Who among the Patriots' receivers will benefit the most from having Drake Maye under center? Mike Kadlick and Taylor Kyles break down this, and other fan questions from the Patriots Daily mailbag!
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00:00What wide receivers benefit the most from this move?
00:03I would say Jalen Polk is an obvious one because he and Drake have been working
00:07together and getting to know each other since they first got to Foxborough.
00:10Mario Douglas, who Drake May likened to Josh Downs, who was his best receiver
00:14when May had his first career season as a starter at UNC. And then Kayshaun
00:19Booty, another guy who's spent a ton of time with Drake May in the
00:23preseason and then in practices. The main personnel groupings were Javon
00:26Baker, Jalen Polk, and then Kayshaun Booty with like Pop mixing in a little bit.
00:30So Booty has been building every week. He's getting better and better,
00:34which has been really cool and exciting to see.
00:36First as a blocker, he's getting like one or two targets a week, but they're
00:40being more impressive as the weeks have gone on. And as someone who's practiced
00:44with Drake a decent amount, I'd imagine that he'll be pretty active and someone
00:47that Drake is going to have a lot of confidence in as well. So really those
00:50young receivers, I think are going to have the most benefit. Like Austin Hooper
00:54and Hunter Henry, Gibson, Mondre, they'll get their touches. But I think it's a
00:58youth movement that's really like, what was I saying? All the way like when
01:02Drake got picked in like in the spring, I was saying if three of their young
01:06players can play significant snaps and do well, I think it actually makes the
01:10offense a little bit scarier and something you need to respect. Hope we've
01:13seen flashes. Maybe we haven't seen anything in real game action. So TBD,
01:17but I do like at least that the offense is starting to put guys out there who
01:20we could see working with Drake May for the next, you know, three,
01:24four plus years. Yeah. Um, I'm super excited about booty. Um, I think he was,
01:28he was great. Uh, the other night I thought, um, the way he blocked as well
01:31was, was pretty huge. Um, just as far as like a guy who just goes out there and
01:35wants to win and doesn't care about himself. And, and people have wondered a
01:38little bit about Keisha and booty's attitude and, and the off the field stuff
01:41with him. Um, the things that happened down at LSU and whatnot, but he proved to
01:45me last week that he wants to go out there, catch footballs, block his block
01:48his off and win football games. So that, that was really good to see. Um, and you
01:52mentioned too, that those guys have sort of worked together, uh, as that sort of
01:56second, uh, second group wider C recorder back. So hopefully they can bring that
02:00to the first team. The other youth movement player though, Taylor is Javon
02:04Baker. We haven't touched on it, but we do have a question on them and you
02:07touched on it earlier that we're going to talk about it. So does this get Javon
02:10Baker on the field again, Mayo preach is playing the young guys, uh, and that
02:14they get better by playing. Uh, so what does this mean for Javon Baker? And also
02:19does Taekwon Thornton, uh, snaps continue to fall? What do you make of the rest,
02:22I guess, of the wide receiver Taekwon Thornton played, I think one snap last week. He's
02:28pretty much out of the rotation. He was replaced at X by Jalen Polk with Keishon
02:32booty taking over for Polk as the Z will poke and KJ. Now KG has a shoulder injury.
02:37I don't know how serious it is. And if that's why he obviously he was an active,
02:40I don't know if that's necessarily the reason because Keishon booty has already
02:44kind of been on the rise. Um, so for the two veterans, AJ, especially with Kendrick
02:49Bourne, I don't see him having very significant role in the offense moving forward. He didn't
02:53do much with the time he was on the field as a receiver. Unfortunately, either
02:57Dave on Baker, it's the same deal. Y'all like, if he's not playing or not getting opportunities,
03:02and now we've seen it with Keishon booty. So it's not even like, remember with booty,
03:05we were at least saying like, why aren't they giving him chances? And that was weird because
03:08it's like, well, this is a talented kid. You put him at X where he shouldn't be. And then
03:12he couldn't get his feet in bounds. And instead of maybe giving him more chances or more ideal
03:16situations, you benched him. And we didn't know if it was behind the scenes or what,
03:19but that was a situation where I figured maybe he's not doing enough on the field.
