Drake Maye Week 1 QB Grade: Patriots vs. Raiders

The 3rd overall selection in the 2024 NFL draft has a promising rookie year, throwing for 2,276 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He made the Pro-Bowl as a rookie, despite the Patriots finishing with a 4-13 record. A new head coach in Mike Vrabel, a WR in Stefon Diggs, as well as help on the OL has Patriots fans hoping for more of a breakout season this year. How did he fair against the Raiders last week? Let's take a look at the breakdown.

Basics

C/A: 30/46 (65.2%)

Yards: 287

Touchdowns: 1

Turnovers: 1

QB at Fault Sacks: 2

Passer Rating: 80.6

True Passer Rating: 109.3

Time to Throw: 2.69s

Time to Pressure: 2.71s

Pressure Rate: 27.78%

9.1% Poor Play Rate vs. 3.6% Big Play Rate

Breakdown

• Maye started a the day with a poorly thrown ball on the games first drive. A throw that he should, and is capable of, making. A completion would have meant a first down. He followed it up with a nice completion to Hunter Henry for 27, a little wheel route that Drake floated nicely over the defense. However, his very next throw, essentially the same throw lead Henry out of bounds, missing another chunk play. Luckily he would go on to throw only 4 more incompletions in the half, but 2 of them did grade out as "Poor" incompletions. Overall, he was accurate in the 1st half.

• One of those poor throws was a easy touchdown that he missed on a crosser to Demario Douglas. He did, however comeback and throw a touchdown on the next play to none other than Demario Douglas.

• His last "Poor" was a dangerous overthrow on a deep shot that was close to being picked, but not close enough to be "Turnover Worthy".

• His last "Poor" throw came late in the game, a deep throw to Kayshon Boutte which he had no chance on.

• His interception was a culmination of pressure and a badly thrown ball, leading his receiver into a dangerous area of the field, causing the pick.

• His second half overall was a struggle, where he really only could find completions in the short and behind the line of scrimmage. He did not score a "Good" or better grade on a play until the last drive of the game, a 19 yard completion to Kayshon Boutte to start the last drive.

• This was a tale of two halves, Maye was efficient throwing the ball to the tune of a 108.3 passer rating while completing 70% of his throws. The second half, less so, compiling just a 59.3 rating and throwing 26 times as the Patriots struggled with the run game. He scored a 2.00/-2.50/-0.50 charting as an "Average" game based on my grading.