made me dance like Carlton Banks.

Starting point is 00:14:16 I mean, I was dancing like Carlton. It was absolutely delicious to watch these two young edge players play. against the Steelers. Elijah Ponder was a monster. And I know I said some of this in the live post game reaction, but again, I want to watch the film reinforce my thoughts or maybe change my thoughts, depending on how things play out. I had Ponder and everybody will have different grades and stuff.

Starting point is 00:14:41 But I had Ponder with nine plus plays in this football game against the Steelers. He finished on the day overall a plus eight. He had one minus play. He lost an edge at one point. but the pressures we saw, the sack we saw, two quarterback hits, not one, not two, but three tackles for loss. Obviously, the scoop and score. But the best aspect of watching Ponder's game was the improvement against the run.

Starting point is 00:15:10 And I talked about this a little bit on the postgame pod, the very first play, very first play of this football game against the Steelers. They run at Elijah Ponder, and he holds up on. the edge. And because of that, the Steelers only get a two-yard game. And there were multiple, multiple other examples during this game where you see Ponder being steady on the edge. And, you know, if Ponder is good against the run, there's no doubt about his impact. He's going to get home from time to time. He's going to get pressures. He's going to get some sacks. If he can be as good against the run as he's been the first two weeks of this season, then all of a sudden we

Starting point is 00:15:50 start talking about ponder walking the walk after so much talk this past summer. The improvement against the run, it was there when watching this Steelers game. Steady on the edge. Meanwhile, let's talk about Gabe Accus. We criticized Gabe Accus in training camp, and rightfully so. He looked lost. He looked lost at the joint practices. He looked even more lost in the preseason games.

Starting point is 00:16:18 But then we start the season. And week one, I would say he was a pleasant surprise. I don't think he was as great as some thought he was against the Seahawks. I thought he was good. I thought he was even better against the Steelers. Again, I thought he was good against Seattle, even better against Pittsburgh. And the thing that jumps out at me the most, just like watching Elijah Ponder against the run, you know, these obvious plays like the Ponder scoop and score, the Ponder sack, great.

Starting point is 00:16:50 I want to watch the complete game. I want to watch what that person's doing, snap to snap to snap. The thing that stands out to me the most about Acus, and we saw some of it against Seattle. I think we saw even more of it against Pittsburgh. It wasn't flawless, of course, but Ackis's discipline.

Starting point is 00:17:09 He is playing so much more disciplined in these two regular season games than we saw him play in the preseason, then we saw him at the joint practices. And I'm not going to continue to jump down this rabbit hole because we talked about it last week. But just as a reminder in case you missed it or you're just joining us for the first time, we talked about how maybe Acus is a game day player. Maybe he needs that full week of preparation where he's comfortable, he's confident.

Starting point is 00:17:37 He goes out, just lets his natural talent take over. And it does feel that way. Through the first two weeks of this season, he's a game day player. I'll give you a couple of examples of the discipline. He did not over commit or bite on a play action bootleg by Rogers and applied pressure immediately changing the play. He was also asked to drop in coverage against Darnell, Washington. And during that play, Accus drops against Washington. And there's a moment where Rogers is kind of rolling out, extending the play to his right.

Starting point is 00:18:14 This could have opened the door for Rogers to create a play. if Accus leaves Washington. And there were some other Patriots as well who did a very good job staying on there guys. I think Marcus Jones was another one. But Accus doesn't leave Washington. He doesn't chase the bait. He doesn't go running after Aaron Rogers

Starting point is 00:18:37 when Rogers breaks a little bit rolling out to the outside, trying to break that contain. Accus sticks with the assignment. And he's got plays where he's flashing, where he's popping, right? And he's getting to the quarterback, creating pressure. He had the obvious interception, which was awesome. He's making these splash plays. But what's going to be the true difference for ACUS is if he shows that discipline.

