I have much respect for my colleagues who can come up with authentic takeaways after the Patriots’ first preseason game.
I just can’t bring myself to break out the ol’ Jump To Conclusions mat after one preseason game. There’s not enough information to draw from. I can come away with clues but not many answers. Not yet.
The Panthers’ best players (not an oxymoron, honest) didn’t suit up. Assorted lettermen on the Patriots’ varsity, particularly the defense, roamed the sidelines rather than the field. And it rained so hard at times that the Krafts might have regretted not parking an ark near the lighthouse.
No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye is the most interesting and important aspect of this team by far, and the rookie quarterback played all of one series.
But I can get you one authentic takeaway, and it’s one that might spark broader thoughts about where the 2024 Patriots are, and where they are headed:
It’s so nice to watch a Patriots quarterback who can dial up a fastball when circumstances demand it.
Actually, they now have two who can sling it, which is two more than last year, when Mac Jones led the NFL in the complex advanced statistic Dying Mallards Heaved Slowly To No One In Particular. Right, most of us know that by the common acronym DMHSTNOIP. Big stat. Popular stat.
The presence of Maye — and to a much, much, much lesser degree, sixth-round pick Joe Milton III, who will be the darling of sports radio yowlers for the rest of training camp after Thursday — is the foundation of all hopes for better days ahead.
It was Milton, the speed-rusher-sized, casually backflipping, ridiculously raw 24-year-old, who gave fans something to dream on against the Panthers.
Milton, who entered the game with a little more than four minutes left in the third quarter, completed 4 of 6 passes for 56 yards, including a 38-yard dart to JaQuae Jackson for a touchdown. He also ran for 22 yards, including a weaving 13-yard run that made the hearty fans remaining at Gillette Stadium rise out of their rain-soaked seats.
Milton is a tantalizing talent, but he’s old — uh, experienced — for a rookie, and it wasn’t much of a surprise that he excelled against a Panthers defense populated with players whose names will show up in the cruel agate type come cutdown day.
Those familiar with Milton’s college career, first at Michigan and then Tennessee, will tell you that he has a distinct lack of finesse in his game; he throws that fastball on screens and timing patterns, and that’s a big reason why he was the 193d pick in the draft.
He’s a highlight generator in our highlight-oriented culture, and it’s fun to imagine what he could be. But context and a candid assessment of all of his flaws suggest that what Milton is now isn’t far from what he ultimately will be.
It would be a plot twist of Brady-over-Bledsoe proportions for Milton to challenge Maye, who is 29 months younger and far less experienced but has more variety and nuance in his quarterback tool box.
But this much also is certain: The Patriots would be fools to cut Milton and try to sneak him onto their practice squad. His highlight reel is enough to get him claimed, fundamental flaws be damned. At the least, he could be a designated Hail Mary artist in situations when seven seconds remain and the Patriots are 75 yards from the end zone.
Bailey Zappe is the Pedro Ciriaco of quarterbacks, a modest-at-best talent who had a luck-fueled, fleeting run of success before scouting and the law of averages teamed up to bring reality crashing down upon him.
Milton should beat him out, probably already has beaten him out, and the only real question is why Zappe is still here in the first place.
Jacoby Brissett is the experienced placeholder, and he’s built for that role. Milton is the fun project, similar in hype to Michael Bishop a generation ago. Maye is the future.
And though Thursday provided just a glimpse — one series, two completions in three attempts, 19 yards — you had to come away feeling good about Maye, even before seeing ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky’s praise-laden film breakdown Friday morning.
Maye’s first completion was a patient, well-executed screen to running back Antonio Gibson on third and 13, which picked up the first down. On the second set of downs, Maye hit running back Kevin Harris on another screen that netted 6 yards on third and 11. And like that, his debut was done.
Don’t know about you, but I was most impressed by the throw Maye didn’t complete, an effortlessly zipped 15-yarder that Jalen Reagor couldn’t secure.
The throw was slightly high — blame it on the rain — but man, after watching Jones’s changeups last year, it was reassuring to see that throw made with ease.
The Patriots have a mobile quarterback with a rocket-laser arm again. A couple of them. In that sense, even with the long rebuild in the early stages, this season already feels more hopeful than last.
