Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Step Up: Will Drake Maye Shine or Collapse Facing the Seahawks’ Defense?

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Drake Maye’s performance could make or break the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl hopes. With Seattle’s top-ranked defense standing in the way, can the Pats’ rookie quarterback rise to the challenge—and avoid a repeat of his struggles against Houston and Denver?Nick Cattles delivers an in-depth breakdown of what the Patriots must do to win, emphasizing Maye’s need for quick decision-making, pocket presence, and accuracy. The episode spotlights Seattle’s aggressive, versatile defense led by Mike Macdonald, the importance of generating explosive plays, and how New England’s defensive line—featuring Milton Williams and Christian Barmore—can wreak havoc against Sam Darnold and the Seahawks’ offensive line. Plus, discover which matchups, misdirections, and key adjustments could swing the game. Will the Patriots’ defense continue their postseason dominance? Can May rebound and deliver on the NFL’s biggest stage?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 #newenglandpatriotsEverydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28.  Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.FanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.RobinhoodTrade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin.Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firmIndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl.GustoTry Gusto today at http://gusto.com/lockedonNFL and get three months free when you run your first payroll.QuoMake this the year where no opportunity — and no customer — slips away.Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnfl.BetterhelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist.  Sign up and get 10% off at http://BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON.DripDropRight now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order. Go to http://dripdrop.com and use promo code lockedonnfl.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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is non-negotiable. Drake May has to be better if the Pats want any shot of winning this game on Sunday. 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 Nick Cattles, your host, born and raised in New England, been covering the Pats for the past 16 years. Also, co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast.

with Nick Cattels and a sports radio veteran. Welcome to Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network. Of course, we talk your team every day. And on today's show, in the third segment, both of these teams have lived off explosive plays. But I think they will be hard to come by on Sunday.

In our second segment, there's a certain game plan from the regular season that should bring the Pat's defense some success against Sam Darnold. But first, let's talk about the Pats QB, Drake May. It's time to step up. Today's episode is brought to by Fandul. It's the last call for football on Fandul if you're a new customer,

bet just $5 and get $200 in bonus bets if you win. The Drake May that we saw against the Houston Texans, the Drake May that we saw against the Denver Broncos, will not be good enough against the Seattle Seahawks. on Sunday. It is that simple. If you get that Drake May on Sunday, the Patriots are in trouble. Drake May, according to ESPN, had his two worst games of the year by EPA per dropback and success rate versus Houston in Denver. Now you might say, yeah, Nick, they're really good defenses. Well, Seattle is a very, very good defense. You could argue that Seattle is the best defense in football.

I might lean towards Houston, but there's the argument to be had. Drake May against the Chargers, according to ESPN, was below average in EPA per dropback and success rate. You need Drake May to be better. Seattle is a tremendous challenge. That side of the football is going to be very, very difficult. The Seahawks were number one in DVOA this year defensively. They were number one in weighted DVOA, which puts more stock into the the recent games than the games early in the season.

Seattle's defense is number one in DVOA against both the pass and the run. Analytically, this defense is top tier. Now, what do they do? What will they try to do to bother May in this offense? They run lots of stunts, lots of games, right? So when you watch it, we've talked about it all season long with the young offensive line on the left side, the stunts in the games, the twists, all of those things. Seattle runs a lot of those.

They don't blitz much, though. This is not a team that blitzes a ton. They hardly blitzed against L.A. and the NFC championship game. I think they blitz like 15% or less of the time against the Rams and Matthew Stafford. So they're not going to send a bunch of heat, not consistently, but they are multiple. They like to muck things up. I was watching Dominique Foxworth recently talking about this Seahawks defense, and he said,

look, their coverages are cloudy, right? Between man and zone, they like to mix it up. They like to confuse you. They want one more defensive back than wide receiver to a side. Now, Seattle, I've been watching them all day long. I watched five, six hours of film. And I'll tell you, they're really good in coverage. They're really good at passing guys off into other defensive backs in coverage.

They are very versatile. Phil Perry made a note this week saying that, you know, when you watch the Seahawks defense, and this is true, their nickelbacks can play their safeties can play as nickels or linebackers. Their linebackers can be past rushers. So they love to do a bunch of different

things. And Mike McDonald, the head coach and defensive play caller, is very, very, very smart. Their defensive line is big. Their defensive line is very active. Their front seven is active. We've talked about Nickyman Worry and what he can do at

nickelback, his versatility. I'm sure we'll talk more about him as the week goes on. And this is a defense that creates turnovers, which is obviously an issue. Now, May took care of the football against Denver. That was the most important thing he did in the AFC championship game. He's going to have to do that again on Sunday.