Starting point is 00:19:00 Because if you combine that discipline with those splash plays, that's when you have something. And if you can get this type of ponder and this type of ACUS consistently and Dremont Jones is healthy, maybe Harold Landry comes back. I mean, a lot of ifs there. But if Ponder and Accus play like this and Jones ends up being okay after the next week or two, the Patriot staff might end up getting

Starting point is 00:19:30 the last laugh at edge. Now, I'd still love a vet. A lot has to go right, but it's not crazy. I also thought Quintavius Hutchins made a player two in this game. So I don't want to go bananas. The Steelers' offensive line isn't very good. We talked about that in the preview. but you have to be happy.

Starting point is 00:19:50 Maybe dancing like Carlton. You got to be happy if you're watching Accus and ponder against the Steelers. A couple of other guys I wanted to mention. Charles Woods, shout out, take a bow. I thought Charles Woods, who replaced Carlton Davis, was really good. I actually had him at an overall plus six for the game. Had a few minuses, but man, he had a lot of pluses. and he played 86% of the snap rate.

Starting point is 00:20:17 I thought he was good to very good in coverage, most of the day, had a couple of nice tackles. If Charles Woods can give you that type of game, you're just fine at cornerback three slash cornerback four. Marcus Jones, I thought, was also very good in coverage. And interestingly enough, his snaps increased without Davis out there. Marcus Jones played 24 defensive snaps against Seattle.

Starting point is 00:20:40 That number skyrocketed to 69 defensive. snaps, which was 99% of the defensive snaps against the Steelers. Marcus Jones was out there, thought he was really good in coverage. Coming up, the Pats lose Michael Wenu for the long term and more film notes. This is Lockdown Patriots. It's part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever, only on Fandul. How rewarding are we talking?

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Starting point is 00:23:07 Thanks for checking out the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Update on Michael Wen, it's not a good one. As I talked about live in the post game, usually when somebody is ruled out that quick, it means they're going to be out for a long time. And according to Mike Reese of ESPN, Michael Wenu suffered a broken ankle against the Steelers. If you watched the replay, it was pretty clear. That's what happened.

Starting point is 00:23:32 Jordan Schultz reports that the fear is that it's season ending. It's a huge loss. Huge loss. I've said it many times. Michael Wenu was the Patriots best offensive lineman for the final two months of last year. I think overall he's been very, very consistent. Under Mike Vrable, he was a plus two when I look at plus minus plays. Overall, he was a plus two early in this season before the injury.

Starting point is 00:23:58 He's durable. He's dependable. Michael Wenu, you know, he's played in 15 or more games every season since being drafted in 2020. The guy every year posts, he's going to give you 15, 16, 17 games of steady, consistent play. Meanwhile, Greg Van Routen, who replaced the Wenu, he wasn't good against the Steelers. Now, of course, hopefully with a week of reps and, you know, more prep and knowing he's going to be in there,

Starting point is 00:24:31 maybe he'll show better against Jacksonville in Jacksonville this weekend. But to me, Greg Van Routen, again, the plus minus thing that I do, the grades, watching the film, Van Routen finished as a minus five. I thought he had several plays he would want back, both in pass protection and in the run game. So something to keep an eye on. You need Van Routen to be good. You need him to hold that down at right guard. Now, the good news at left guard, Elijah Verit Tucker was better against the Steelers than he was against the Seahawks.

Starting point is 00:25:05 And I would argue Verit Tucker was much better against the Steelers than he was against the Seahawks. I had him as a plus two against Pittsburgh. He was a minus 1.5 against the Seahawks. And he looked more comfortable. He had some good run reps. You know, and I think if you get this type of Elijah Veritucker, then you're in much better shape on the interior, especially now with the Wenu out.

Starting point is 00:25:31 So good job by Vera Tucker to go back to the lab after a pretty bad game against Seattle. Step up this past week. I thought he played well. Jared Wilson had some issues in past protection. And I know Mike Vrable talked about this to the media said, you know, that this wasn't Wilson's best game. I would agree with that. And I think Wilson's been very up and down through the first two games. He's had his moments. I mean, he had his moments in this game. On the Trayvion Henderson touchdown run, climbs to the second level, great block. He had a

Starting point is 00:26:05 couple of really good run blocks in this game. But that the past protection, just not there, consistently. And so he needs to be more consistent. A little too up and down to start this year. I still think he will figure this out. I still think Jared Wilson by the end of this year will be an average to above average center with a pretty decently high ceiling. But so far again, it's been good than bad, bad then good. Will Campbell, good. The momentum continues. you know, through training camp, through the joint practices, against Seattle, and again this week, Will Campbell was good.

