What Patriots need for Christmas is for Drake Maye to be less ‘giving’ | Karen Guregian

FOXBOROUGH – For Christmas, there are plenty of armchair GMs who would love to gift Drake Maye with a competent offensive line, along with a collection of game-breaking receivers who can get open against any coverage.

Those presents would work nicely under Maye’s Christmas tree. Fantasizing how good the Patriots quarterback would be with a better cast around him might be the best gift of all for fans.

But along with the benefits of having a line that can block and receivers who can beat man-coverage, there’s one more gift that would help Maye – fewer turnovers.

The two against Buffalo hiked his total to 15, fourth most in the league. And he’s played in fewer games than those ahead of him.

Maye can’t make the leap from good to great, committing that many turnovers. He can’t lead the Patriots out of the gutter, if he can’t take care of the football.

Twelve of Maye’s 15 turnovers (8 picks, 4 fumbles) have come in the second half of games.

Sometimes Maye’s aggressiveness, his desire to carry the offense and do more to get the Patriots back in games, has gotten the best of him.

But as receiver Kendrick Bourne pointed out Tuesday before heading out to practice, Maye’s aggressiveness isn’t necessarily a bad trait. The trick for Maye is maintaining that aggressiveness, and making smarter decisions. That’s the fine line he has to navigate in the remaining games, as well as next season.

“He has that mentality to make plays to try and win games,” Bourne said. “I love the aggression. That’s how we have to play. I say it all the time, we have to be hunter. We don’t want to be the prey. We want to be the hunters, and I think that mentality will eventually result in better results.

“But, it’s definitely being smart. He knows that, making smart decisions while being aggressive is the way to go.”

Case in point – not throwing a backward pass down by the goal line.

Maye should have never attempted that swing pass to Rhamondre Stevenson, which resulted in a fumble charged to him, and an easy touchdown for the Bills during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 24-21 loss. Once the defensive end broke free, and had Stevenson lined up, Maye should have thrown the ball away to live another down.

He’ll learn from that. If it happens again, he’ll eat the football. In terms of making ill-advised throws to the end zone while on the run, as he did against Buffalo, there are a few layers to that scenario.

“If he sees something, and he trusts his eyes, I think it’s great,” Bourne said. “Sometimes the DB may be closer to the receiver than he thought when he’s scrambling to throw it, and maybe it results in something bad. But it’s like a 50-50. You see Josh Allen do it all the time … so there’s both sides to it … every player has strengths and weaknesses. You live and die by both.

“With Drake, and the way he plays, I love it. I want him to keep doing it, making those plays and being aggressive because you win like that. You win shooting your gun. You don’t win keeping it in the holster.”

Allen committed 14 turnovers his first season (12 picks, 2 fumbles lost). He averaged 1.17 turnovers per game (Maye is currently a 1.4 per game). His turnover totals are down this season, but last year, Allen had a career-high 18 interceptions with four fumbles lost.

The Bills can live with it, because they have a talented team that can overcome some of those mistakes. They can live with it, because that aggressiveness is part of what makes Allen great.

Patriots coach Jerod Mayo doesn’t view Maye as a mistake-repeater. He sees his rookie quarterback learning from his mistakes and he anticipates that will be the case going forward.

“Drake is a competitor. He’s always going to try to go out there and make plays,” Mayo said Tuesday. “I think just the way he’s played, how well he’s played this year – often times we forget he’s a rookie quarterback – those are lessons learned.

“I’ve been very up front about this, the intangible with Drake, besides his even demeanor, he learns from his mistakes and I expect that to continue going forward.”

When asked if he might be trying to do too much, Maye doesn’t agree with the premise. He wants to continue to go after plays, but at the same time he recognizes his turnover numbers need to improve.

“I think there’s some important things that happen with turnovers, and some of those definitely fall on me,” he said. “So, I think we need to cut down on turnovers, and that starts with me. I’m checking the football, and throwing it incomplete or throwing it in the dirt, things like that.

“But I’m still going to be aggressive,” he went on. “That’s the way I play. I think in the long run, it’ll be good for us.”

That, and a few more competent tackles and playmakers.

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