Drake Maye Week 4 QB Grade: Patriots vs. Panthers

After a frustrating loss where the Patriots seemed as if they didn't want to hold on to the ball, they hosted a Carolina Panthers team who were fresh off a 30-0 shutout against the Atlanta Falcons. And the Patriots, including Drake Maye, responded in a huge way. Beating the brakes off the Panthers 42-12. Maybe was nearly perfect, throwing just 3 incompletions and scoring negative plays just twice. He only took 22 gradable snaps on Sunday, as the Patriots defense, specials teams and ground game did the rest, but Maye still had plent of good. Let's take a look at the breakdown.

Basics (Season Average in Italics)

C/A: 25.7/35.3 (72.8%) | 14/17 (82.4%)

Yards: 261.7 | 203

aDOT: 7.2 | 8.0

Touchdowns: 2 | 3

Turnovers: 1 | 0

QB at Fault Sacks: 1.7 | 0

Passer Rating: 101.3 | 155.6

True Passer Rating: 111.0 | 186.8

Time to Throw: 2.66s | 2.85s

Time to Pressure: 2.48s | 3.08s

Pressure Rate: 30.37% | 22.72%

On-Target Rate: 65.0% | 70.6%

PPR / BPR: 4.2%PPR / 3.6%BPR | 0.0%PPR / 13.6%BPR

Breakdown

• Starting off topic: This game kind of made me want to figure out a scaling system. Find the average amount of plays that are graded per game and scale games up using that average. 22 plays to work with isn't a whole lot to grade from, and I feel like it doesn't truly represent a players performance. Something to dive deeper into, I suppose.

• That said, Maye was fantastic on Sunday, as mentioned just 2 negative plays TOTAL in the afternoon, and 1 incompletion coming off a throw away, giving him a 87.5% adjusted completion %. He was accurate, efficient, and took advantage of the Panthers defense as the main driving for of the blow out, pitching in 3 touchdowns.

• He was also accurate as hell, with 70.6% of his throws being on the money, this is the highest mark I've charted since I been tracking on-target throws. (I still need to go back and do week 1 and 2 for most of the QB's I chart.)

• It was finally nice to see the Maye to Diggs connections going, as most of Maye's biggest throws came targeting him. Diggs finished with 6 receptions and 101 yards, his first 100 game with the Patriots.

• Maye's lone elite throw came to Diggs, a 30 yard back shoulder throw that was placed well. Diggs was watching his QB so the placement of this ball is perfect considering the coverage did not follow what the WR/QB did. This throw would set up a 4 yard touchdown toss to Mack Hollins, Maye's last snap before being replaced due to blow out.

• Maye had a decent throw to Kayshon Boutte to open the 3rd Quarter, but did underthrow by quiet a bit, if he hits him in stride this most likely goes for 6. A missed opportunity but still, a good chunk gain.

• Maye had a fantastic bounce back against a team many thought had turned a corner defensively. His scores of 1.15/2.10/3.35 give him a solid "Good" game grade. A show down of 2 of my favorite QB's in Buffalo looms next, it will be very interesting to see how that plays out!