Mike Giardy tells us that the Seattle Seahawks defense, they have created the sixth most turnovers with 25. They will turn you over. So what does May have to do to beat this defense enough to win this football game Sunday. Here are a few keys. Number one, he has to be decisive. He has to be decisive and he has to be quickly decisive because when you play against this Seahawks defense, they will leave you some windows, but those windows close up just like that. So you have to be decisive. You have to see it. You have to attack the window decisively. You've got to be very accurate. They don't mess around. If you're

not accurate, you're going to turn the football over. So May has to be decisive. Sisyv on Sunday. He also has to get back to what he was doing during the regular season with this pocket movement. Make sure you're resetting. Make sure you're moving up in the pocket. He was a little jittery against Denver. And he didn't reset on that whole shot to Pop Douglas that he missed. Some of the inaccuracies were the footwork. And we've seen that throughout May's early career. Now, he got rid of most of it throughout most of the regular season, but it came back against Denver and it bit him. So I want to see the pocket movement again. I want to see the confidence in the pocket. Left, right, up, back. Make sure that you're

getting away from those pass rushers when they're there. Don't see a pass rush if the pass rush actually doesn't show itself. And going hand in hand with the pocket movement, ball security, keep both hands on the football. Remember the bucket throw to Ramandre Stevenson. in the regular season. I think it was against Miami. I think it was the Miami game. But Drake May slid up in the pocket, both hands on the football,

and then uncorked a perfect bucket throw to Ramandre Stevenson down the right sideline. That kind of pocket movement combined with that type of ball security is what you need in this Super Bowl. Something else about Drake May's game. He can attack this defense off schedule, off platform. I saw Baker Mayfield do that on the Tampa Seattle film that I watched earlier today.

And the numbers will tell you, you know, look, if you're watching that Mayfield game where Tampa scored a bunch of points, especially in the second half against Seattle's defense. Now, Seattle, they were missing some components offensively here and there. But when you look at it defensively, rather. But Mayfield, you know, in early October, he extended some plays. He found some room scrambling. a bootleg action, effective with some motion, some pre-snap motion. And Evan Lazar noted this week that Seattle's defense gave up the most passing yards on plays

out of structure. Out of structure means when you extend, when you roll out, when you extend that play, when you throw on the run, when you're off platform, right? So there are some opportunities, but May has to be decisive. He's got to be accurate. He's going to be much better manipulating the pocket. He's going to take care of the football. He's going to keep his eyes downfield as a passer when he starts to bail from the pocket.

He also needs to be patient. Seattle's defense forces you to be patient. So you've got to understand this might take 10, 11 drives to get on the board. And you're not always going to get a big chunk play. We'll talk about that in the third segment. when we talk about the impact of explosive plays for both of these offenses, but you need to be patient. You need to have poise against this defense.

Some other things that I thought I saw in the film that bothered Seattle's defense from time to time. Cheat motion. Tampa Bay ran this a number of times with Tess Johnson. They ran the cheat motion, which is originated from the Miami Dolphins and Mike McDaniel when he had Tyreek Hill doing it a couple of years ago. Everybody was wondering what is going on here. It's the cheat motion, which is. is when you have a wide receiver, tight end, running back, whatever,

you put them in motion, and they start to kind of, you know, start running out onto the field of play past the line of scrimmage right at the snap of the football. It's that cheat motion, right? They start trying to get, you know, upfield right at the snap. And that actually worked a couple of times against this Seahawks secondary in that Tampa game. Now, can you do that if you're the Patriots? You can try it.

maybe you get Pop Douglas running some cheap motion with his quickness going upfield. Some misdirection. Seattle's very disciplined. But, you know, there were a couple of times where you see you can catch them with misdirection every once in a grand while. I would expect a trick player or two from Josh McDaniels because he loves those and he knows this defense is very good. And finally, the weather should be pretty good compared to what Drake May has had to play through the last couple of games. but he has to be better. If we have a May that is not better than he was against Houston and or Denver,

this offense is in trouble and the Patriots are in trouble. He doesn't have to be MVP level May, but he has to be better on Sunday. Let's jump to the defense. If the Pat's defense attacks on Sunday, they could ruin this game for the Seahawks offense. That's next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockhex. on podcast network your team every day. Let's be real.

