Callahan: Drake Maye is about to face mounting pressure, how will he respond?

FOXBORO This is the quarterback cycle Step praise and projection A young gun measures into the spotlight as a college prospect then becomes the No overall pick a top- pick or a surprise starter He gets buried in bouquets The talent the moxie the smile Look at him A leader of men The face of a franchise before he s even stepped into a regular-season huddle The kid s got it all they say Media mostly Step patience Reality hits like an unblocked blitzer The season arrives and the kid throws a bad pick or fails to complete a promising game-winning drive Inevitable missteps over a quarterback s career A hopeful community extends him a few grace It was just a rookie mistake Or not his fault Or certainly not as significant as the other smaller things he did well And remember he s better than the last guy Step pressure OK honeymoon s over The rookie label has been ripped off like a Band-Aid The last guy is long forgotten It s on you now It s time to see it Prove it Show us what we ve expected what we promised ourselves and concluded This is where New England is or will be soon with Drake Maye Maye has logged just NFL starts but soon enough expectations will soar to a level associated with -year veterans because the cycle has been accelerated Impatience is the rule not the exception in at present s NFL thanks to Jayden Daniels Joe Burrow Justin Herbert and other latest rookie sensations Not to mention after three years of grade-A dysfunction in Foxboro and only one winning season since we are desperate for competitive football again Because of Maye and Mike Vrabel last Sunday felt like the first time we might get a glimpse of the Patriots as we once knew them It wasn t Maye responded poorly to literal pressure in a loss to Las Vegas while his counterpart Geno Smith out-dueled him in a second-half comeback Maye went -of- for yards and an interception took four sacks and threw with scattershot accuracy when he was hurried or hit Teammates suggested Maye took the loss hard something evident to anyone who watched a confident kid stuff his hands in his pockets and look down while answering questions in his post-game press conference He s a guy that s super hard on himself you know We re pulling for him Stefon Diggs announced after Sunday s loss We ve just got to continue that positive reinforcement that positive encouragement Quarterback is a very hard job Maye looked and sounded more like himself in another press conference after Wednesday s practice Not the same but better Granted there is never a fun time to take questions after a loss But hey that s part of the job New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye speaks during a news conference following a preseason NFL football contest against the Minnesota Vikings Saturday Aug in Minneapolis AP Photo Bruce Kluckhohn I think the guys are being great around me he declared I think they re pumping me up and staying positive in the huddles they ve got particular juice So that s the biggest thing be in the huddle have specific juice and not have all eyes on each other waiting for somebody to say something I feel I ve got specific juice in the huddle Maye can lean various on his fellow quarterbacks Joshua Dobbs and Tommy DeVito because they too have experienced pressure as NFL starters But that s where the similarities more or less end Dobbs and DeVito were celebrated in their time as spot starters because winning wasn t expected of them Their success came as a surprise Success is the only thing expected of Maye now The outcomes of games and by extension the future of the franchise rest entirely on his shoulders as far as the constituents is concerned And so it s no coincidence that Vrabel less than hours after Sunday s loss dismissed such absolute notions and emphasized progress over perfection to his players including Maye We can t think that every play is going to be perfect It s never going to be that way Vrabel revealed Monday morning When it isn t perfect we have particular sort of reaction We need to make sure that we have a great response continue to stay positive and have positive plays overcome whatever penalties and things that we have to fix And we have to protect the ball We have to make sure that we protect the football and it takes everybody Maye s center Garrett Bradbury understands better than the greater part In Minnesota he snapped to Kirk Cousins who may not have been a franchise quarterback but arrived with championship expectations upon signing a fully guaranteed million contract Cousins still hasn t come close to a title Requested about how Maye is processing the loss Bradbury reported Wednesday all high-level athletes chase perfectionism understanding they won t attain it and the surest way to continuing the chase through guaranteed failure is maintaining a simple focus Related Articles Drake Maye pinpoints area for improvement after Patriots Week loss Four Patriots starters added to injury assessment before Week Dolphins challenge Stefon Diggs feeling thankful after bittersweet Patriots debut What to know about Patriots fill-in defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr Patriots get bad news at Wednesday practice before Dolphins event I ve heard of paralysis by analysis where you re kind of overthinking things and you re trying to be so perfect and read everything instead of just being an athlete a football contestant Bradbury mentioned So just be like All right these are the one or two things I need to think about Let s go play ball The Patriots it seems are simplifying around Maye Perhaps it s the playbook or his pre-snap responsibilities or any number of things But Vrabel did confirm the staff is evaluating how much it s put on the -year-old s plate Regardless of whether Maye s plate lightens or not an improved run encounter is a must Vrabel admitted the Pats gave up on their ground encounter in the opener which put the encounter in Maye s hands He ultimately steered the offense into the ground scoring just three points after halftime Ideally the Patriots find a better offensive balance and run all over a Dolphins company in disarray right from the opening kick But inevitably sometime this season and maybe as soon as Sunday a challenge will drop into Maye s hands again Pressure will return All eyes inside and outside the huddle will be on him Because that s the business And because playtime now and forever is over