FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Quick thoughts and notes on the New England Patriots and the NFL:
1. The big decision of May: When NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder discussed the league’s 2024 schedule on a conference call with reporters last week, he noticed the top three picks in the NFL Draft were displayed.
“Some of the new faces, Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, you’ll see in the first few weeks of the season as you look at the schedule with appearances for Chicago, Washington and New England all in national windows,” Schroeder said. “It’s one of the benefits of moving the schedule release after the Draft.”
Schroeder’s comments highlight how the NFL is always eager to promote its next generation of star hopefuls. Williams and the Bears visit the Texans on Sunday night in Week 2, Maye and the Patriots travel to face the Jets on Thursday night in Week 3, and Daniels and the Commanders visit the Bengals on Monday the night in Week 3.
This assumes, of course, that Maye is playing.
Patriots first-year head coach Jerod Mayo has been clear about his quarterback plans: He subscribes to Bill Belichick’s philosophy that not many rookies are ready to play right away and says it will be an open competition. with veteran Jacoby Brissett (48 career starts), Maye. , 2022 fourth-round pick Bailey Zappe, and 2024 sixth-round pick Joe Milton III to determine who is the better communicator.
Specifically about Maye, he said the night the Patriots drafted him: “They try to put timelines on him, but you never know when that time will be.”
The Bears have already determined that Williams’ time has come, having named him a Day 1 starter. Many project that the Commanders will eventually do the same with Daniels, 23, in part because he has good experience entering the NFL with 55 starts in his university career. Meanwhile, Maye, 21, started 26 games at North Carolina and therefore some believe he will benefit from looking behind Brissett, while others, like the Keynote USA analyst and former NFL quarterback The NFL’s Tim Hasselbeck subscribes to the philosophy that the best way for a quarterback to learn is to play.
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Mayo’s decision on when to insert Maye into the lineup, which is the main intrigue surrounding a team that otherwise had no prime-time appeal to the league, will be among the most important of his young coaching career.
The hope Maye brings to the Patriots has similarities to 1993, when quarterback Drew Bledsoe (who, like Maye, was among the youngest prospects at the position that year) was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. of the NFL. So coach Bill Parcells said at the time, “I promise you I’m not going to throw him to the wolves.”
Bledsoe, of course, was thrown to the wolves. The team went 5-11, but by winning the last four games it showed an arc of improvement that indicated better days were ahead for the franchise. The Patriots went 10-6 the following year and played in the Super Bowl in the 1996 season.
Bledsoe, in an interview with Keynote USA.com, was asked if he sees a link between those days and the Patriots’ current setup.
“It’s different in the sense that the Patriots never had much success (when I got there). They went to only one Super Bowl (in 1985), but other than that they hadn’t been consistently relevant. While it hasn’t been that long ago “They were running the world, so there’s still a lingering level of expectation from all that success. That part is a little different, but they earned the right to choose what they chose to watch last year, that’s for sure,” he said.
“The new coaching staff and the new rookie quarterback are coming in, so there are some obvious parallels as well. I don’t think it’s crazy at all. Now it will be very interesting to see where it goes from here, if we can rebuild that culture championship and start climbing again.
Bledsoe said offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, who was his backup with the Bills in 2002 and 2003, will be a key asset for Maye because of his “football knowledge and demeanor.”
As for his advice to Maye, Bledsoe said: “You’re going to have to have a thick skin and be patient. It’s not going to happen right away. You’re going to have to be very strong mentally and emotionally to get through some of the tough times – even if they start you off.” right away. You’ve got Jacoby there; they’re not in a situation where they have to throw him on the field right away, so I’ll be curious to see what they do.”
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• Draft: See all 257 selections | Selection analysis
2. Brady calling NE: The Patriots currently have six of their games scheduled to air on Fox, which begs the question: Could Tom Brady, in his debut season as the network’s No. 1 analyst, call any of them?
Fox’s games are Sept. 15 vs. the Seahawks (1 p.m. ET), Sept. 29 vs. the 49ers (4:05 p.m. ET), Oct. 6 vs. the Dolphins (1 p.m. ET), Nov. 3 against the Titans (1 pm ET), November 10 against the Bears (1 pm ET) and November 17 against the Rams (1 pm ET).