Starting point is 00:26:46 Is he an all pro? No. But he has been more than good enough and the momentum has continued. He looks like a completely different guy. And, you know, this is a tough matchup for him. It was a very tough matchup for him last year. We talked about that previewing the game against the Steelers. That game was one of the worst games for Will.

Starting point is 00:27:07 Campbell before he got injured. Nick Herbig ate him up for lunch. And I thought Campbell was much better this time around. And yes, the team scheme helps and the past protection plan helps. But there's no doubt that Campbell, if you get the Campbell that you've gotten the first two weeks of this season for the rest of the year, nobody will be complaining about Will Campbell. Mostly clean and past protection.

Starting point is 00:27:33 I actually thought there was some improvement in the run game for. from Campbell this week. So your left tackle is looking good so far. Trevion Henderson, he comes back, he makes an immediate impact. Everybody's going to talk about the touchdown run, and I get it. But Henderson was even better than you might think against the Steelers. I had him as a plus four overall in this game. I talked about the patience that he showed at times against the Steelers.

Starting point is 00:28:00 I talked about that in the post game on Sunday. Well, you know, to me when watching this film, the biggest step, Pass protection. I've criticized Henderson, and he has deserved that criticism for not being good enough against the Blitz. He struggled on third down last year. I want to see signs of improvement. He's not flawless. He ain't perfect, but I saw some signs of improvement.

Starting point is 00:28:25 He had a fantastic pickup on a blitz, the first play of the third quarter. That play I mentioned earlier, Hunter Henry's seven-yard gain where everybody was jumbled up in the middle of the field. guys were running wrong routes. Well, Drake May has time to find Henry on that play, in part because Henderson does a good job of picking up the blitz. He had a good cut block on a blitzer, the second series of the third quarter. That ended up in an eight-yard game to Mack Hollins from Drake May.

Starting point is 00:28:57 So Traybion Henderson, we all saw the runs. We all saw that we all see the sexy stuff that plays out, but I thought he was better in past protection and stretches in this game than he was last year. So that is good to see. And I hope that Eli Raarden isn't out for long. I know the Patriots, I'm recording this early evening on Monday. I know the Patriots had four or five tight ends in for a workout on Monday. So that might lead you to believe that Rairding could be out for a little while here,

Starting point is 00:29:32 maybe even longer than that. it could just be a depth thing because obviously even if Rairden is out for a couple of weeks, you've got, you know, Tanner Arkin and Cameron Lottu, two guys who are really practice squad guys or could be practice squad guys. So we'll see how all of this unfolds. But I thought that Eli Rairden was good before he got injured. And everybody's going to talk about the catch, great catch, fantastic catch. Really good route.

Starting point is 00:30:01 Fantastic catch. But much. like Trayvion Henderson. What I was watching was Eli Rairden looking better early in this game, blocking. I saw the improvements. I thought he was pretty bad through two, two and a half quarters or so against Seattle run blocking. I did think he got a little bit better later in that game, but I think overall still he wasn't good enough. But this week early, he was ready. and his run blocking was much better. And there's a direct comparison here

Starting point is 00:30:34 because early in the game against Seattle, there was a WAM block against Leonard Williams where Raiden just got absolutely demolished. In this game, first series, Eli Rairden, WAM Block, good job. So hopefully he's okay because I did see improvement from week one to week two from Eli Rairdon.

Starting point is 00:30:58 All right, that wraps up. this edition of Lockdown Patriots, reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe on YouTube. And do you want another way to be locked on to the Patriots every day? We're introducing the Lockdown Patriots hit, your daily hit of espresso on the team you love. Quick, Strong, five minutes or less, find Lockdown Patriots hit on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk with you next time.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Roller Coaster: Patriots' Drake Maye Must Deliver Consistency to Contend

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