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subscribers can use code Super Bowl to get one month free of the Everydayer Club. Go to Lockdown Patriots.Supercast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. Also, don't forget if you're watching us on YouTube to click that thumbs up, give us that like, throw a comment in. Are you confident that Drake May is going to be better, if not much better against the Seahawks on Sunday than he was against the Broncos and the Texans? Throw a comment in that also helps us with the algorithm. And don't forget to subscribe. We're going to keep on pushing towards 9,000 subs.

It's going to be a huge challenge. Want to get there by Sunday. You can help us out, like, comment, and subscribe. I would be stunned. I would be stunned if the pats are not aggressive up front in this game against Seattle's offensive line. I watched the NFC championship game back. And man, in the first half, the L.A. Rams, it felt like every single snap, it was four-man rush straight ahead. Not a lot of stunts, not a lot of games, not a lot of blitzing.

Didn't see a lot of that. In the second half, the Rams opened it up a little bit. bit. They did go after Sam Donald a little more. Unfortunately for the Rams, they're secondary, which is why I think they weren't super aggressive in the first half. In the second half, their secondary couple of times, they were hurt. Miscommunication, didn't pass the guys off correctly, and it became somewhat of a nightmare on two or three occasions. But the Patriots, I think, they go into this game on Sunday being much, much more aggressive than the Rams were, especially to start that football game.

And we heard Mike Vrabel say, the big dogs come out in January. The big dogs better come out in February. Milton Williams has been tremendous. NFL researcher on Twitter posted that Milton Williams has tied for the NFL lead with six quick pressures in the playoffs. There's only one defensive tackle

that has had more quick pressures in a single postseason than Milton Williams has right now, according to next-gen stats, in the next gen stats era. That's Aaron Donald. He's pretty freaking good or was pretty freaking good. Williams in the AFC championship game had eight pressures

and his past rush win rate was 28%. Both of those numbers were tops in the league according to pro football focus. And it's not just Milton Williams. Caleb on Chase on has been on a heater. Christian Barmore has been much better since Williams returned to the lineup. Anthony Jennings has made impact plays.

Elijah Ponder beat Garrett. at Bowles and had four pressures or so against the Broncos in the AFC championship game. Corey Durdin, Kyrie's Tonga, both of those guys have been headaches on the inside of the defensive line. And you can even mention somebody like Leonard Taylor, who has made an impact. The big dogs have to be out on Sunday.

And if I am Zach Corr, the defensive play caller, if I'm Terrell Williams, I'm Mike Vrable, we're sitting there in the lab. What I'm saying is we got to attack. We have to attack. Now, you don't have to attack every single snap of the football. Let's not get too crazy. But you want to be Uber aggressive.

At least I would want to be Uber aggressive. Against this Seattle offensive line, I would send five guys. I would send six guys. Sometimes I would send seven guys. Brian Flores really gave you the game plan back in November when his Minnesota Vikings defense, for all intents and purposes, shut down Sam Donald and the Seahawks. And don't forget, Darnold played on Minnesota last year.

So you think Brian Flores learned some things from those practices? What did Flores do? He was multiple. He caused confusion up front. He challenged not only the offensive line, but running backs and past protection. I'll give you some examples. First quarter, first defensive possession for the Vikings. It started at the Seattle three-yard line.

But there you go. you see Flores right away putting eight guys at the line of scrimmage. He drops three, sends five. Two or three of those five that he sends actually get quick pressure ends up in a sack. So you put eight at the line of scrimmage, you drop three, you send five confusion. First quarter, second possession. Four defensive linemen. Now, what Flores does is he kind of puts his interior defensive lineman close to each other to mess up the spacing.

He throws seven guys at the line of scrimmage, drops the safety late. It results in a linebacker having a free rush towards Darnold, incomplete pass. Second quarter, the fourth defensive possession. Minnesota lines up. It's as funky, but they actually line up one of their cornerbacks at the line of scrimmage and they shift their five defensive linemen towards the left of the offensive line, the right for the defense.

