Drake Maye Speaks Up Days After Getting Judged By Bill Belichick On Sloppy Footwork

Drake Maye was the new premier addition to the New England Patriots during the 2024 NFL Draft. Many believed the QB from North Carolina had the potential to turn the franchise around. While others including Bill Belichick felt he needed to put in some work before he could fill Tom Brady’s shoes in Foxborough (which has been vacant since 2019).

Bill Belichick during his assessment of the draft prospects exposed how Drake Maye had a sloppy footwork that needed much work. Just moments later the Patriots drafted Maye as the third overall pick as suggested by multiple mock drafts.

Now that Maye has progressed through his first few training sessions with the franchise, he was offered to tackle the doubts in his recent press conference. “Everybody knows what’s going on,” he said when asked about the critics of his footwork. “Just trying to play ball and try to win games and learn as much.”

Earlier in the conference he was also posed with the question of how he was molding his footwork to the new offense. To which his swift answer was:

“It’s been good, I think kind of the first day just feeling it out and it’s getting more and more reps... I’m trying out two new stances that I’m getting used to so just work on repping it. And I started to feel pretty good out there today so just got to keep working.”

Although the 21-year-old QB has demonstrated his qualities as a leader, but most importantly he has also displayed his appetite for more film study just like Tom Brady.

Drake Maye Is Putting In That Extra Effort

As brought up by one of the reporters during the press conference, Drake Maye has been spending a lot of time in the film room and meetings. So much so that he is staying at the facility late to absorb all the knowledge of the new system that HC Jerod Mayo is creating.

“[As a] quarterback you got to know what everybody’s doing on the field on the offense. You’ve got to know all 11,” Maye said. “So you got to know what everybody’s doing. I think that takes extra time and takes extra drawing up, extra questions.”

One common factor common between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes was their robotic appetite for film study and to translate that on the field. Maye has certainly fulfilled the first part of the same, but he would need to make that transition on the field to make it big as the two superstars.