Brady will always be assigned to Fox’s best game in the national window, which given the Patriots’ lower-profile status makes him less likely to have a big slate of New England games (if he has any).
At first glance, the Patriots-Bears game (possibly Williams vs. Maye) might have the best chance of landing, as Keynote USA has the doubleheader that week with Eagles-Cowboys at 4:25 p.m. ET.
3. Is Judon next? Newly named Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf has been checking off items on his contractual “to-do” list, most recently extending the contract of starting center and team leader David Andrews.
So perhaps the most important piece remaining is veteran outside linebacker Matthew Judon, who is scheduled to earn a base salary of $6.5 million in the final year of his contract. That’s well below market for a player of his caliber, and it’s hard to imagine Judon agreeing to play under those terms. At the same time, Judon’s return from a torn biceps that limited him to four games last season, along with his age (32 in August), add layers of attention to any negotiations.
4. New phase: The Patriots will hold three voluntary organized team activities this week, marking their move into Phase 3 of the offseason program. Members of the media are scheduled to be present at the first OTA on Monday. Brissett, who praised Maye, is expected to get the starting reps at quarterback. https://x.com/MikeReiss/status/1791165872783990901
Of the QB dynamic, Brissett said: “The cool thing about our room is that everyone wants to be the man, and everyone competes to be the man. That’s what you want. If none of us wanted to play, it would be a disaster. up; we would be in bad hands in this organization.”
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5. Maye’s business trip: Maye was one of 40 rookies who attended the NFL Players Association rookie opener in Los Angeles on May 15-19, joining receiver Ja’Lynn Polk (second round) and Milton (sixth round). The purpose of the annual event is to educate players about the business side of the game and help them expand their existing sponsorships. Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner addressed the rookies, who also donned their game jerseys for the first time.
6. Mayo’s approach: Mayo is the seventh head coach Brissett has played under, joining Belichick, Chuck Pagano, Frank Reich, Brian Flores, Kevin Stefanski and Ron Rivera. Brissett’s initial impression of Mayo’s coaching approach has been favorable.
“He brings a lot of good energy,” he said. “The good thing is that you can tell he’s trying to get the players on the team to lead the team. Obviously, he’s the head coach and he sets the standard, but he definitely puts a lot of responsibility on the players. I like it.”
7. Goodbye late: NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North explained last week how more NFL teams are not requesting a bye the week after playing international games, which explains, in part, why the NFL’s bye week The Patriots arrives on December 8 instead of October 27. It’s the last possible break for New England, which plays Jacksonville at London’s Wembley Stadium on Oct. 20.
Of the seven decisions when taking into account that the Jaguars play consecutive international games, four teams (Vikings, Bears, Giants, Panthers) requested their rest the week after their return to the United States, while three did not (Jets, Jaguares, Patriots).
The most notable news of the week ![Could Drake Maye make an appearance in the Patriots' prime-time game in Week 3? 1 Could Drake Maye make an appearance in the Patriots' prime-time game in Week 3?](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHdpZHRoPSI0OSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxNCIgdmlld0JveD0iMCAwIDQ5IDE0Ij48cmVjdCB3aWR0aD0iMTAwJSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxMDAlIiBzdHlsZT0iZmlsbDojY2ZkNGRiO2ZpbGwtb3BhY2l0eTogMC4xOyIvPjwvc3ZnPg==)
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8. They said it: “I feel like I gained a lot of muscle in a lot of areas that needed it; just to be able to withstand more impact. I feel like all my injuries came from when I hit the ground, so I’ll be able to bounce when I hit the ground.” — Patriots third-year receiver Tyquan Thornton, who opened his first two seasons on injured reserve (broken collarbone and shoulder).
9. Bill Walsh Scholars: The Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Scholarship has helped college coaches gain exposure to NFL training camp and offseason training programs for more than 30 years, and the Patriots are welcoming Purdue’s TJ McCollum and former South Carolina Browns running back/assistant Montario Hardesty this offseason as part of the program. McCollum already has a connection with a member of the organization, as he played alongside linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley at Purdue in 2017.
10. Did you know? The Patriots are one of 12 teams this season that are not scheduled to face an opponent coming off their bye week. They are the only NFL team that does not have weeks on the calendar in which they have less rest than the opposing team.
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