So he kind of plays some games up front. Flores sends all five. All five. You get the defensive end as a free rusher, strip sack, turnover. So it's those types of things that you should do. Create confusion. Bother Donald. Change the pre-snap post-snap picture.

Donald against Minnesota was 14 of 26 for 128 yards, no touchdowns, no picks, and he lost a fumble. And yes, that's going to open the door for Seattle to attack you with Kenneth Walker's screens. I understand. Ben Solac of ESPN pointed out this week that Kenneth Walker has gone over 25 yards receiving in four of his past five games. But this is a pick your poison type situation. Trust your defensive backs. Trust your liebackers that they're going to limit yards after the catch. They're going to be able to defend some screens.

They're going to be able to defend Kenneth Walker in the passing game. Again, you've got to pick your poison in the game like this. Seattle's offensive line is not good against stunts. It's not good against games. It felt like every time in the second half, when the Rams blitzed or ran a stunt, they got pressure on Darnold and almost immediately. Again, if I'm Zach Corr, Mike Vrable, Terrell Williams,

I'm thinking let's get creative. Let's test their communication up front. Now Seattle's offensive line, their past protection analytics are much better than LAs or Houston's. I don't think they're as good of an offensive line. as Denver is. But when you look at it, their fifth best

and quarterback pressure rate, their 12th and past block win rate, Charles Cross, their left tackle is 13th. He's banged up. Keep an eye on the injury report this week. 16th in time to pressure, though. So pretty much right in the middle of the pack

in time to pressure. And they have faced the second highest blitz rate, which tells you defenses, look at this offensive line and say, we can attack them, which is why I think the Patriots should attack them. And this Seahawks offensive line, it's far from perfect. Anthony Bradford, their right guard, is a struggle bus.

He gave up tons of pressure against L.A. And I think he's going to have his hands full with Milton Williams and Christian Barmore. Center Jalen Sundell, he has his problems from time to time, showed up against the Rams. Now, Charles Cross again, he's good to really good, but he can be beat. I saw him get beat a couple times on the film that I watched. Jared Verst got him. You know, you could see Minnesota getting him a couple of times. And you just wonder, can K. Levan Chaseon beat Charles Cross once or twice?

One or two impact plays can be the difference. Abraham Lucas is their right tackle. He's pretty steady. And arguably their best offensive lineman is their rookie left guard, Gray Zabel, who's really good. But he has had some issues against, you know, top-tier players. I don't think it's crazy to believe that Gray Zabel might get beat once or twice by a Milton Williams or a Christian Barmore.

The Patriots, according to Mike Reese, via ESPN research, their 57 postseason pressures are the fifth most in the NFL since 2009. This is the way for the past defense. Attack, disrupt that offensive line, and rattle Sam Darnel. These two teams, more than any other in the league this year, have banked on explosive plays, but can they create them? on Sunday. We'll answer that next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. February can be a lot, flowers,

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Don't forget to subscribe. Appreciate you. Both offenses could struggle to consistently move the football on Sunday. That's your warning. And both offenses have depended heavily on explosive plays throughout this season. Chad Graf mentioned this. This was from the Scoop City newsletter from the Athletic. The NFL today is all about explosive plays.

The top four teams and explosive play margin were the final four teams. Imagine that. The Broncos, Rams, Patriots, and Seahawks. The top two teams are playing for the Super Bowl. When you look at explosive play margin, the Patriots were second. Offensively, they're at a plus 2.17. And Seahawks, if you look at it, they are a. plus 2.60. Explosive play margin. How many explosive plays do you have offensively compared to what

you give up defensively? And Derek Classen from the athletic, he noted that Seattle has had 30 offensive plays of 10 plus yards in their two playoff games. 30 offensive plays of 10 plus yards. Now, if we're going to point out the Patriots playing tough defenses, we should point out the fact that Seattle has not really play tough defenses. The playoffs, come on. San Francisco, not a very good defense. They had a million injuries. Their secondary is suspect. They can't get a pass rush. The Rams over the final quarter of the season or so fell off a cliff defensively. Secondary, very suspect. So we have to remember that. Now ESPN will tell you that Sam Donald has 17 completions of at least 36 or more yards this season.