03:23Now we've seen Keishon booty rise up the ranks and get more snaps. And we've literally heard
03:28Alex van Pelt. I believe it was say that Jayvon needs to earn the trust of the coaches. He needs
03:32to earn the trust of quarterbacks. He needs to line up the right way. He needs to run the right
03:36routes. You cannot there's yes, you need to get better on the field. You need to do the bare
03:40minimum though, to get on the field, the bare minimum is doing enough that people don't think
03:45they have to worry about you if they send you out. And that's unfortunately what it seems like
03:48Jayvon Baker is for the offense right now. Y'all know I'm a huge Jayvon Baker fan, his talents out
03:54of this world, Alex van Pelt praised him being able to get open and being able to make plays
03:58at the catch point. You got to earn it. And I don't think he's earned it yet. You can now win
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05:11me come back on my Javon Baker take a little bit last night when we talked about it on the crossover
05:19where I mentioned Javon Baker as a guy who, you know, you're continuing on to this youth movement
05:24and these guys have worked together a little bit. Maybe they give him a chance with Drake May. But
05:28you mentioned it to me last night where if he doesn't know what he's doing on the field,
05:33then that's just going to hurt Drake May even more. You need everybody around Drake May
05:37doing exactly what they have to do so you don't hinder his development anymore where,
05:41you know, he could drop back and hit his back foot and he could look to a guy and think that,
05:45you know, Javon Baker is supposed to be there and he's not. And so that's the kind of stuff that
05:50you want it to be as perfect as it can be around Drake May. We already worry about the offensive
05:55line a little bit right now. And so you want at least the receivers to be going in the right
05:58place and knowing what they're doing. So if Javon Baker can't do that, it doesn't really matter
06:02how much and how easily he gets open, right? If he's not in the right place at the right time,
06:06and isn't on the same page as Drake May, it's just going to hurt not only May, not only Baker,
06:10but the offense as a whole. And think of this example really quickly. So like Derek Stingley
06:15Jr. they're facing this weekend. What if Javon Baker is running a curl against a player of that
06:21caliber in Stingley? If you make a mistake, he's going to pick it off. Say Javon Baker runs a curl
06:26and adds one more step than he's supposed to. Literally just one. That could put you at pick
06:30six because Drake's going to throw it when he thinks the receiver is coming back to him.
06:35That one step gives Stingley the advantage to be able to attack the ball without being contested.
06:41And then you're on the sideline. That's going the other way. That hurts the entire team. So
06:45I know it can be hard to be like, well, you know, what difference does it make? He's young. He's
06:48going to run the wrong routes. Yeah. But if you're doing it in practice so much, they don't trust you
06:52on the game field. Those are the kinds of reasons why, because one tiny mistake from a young player
06:57can be the difference. And if you're not earning those snaps on the field to even make those
07:01mistakes, you know, that's a bigger conversation. Yeah, for sure. All right. We have a couple more
07:06and then we're going to get out of here, but I just saw this one in the chat and it's purely
07:09speculative speculative. And I know you love these kinds of questions, Taylor. So old man,
07:15mob, he's our guy. If Polk caught that touchdown last week, is Drake May starting this week.
07:20If they win the game, Jacoby throws the game winner. Do they turn to him or do they keep
07:23on them on the bench for at least another week longer? I was thinking the exact same thing.
07:27Honestly, like when we're in the game, I was like, if they win this, yeah.
07:31Does Jacoby, is Jacoby off Scott free? It's a good question.
07:38I think he would have bought himself one more week. So do I, I think the vibes are better.
07:41I think we said if they lost against the dolphins, significant changes would need to be made. Like
07:46that would be a turning point where something's got to give and is congested as the offense filled.
07:51At least that would show you like, okay, we can kind of push down field because the drive itself
07:56wasn't bad. Like Jacoby was actually doing well. So if he caps that with a touchdown and they win,
08:00yeah, I think he may have one more week, but also Jacoby was part of the reason it wasn't a
08:05touchdown. So yeah, I think I'm with you. And then the end of the game to Romeo said that he
08:10mismanaged it a little bit. Like, I think that was a nail in the coffin for him.
08:13I don't think they necessarily wanted to play direct May this week. And I don't think they
08:17wanted to do it unless they had to. And I think that was a little bit, you know, a part of the
08:21plan here where let's not shoo him in if we don't have to. So if they won that game, if percent had
08:27that game winning drive under his belt and they didn't have to put Drake may up against this great
08:31pass rush against the four and one Houston Texans, who are the best team in the AFC self and one of
08:35the best teams in football. I don't think they would have. And that would have gave them an
08:39excuse to keep reset out there one week longer, where if they went with a reset this week after
08:45what happened on Sunday, that's not putting the team in the best position to win. That's not,
08:49that's not, you know, the, what Mayo says where it may gives us the best chance now.
08:54And in the future, it, when he was saying that, uh, preset today, he mentioned presets,
08:58uh, protection of the football and understanding the offense kind of bought him essentially bought
09:03him some time as the quarterback and was the reason why they went with them early tides change,
09:07things shifted. It was a clear transition point, like you said on Sunday. And so I don't think
09:11they had any excuse to not go to may this week. Um, but I do think that again, I'll say it again.
09:16I think it would have bought him a little bit more time and it would have bought the organization,
09:19uh, starting Drake may, uh, a little bit more time as well.