Drake Maye responds to ‘too poised’ criticism from Giants star pass rusher

FOXBORO Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is briskly learning that heavy is the head that wears the crown Maye has taken an enormous second-year leap as one of the NFL s top MVP candidates and with that status comes more criticism Related Articles Patriots down starters at Wednesday practice before Giants event Patriots to place Will Campbell on injured reserve sign cornerback Patriots mailbag Can new coaching staff lift replacement offensive linemen Patriots re-sign veteran offensive linemen in series of roster moves Patriots film review How Drake Maye Mike Vrabel escaped Cincinnati with a ninth straight conquest Last week it was Stephen A Smith and Cam Newton taking shots at Maye Now Giants pass rusher Brian Burns is weighing in with what appears to be criticism masked as praise or vice versa On Tuesday Burns mentioned he wasn t really too sure yet about how quick Maye is to process everything and disclosed the Patriots quarterback does seem to be poised maybe a little too poised in the pocket What exactly does that mean I feel like at times he s so caught up in making the right play or getting so caught up in his routes downfield he just forgets about somewhat of who s rushing him if that makes sense Burns reported It could be a bad thing it could be a good thing What I mean by poised is that he takes his time he makes the right reads and he tries to make the right play It can also bite you in the butt at a certain amount of times if you ve got edge rushers coming and you re not really too cognitive of where they are Maye s reaction I try to keep my eyes down the field with feeling the pressure I think that s part of playing the position So just trying to make the right play And I know he s a great participant and he s had a great year So just try to have a feel I guess of where he s at and I know he s made a lot of plays So just keep on doing of what I m doing of trying to avoid those guys and hit our guys downfield Maye has been sacked a ton this season His total sacks rank third in the NFL behind Titans QB Cam Ward and Raiders veteran Geno Smith But a lot of those aren t traditional sacks and they don t exactly reflect that Maye is unaware of pressure bearing down Maye s offensive line has allowed just sacks so far Non-offensive linemen have let up three sacks Four of Maye s sacks came when he ran out of bounds at or behind the line of scrimmage Three more sacks came when Maye was scrambling outside the pocket but got tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage Twelve sacks came when Maye either stepped into or ran into sacks at or behind the line of scrimmage He held the ball for too long on a sack by Steelers pass rusher Nate Herbig in Week and lost six yards He also evaded pressure and ran into a sack for a three-yard loss in that same contest The final two sacks unaccounted for came on busted plays Maye has also done a much better job of avoiding sacks over the last three weeks when he s been sacked just three total times I think it s just stop taking the - and -yard sacks Specific of them I ve run out of bounds And I think just trying to throw it in the dirt one time or just trying to be shouldn t have taken one last event on the play that the DB got me That s been a focus with mine Those guys do a great job up front just trying to reward them with with good numbers He has his work cut out for him evading pressure this week with Burns Kayvon Thibodeaux Abdul Carter and Dexter Lawrence rushing at him with an injury-depleted offensive line Those guys are certainly impactful players that have to be accounted for every play head coach Mike Vrabel announced Wednesday They rotate them through there pretty good and so there s a lot of juice there There s a lot of disruption Patriots rookie left tackle Will Campbell is on injured reserve with a knee injury and rookie left guard Jared Wilson is expected to miss Monday night s meeting with an ankle injury That elevates Vederian Lowe and Ben Brown into starting roles next to center Garrett Bradbury right guard Mike Onwenu and right tackle Morgan Moses The Patriots offensive line ranks th this season in PFF s pass-blocking efficiency metric Maye might not be as reassured in the pocket this week but his wide receivers can help him out Be decisive Get open as fast as you can wide receiver Stefon Diggs reported Wednesday Being decisive and being efficient That s what a quarterback likes to see especially a young quarterback He s had particular games under his belt now so he obviously knows what to anticipate and what to look for So look forward to the challenge for us but we got to be open and we got to catch the ball Maye will likely need to adjust and get the ball out faster Of qualified QBs he has the th-fastest time per dropback th-fastest time to throw th-fastest time to sack and fourth-fastest time to scramble He revealed a willingness to get rid of the ball faster last week when Campbell Wilson and Moses all left the battle at different times He also demonstrated an awareness that pressure would be coming from the right side of the line when rookie Marcus Bryant filled in for Moses