Jerod Mayo: Drake Maye’s first start “definitely encouraging”

The Drake Maye era began with a home loss on Sunday.

Maye threw three touchdowns against the Texans, but the Patriots quarterback was also picked off twice and sacked four times while the Texans scored seven times en route to a 41-21 road win. Maye was 20-of-33 for 243 yards and he ran five times for 38 yards in a performance that pleased head coach Jerod Mayo, who focused on the need to be better around the first-round pick in order for the team to achieve better results.

“I thought he showed a lot of poise,” Maye said, via a transcript from the team. “I thought he went out there and controlled the huddle, got those guys out of the huddle and once again, made some plays. It’s definitely encouraging. From a team-wide perspective right now, we let him down. It was his first game, and I feel like I let him down. I’m sure all the coaches feel like we let everyone down. We’ve just got to be better.”

Maye will go from New England to actual England for his next start against the Jaguars and there should be more chances for success against a 1-5 team that got rolled by Maye’s fellow rookie Caleb Williams on Sunday. If Maye can capitalize on them, things will be fully up and running for the future of the Patriots offense.