Explosive plays. So when you think about that, Donald's that I just gave you. Jalen Hawkins, Craig Woodson, GTFB, get the bleep back. And of course, you have to try to limit Jackson Smith and Jigba. Now, how can you do that? We'll talk about that later in the week, a little bit of a tease for you. I want to spend a lot of time on Jackson Smith. and Jigba in what the Patriots can do defensively to try to slow him down.

But generally speaking, you've got to limit him because he can kill you. Sam Darnold, we talk about Drake May's ability to extend plays. Donald also does a really good job of extending. He can also scramble. So you've got to watch out. He can create some explosive runs with his athleticism. Now, here's the good news. The Patriots defensive backs have been playing great football.

NFL researcher on Twitter posted that the fewest yards per target allowed among defensive backs this season, including the playoffs. This is per next gen stats. Christian Gonzalez is number one at the fewest yards per target allowed among defensive backs at 5.2. Carlton Davis is fifth, one, two, three, four, fifth at 5.7. That is the minimum of 70 targets. So Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis, limit the big plays. Marcus Jones as well. You've got to limit those explosives.

Now, on the other side, can the Patriots create explosive plays? We know that throughout the regular season, a major component of this offense was the downfield accuracy and production from Drake May. That has not been the case lately. Mike Giardy at Boston Sports Journal wrote that May is 9 for 3.3. 26 on downfield throws in the playoffs. He's completing 34.6% of those passes. In the regular season, he led the NFL at 61.2%.

Obviously, that is a massive difference. Completing over 61% of your passes downfield in the regular season, and in the playoffs, you're under 35%. And if you take those explosive plays away, you take away that accuracy and downfield production from this Patriots offense, The Patriots offense is nothing like it was in the regular season. And to be fair, I gave you the stats for Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis. Same thing for the Seahawks, NFL researcher.

Fewest yards per target allowed among defensive backs this season, including the playoffs per next gen stats. Rieck Wullen at 5.4 is third on that list, two behind Christian Gonzalez, and one behind Carlton Davis is Josh Joe. And that's again with a minimum of 70 targets. And don't forget that those two guys aren't even the best corners on Seattle. Devin Witherspoon is the best corner on that team. Now, he has a big time reputation. I will tell you that Devin Witherspoon got beat a couple times on the film.

I thought he had a pretty tough day against L.A., and yes, part of that was Pooka Nakua. But to me, I saw him have trouble with speed every once in a while. So we might want to keep that in mind. but this secondary is good, if not really good, for the Seahawks. So can you create explosive plays? That's a question for each of these offenses. In a game that you might not move the football a lot, those explosive plays can be the difference.

You get two or three big plays downfield. That could be the difference between you winning the Super Bowl or going home with nothing, empty. Now, as far as easy yards, because not every single explosive play is a throw-down field. The Seattle Seahawks offense will attack your corners if you play off coverage. They'll just, Darnell will just throw it out there to Cooper Cup,

will just throw it out there to Jackson Smith and Jigba and let those guys try to, you know, create a miss tackle and pick up 10 to 15 yards. So if you're going to play off coverage against these receivers, you better be able to come up quick and make those tackles. Of course, the Patriots, their screen game hasn't been very good this year. They haven't gone to it a lot, and when they've gone to it, it hasn't worked consistently. Hunter Henry had a nice, had a nice screen play against Denver and the AFC championship game for nine, close to 10 yards.

But there haven't been a lot of big plays from the screen action. So I just wouldn't bank on that if you're watching the Patriots offense thinking that's something that they could do. Now, maybe I'll end up being wrong. They'll pull one from the back pocket. It'll go 80 yards to the house. And then you can yell at me in the comment. When you also talk about explosive plays, you have to contain the edge, your defensive ends, your defensive backs.

You have to contain the edge and you have to tackle wrap up. Yards after contact, huge. You talk about Jackson, Smith, and Jigba. He got some wiggle. Kenneth Walker's got some wiggle. So can you get your guys in space? Can you make sure that you limit the space for the Seahawks? But explosive plays could play a huge role in this game on Sunday

based off how these offenses have run throughout the year. 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. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button and subscribe. If you're looking for a gift for someone, make it easy. Check out the Everydayer Club.

Add free episodes of this show, exclusive Discord server access, and more. Don't forget until the Super Bowl, subscribers can use code Super Bowl to get one month free of the everydayer club. Subs can be gifted through lockdownpatriots.supercast.com. Have a great day and we will see you tomorrow.